Xylitol is truly the darling of sugar substitutes today. The American Dietetic Association touts its use, with this sugar alcohol sold alone and as a sweetener in a variety of processed foods. Health benefits include a reduced glycemic response compared with sucrose, increased absorption of B vitamins and calcium, and even a reduction in dental caries risk.
Consequently, people with blood sugar issues are flocking to processed foods containing this alternative sweetener as a way to satisfy that sweet tooth without the downside of exacerbating the risk factors for Metabolic Syndrome. This condition is known for the markedly increased likelihood of developing heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
Even the healthfood community almost universally considers this sugar alcohol to be a healthy substitute for sugar. A primary reason is that it doesn’t directly contribute toward the growth of intestinal yeasts aka Candida.
Have you noticed that the check out aisles at health food stores are typically loaded with chocolates and other sweets containing at least some xylitol? The truth is that I have yet to talk with any health-conscious person who suggests to me any downside other than the potential for intestinal cramps if you get too much.
Xylitol is Naturally Found in Nature
Xylitol is, after all, a naturally occurring substance. Manufacturers of xylitol market it as derived from xylan. The fibers of many plants contain it, including berries, oats, beets, sugar cane and birch. Sounds pretty harmless at first glance.
The FDA has even granted xylitol GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) status. You can’t get any safer than that, right?
Manufacturing Process
It is true that xylitol is a naturally occurring substance. However, manufactured xylitol is another matter entirely. Food manufacturers produce it using the industrialized process of sugar hydrogenation. In order to hydrogenate anything, a catalyst is needed. In this case, Raney nickel is used which is a powdered nickel-aluminum alloy. (1, 2)
This poses the risk of heavy metal residue and contamination. Nickel, by the way, is a recognized carcinogen and aluminum is associated with the development of dementia. Heavy metals in the body are notoriously difficult to eliminate with frequent use of infrared sauna probably a good idea.
This alternative sweetener doesn’t seem quite so warm and fuzzy anymore, does it?
There is currently no literature on any detrimental health effects of consuming hydrogenated sugar. However, food manufacturers widely used hydrogenated fats for decades before the very damaging effects of cardiovascular health became widely known!
Given the violent industrialized process that is required to produce a hydrogenated sugar like xylitol, it would seem wise to avoid it based on the very poor track record of hydrogenated foods in general.
Most Xylitol Sourced from GMO Corn
While it is true that xylitol can be derived from the xylan of birch trees, xylan is also found in corn cobs. It is much cheaper to use corn instead of birch bark to derive xylitol and so what do you think manufacturers prefer? Corn, of course.
Therefore, unless the label of a xylitol-containing product specifically notes that it is from birch or another nonGMO source, xylitol is very likely from genetically modified corn or possibly GMO sugar beets.
This is the same problem as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and white sugar from beets. Food manufacturers rely heavily on these sweeteners in the production of sodas and sports drinks.
You get a dose of GMOs with every sip! More on GMO dangers including sterility and stomach holes at the provided link.
Usage Contributes to Gut Imbalance
The digestive process does not break down sugar alcohols like food. Rather, xylitol arrives intact into the intestines.
At that point, a process called “passive diffusion” takes place. This means that the xylitol draws water into the bowels. Only a partial breakdown is the end result. The unmetabolized portion ferments providing the perfect environment for undesirable bacteria to thrive and grow.
It is true that xylitol itself does not feed candida directly as sugar does. As a result, this artificial sweetener is even promoted as a useful part of the Candida Diet. Unfortunately, the fermentation of undigested xylitol in the gut most definitely can exacerbate yeast problems. Don’t be fooled by this argument!
This is exactly why consuming xylitol can make some folks so gassy and even trigger cramping and diarrhea. Gut pathogens having a heyday in your intestines give off a lot of smelly toxins!
Other Little Known Problems
Xylitol can contribute to acid reflux problems. As a result, those who have issues in this area should avoid it for that reason alone. Chronic acid reflux is a serious problem that can lead to cancer of the esophagus and larynx.
In addition, those who suffer from seizures of any kind should stay away from this alternative sweetener as it can increase the frequency of epileptic attacks.
Two Pieces of Xylitol Gum Can Kill a Rat?
According to unpublished lab tests, approximately 1.65 grams of xylitol kills a 100-gram rat half the time.
Two little pieces of xylitol gum contain about .7 – 1 gram. This is probably enough to meet the definition of rat poison.
Cavity Prevention
Many people are chewing xylitol gum due to compelling scientific evidence for cavity prevention. What about children, however?
Rami Nagel, author of Cure Tooth Decay, doesn’t even recommend xylitol gum for this purpose. His research for any long term safety data turned up the following:
- Epidemiology: No information found
- Teratogenicity: No information found
- Reproductive Effects: No information found
- Mutagenicity: No information found
- Neurotoxicity: No information found
In summary, using this modern substance officially renders you a guinea pig, my friend! It seems that any benefits of cavity prevention are outweighed by the fact that there is no actual safety data backing up its use.
Safe Uses of Xylitol
Given all the problems that consumption of xylitol can trigger, it seems best to bypass the use of this sugar substitute on a regular basis.
Can it ever be helpful? Does it have any benefits whatsoever?
Potentially so. The only time I personally would ever consider using xylitol is to help resolve a childhood ear or sinus infection in order to prevent the use of drug-based antibiotics.
There is evidence that this popular sugar alcohol can indeed help encourage a healthy balance of beneficial bacteria found in the ear canal and sinus cavities. Products like this incorporate xylitol for this purpose.
A therapeutic dose can help resolve infection in these areas quickly with no medication required.
Thus, if you choose to use it, make sure it is sparingly and therapeutically (not as food). Also, make sure it does not come from a GMO source like corn!
References
(1) Xylitol production via catalytic hydrogenation of sugarcane
(2) Catalytic hydrogenation of xylose to xylitol using ruthenium catalyst on NiO modified TiO2 support
(3) Cure Tooth Decay by Rami Nagel
(4) Sugar-Free Blues: Everything You Wanted to Know about Artificial Sweeteners
More Information
Yacon: Healthy Syrup or Healthfood Hype?
Jaggery: India’s Sweet Gift
I drank about 40 grams of xylitol in juice. I’m not totally sure it was 40 grams, but I don’t think that’s too far off as an estimate. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less, but about that much. I’m not used to xylitol and didn’t know there were side effects. As soon as I had finished the juice, I didn’t feel too well, and it kept getting worse. After a couple hours I felt like throwing up, had stomach pain, intestinal cramping, diarrhea, nausea. So I looked it up and found out that the amount I had is known to cause such side effects.
I read that charcoal wasn’t really effective to reverse xylitol toxicity in dogs, but I decided to try it anyway. I mixed a couple tsp of activated charcoal in some juice (WITHOUT xylitol!) and IMMEDIATELY started to feel better.
I also became itchy and felt like my hands and face had a rash all over. You couldn’t see it, but I could feel it, and it was painful. Another thing about the overdose is that it dehydrated my body and I would have gotten a bad dehydration headache, too, if I hadn’t been drinking enough water.
I know that some good things can cause a die-off reaction … like kombucha. First time I had that stuff I didn’t know it could cause die-off, so I drank quite a bit. And suffered from it! I found out through that that one should start off with small amounts to avoid the major die-off.
However, with xylitol, I have a hard time believing this is a die-off reaction and xylitol is good and healthy. It isn’t sugar, but it’s a sugar alcohol. I’ve been wary of it for years as a corn derivative and all that stuff. This was my first time to actually have it in something other than the occasional piece of xylitol gum or candy. And now you won’t be getting me to try it again anytime soon. 🙂 I’m not opposed to a little bit in gum or candy here and there, but I’m NOT planning to try another accidental OD again!!
If anyone does OD on xylitol, try activated charcoal (but do it sooner than I did, to save yourself a little misery). Xylitol pulls water from your body into your intestines, so be sure to drink plenty of water, preferably sip by sip (drinking too much at once can make diarrhea worse).
What you experienced would have been better resolved by a substance that is known by numerous names. Colic Drops, Gas-X or the generic name, Simethicone would have knocked down the foam that was occurring in your GI tract and allowed you to pass the gas far less painfully. The beauty of simethicone is that it can only vaguely be described as a drug. It passes through the digestive system 100% unabsorbed and chemically unaltered. Its therapeutic function is to break up the surface tension of the bubbles that form the foam (that made you feel sick) so they can consolidate into a good long burp or passage of gas. The pressure you caused in your stomach and intestines could have come up as foamy vomit or forced out semi-digested food as diarrhea.
It’s not unusual to have GI reaction to xylitol…you’re supposed to start slowly with ANY dietary change. Also there are different sources for making xylitol; corn and American Hardwood..if you’re using GMO corn type you’re subject to more problems. And if you think xylitol causes problems..try reading up on granulated/white table SUGAR; Amputations, blindness, cardiovascular disease, gestational diabetes…just to be fair here!
40 grams?! Ugh why would anyone do that. Your body is used to one sort of substance and then you shock it by randomly introducing another, and at such a high level. I’m sorry but I have no sympathy for obvious human error. When venturing into alternative foods and such people should do proper research. Don’t go complaining when you clearly mess up. It’s not like there isn’t any information out there or that Xylitol companies are trying to keep you in the dark:
“Xylitol is considered a healthy alternative to sugar and lacks major side effects. In fact, most users experience no side effects when using the recommended dosage (usually 6-8 grams/day) for dental benefits.
However, beware too much too soon. For example, when using Epic’s xylitol-powered products for cooking and baking, some people who use xylitol in large quantities (usually more than 40 grams/day) may initially experience diarrhea. Many of these people report that the diarrhea subsides even as they continue to use large quantities of xylitol. Their digestive systems adjust to the xylitol.”
epicdental.com/v-319-xylitol-side-effects
I think the best thing to do is to totally cut out refined sugar and use and sugar substitute in moderation. as with all foods always source good quality products. If you have existing medical condition any change in your diet may increase your condition. As with many products on the market it is important to check the ingredients contained in them. Many food manufactures use products like xylitol as a selling tool in there brands to give it the impression of being healthy, however many other products are added to improve the taste and more importantly to the food manufactures the COST of manufacture process. The basic facts are Xylitol is far more expensive than cheap sugars used in food products. I would suggest that you should use Xylitol in its rawest form and introduce it in small qty’s to start with, record any side effect you have and if a pattern emerges stop using it. this goes for any new product/food you are not used too.
“a 100 gram rat can be killed by approximately 1.65 grams of xylitol about half the time.
Two little pieces of xylitol gum contain about .7 – 1 gram of xylitol – enough to probably kill your child’s pet rat.”
Okay, so I weight, 140lb. So 140*0.0165 = 2.31lb. Therefore if I had a similar metabolism to a rat, I would have a 50% chance of dying if I ate 2.31 pounds of xylitol. I could probably eat less salt and die.
Actually, wiki says “Oral LD50 of Table Salt: 3000 mg/kg in rats “. So yes, I could eat about half as much table salt and it would give me the same chance of dying.
Pardon, my math was off, it’s LD50 is 3000mg/kg, so it wouldn’t take half as much, salt’s LD50 is actually 5.5x lower. So you wouldn’t need “about half as much”, as I had said, you would need 5.5 times less salt to kill a rat, and maybe a human? Crazy, salt is deadly… Watch out for salt. Don’t go eating a whole pound of it, it’ll kill you.
This article just contradicted everything mentioned in this article… The world is filled with too many hypochondriacs….
thecandidadiet.com/xylitol.htm
Lets get a few facts straight here regarding xylitol. If you eat a plum or strawberries or mushrooms or cauliflower, one of the sugars that make the fruit or veges sweet is xylitol. In our bodies, every day, during normal metabolism, xylitol is made. In Finland, during the war, they had no sugar so found xylitol from breaking down the bark of a birch tree. Now xylitol is made from any waste plant material that contains hemi-cellulose, one of the structural material in plants. Yes acid is added to break down the long chains of xylans but once that process has happened, the mixture is sieved and the acid neutralised….. basic chemistry…acid + alkali = salt + water so there is NO residual sulphuric acid in xylitol. SEcondly, yes xylose is converted to xylitol by hydrogenation using a Ni catalyst, but once the chemical reaction has taken place the Ni is removed from the mixture through electrolysis, hence NO heavy metal in the xylitol and you end up with pure xylitol which is exactly the same chemical formula as the xylitol found in the plum etc. C5H12O5. And it doesn’t matter what you start with to make the xylitol…sugar cane bagasse, corn cobs, birch bark, rice husks, it is exactly the same product…C5H12O5. So for those of you who have had the negative reactions that you put down to xylitol eg eating xylitol gum, please check the other ingredients as well because all the ‘xylitol gums’ that I have found locally also contain sucralose or aspartame. Research has shown that sucralose results in loss of breath. So lets keep to the facts and as suggested above, get some double blind scientific research published before we make unauthenticated claims.
There’s fructose in fruit too … this doesn’t make high fructose corn syrup healthy does it?
Sarah, clearly you are not a fan of xylitol however there seem to be some flaws in your arguments, and I haven’t been able to find research to support your claims. The reality is that people everywhere have different reactions to different products. I have a horrible reaction to pineapple, and an even worse that horrible one to avocado. But that doesn’t mean either of those foods are bad because millions of people eat them every day with no problem. It isn’t fair to equate human consumption with that of dogs or mice because each metabolize things differently. I definitely appreciate your opinion of the potential side effects as it gives me things to look for, but so far I view xylitol as a viable alternative to sugar. I am actively doing research though and would love any suggestions on a product to use for cooking and as an additive for coffee, tea, ect. I do not like Stevia at all as it has an aftertaste that I just find unacceptable.
Ummm, except that pineapple is actual food and xylitol is a highly processed factory frankenchemical. Please check the refs on this article.
Here is why your argument is bad:
bev argues that a plum’s xylitol is: C5H12O5
She then argues manufactured xylitol all ends up as: C5H12O5
Her argument: Apples to apples, it’s all apples in the end.
You argued apples to oranges:
fructose in plums : manufactured high fructose corn syrup
Sorry, I forgot to add:
A better argument rather than to retort about fructose and high fructose corn syrup was the challenge the molecule’s physical structure.
Is it an isomer?
Are there double bonds not found in natural C5H12O5?
Essentially, is it the same structure or different?
THEREIN lies the answer as to whether xylitol is potentially bad or not.
A few years ago I started getting horrible migraines again, every day. I finally figured out it was sugar, and other substitutes, including things like agave and honey. I was so excited, years later, to see a sugar free pie at the grocery store that I ate 2-3 pieces. I had to miss work for three days. I was also experiencing extreme diarrhea. The culprit was Xylitol.
You (and doctors) can and have argued that there is sugar in fruit. That is fine, but fruit does not give me migraines. I do not know why. There may be Xylitol in fruit as well, but I can eat all of it and not throw up in horrid pain for days on end. I get Xylitol migraines even with my anti-seizure migraine prevention medicine, and I don’t get seizures.
I came to this post to consider whether to risk Xylitol again from a local sugar free bakery toting how great it is for you. I think I will not risk it.
Your comment makes sense above & beyond what the article is suggesting. Maybe you should be writing a blog Bev. I commend you on your comment. Well said.
As for myself, been using xylitol in our cooking, baking etc for around 3 years. Avg. intake around 10-15 gm daily. Had slight GI discomfort during early stages of use, but it ceased in a matter of a few weeks as our uptake increased. Absolutely not gut flora issues so far. Will post in the future if issues arise.
I started using xylitol a week ago, as an alternative to sugar, also it is in a new health gum I tried. Possibly up to 12 grams a day is all it took, but my tongue is now lacerated and my gums are inflamed, also the inside of my cheeks. I can’t taste any food and am aware of a continual burning sensation on my tongue. I have thrown out the gum also the xylitol sachets. I’m not normally reactive to foods. Is it the process, (sulphuric acid) not the alcohol sugar itself.? Obviously dangerous in the long term. I shall be warning people.
Thanks for your warning. I’m experiencing the same problem. After buying a toothpaste and mouthwash that contain xylitol, I ended up with sore throat (no fever) and a burning sensation on my tongue. Now after 15 days of pain, the sore throat almost dissapeared, but the burning tongue is making my life miserable. My doctor didn’t see anything abnormal, now I’m off to see my dentist. You posted your message in May. Have you found any relief since then?
I used xylitol-sweetened gum and mints for at least a year and I typically bought Spry and Xyla Mints. I didn’t get too many problems with the gum as gum isn’t supposed to be swallowed but I can’t count the number of times I got stomach cramps and diarrhea with the mints. I used to eat a few of them at a time because I loved the peppermint flavor, but I always paid for it later. Then, I read an article about how xylitol can kill pets and I got worried that my dog would get into my stash somehow or I’d accidentally drop one on the floor and she’d get a hold of it. Not only that, but I found out after my doctor started me on the Paleo diet that it’s not Paleo-friendly since it’s highly refined. I use high-quality stevia (SweetLeaf), coconut sugar, date paste, maple syrup, and honey now as my sweeteners. I’m surprised to learn, though, through your article that most xylitol is made from corn as I am pretty sure I am allergic (or at least moderately sensitive). Since cutting corn completely, I’ve seen a 180 in my health.
Order a bag of xylitol crystals. Swish 1/3 tsp for 10-15 minutes after each meal. There’s no benefit to ingesting it.
The figures you used in your lab results bit is highly manipulative. Toxicity depends on body weight. a 1.65g dose in a 100g rat is the equivalent of 1.23kg in a 75kg human. That is between 1230 and 1767 pieces of gum to reach the same toxicity. You know what else would kill you if you ate 1.23kg of it? Vitamin C which would kill at 892 grams, salt which would kill at 230 grams, vitamin A which would kill at 50 micrograms. You ingest too much of anything, including water and it will kill you. This is of course assuming complete ingestion and absorption as xylitol has been shown to bind to salivary protein in the mouth.
I have temporal lobe epilepsy but haven’t had an incident for years, in fact I can’t even remember the last time it’s that long ago.
Today I started having them and it’s lunchtime and I’ve had at least 10 episodes, and can I say I don’t remember having this many in one day ever before it would be 2 or 3 at the most.
The only thing I have done differently than my normal routine is yesterday I bought xylitol to use as a sweetener and this morning made 2 cups of tea using the xylitol at 2 teaspoons per cup. Everything else is food I normally eat, liquids I normally drink and my life in every other way is the same.
Maybe it’s just co-incidence but I have thrown the packet in the bin and am currently drinking lots of water to try and flush it out of my system.
Yesterday I had about 20 episodes, I took half a Xanax and slept for a few hours and had one more episode later and one this morning. Never ever again will I buy this product and will carefully read all labels from now on to be sure they don’t contain this ingredient.
There is evidence that xylitol can increase seizures in epileptics. Quite a few websites state that it is not recommended for those with epilepsy. It is a pity you found that out the hard way.