sugar alchohols

[oahu41]

what are they and what do they mean to your health? someone told me they should be counted as fat.

[secretspirit]

There's no fat in alcohol so you can't count it as that, it's just really high sugar content. They mean the same to your health as anything else with a lot of sugar in.

[New Forester]

Ethanol, the alcohol in drinks, is one particular alcohol. However, any carbon compound with the alcohol group of atoms on it is an alcohol, and so there is a more or less infinite range of possible different ones. Sugar alcohols are chemicals similar to sugar but with an alcohol group. They seem to be used as sweeteners. This web page: http://www.ynhh.org/online/nutrition/advisor/sugar_alcohol.h tml lists mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol, lactitol, isomalt, maltitol and hydrogenated starch hydrolysates (HSH) as commonly used ones. They must be related to the sugars mannose, xylose, lactose, maltose etc. That page explains it all quite well, including saying that the energy content is lower than proper sugar, and therefore is very much lower than fat.