Xylitol


(Beverley Ann Such) #1

What are thoughts on xylitol? Does it spike your blood sugar? 100g of carbs per 100g weight but zero sugars.


(Allie) #2

Some people yes, others no. I can use it without problems but choose not to have it in the house because of my animals.


(Christopher Bingel) #3

I would do an N=1 experiment with a glucometer, but I’ve found that all sweeteners spike my blood glucose to some extent, Xylitol the least. I suspect it also spikes my insulin quite a bit, judging by the short period of time before I get hungry after any sweetener.


(Beverley Ann Such) #4

Hi Christopher,
thanks for suggestion,
what is N=1? Im a newbie so no idea what it is.l I will probably start small, couple of ounces or teaspoons in a recipe. I have not long started the keto diet so have decided to reach fat adaptation before I try sweeteners. I just wanted to know what people use.


(Christopher Bingel) #5

Without going too nerdy, it means an experiment with one data set, you! On the podcast, Carl goes over the process, but basically, get a few sweeteners that you want to try. Take your blood glucose, then drink a teaspoon of the sweetener (or whatever standard measure you want to use, but keep it even across the different sweeteners) in a glass of water. Take your glucose again an hour after your drink, and again at two hours. The next day try the next sweetener. You could probably try after 4-6 hours, but I think you’d get truer results with 24 hours between sweeteners. The one with the lower spike after an hour would theoretically be your best option.

But keep this in mind, it’s not necessarily the glucose load that you’re worried about, but the insulin response. If you produce insulin, but there’s no sugar to burn, you wouldn’t see a rise in blood glucose. Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy blood insulin test. What you can watch is how quickly you get hungry after your sweetener. Whenever I drink diet soda, I find myself hungry after 30-60 minutes, same with xylitol or sorbitol. I forget who mentioned it, but one of the doctors had mentioned that just the taste of a sweetener in your mouth without swallowing can be enough to trigger an insulin response.

So in addition to recording your blood glucose, you may want to either record your level of hunger on a scale that you determine, or record the time that you get hungry after the sweetener, and use that to help with your decision.


(Beverley Ann Such) #6

Wow, thank you. I dont have a glucometer so will just be aware of my hunger after eating it. I dont intend to have sweet things very often, but maybe on an odd occasion if we have friends round.
Thank you for your help :blush:.


(Christopher Bingel) #7

Not a bad investment, less than 20 bucks at Wal-Mart, usually, for the Reli-On brand. Test strips cost about the same. There is a fancier one that will give you glucose and ketones, but I think that’s almost 100 and I believe the strips are pretty pricey, too.

The glucometer will help you know what impact certain foods have on you.


(Sophie) #8

It ships from Latvia but what the hey! I love mine.


(sue) #9

In light of the fact that we can’t measure serum insulin from home, any way that a combination of glucose and ketone readings could give us a better idea of how certain sweeteners affect us?

But your tip to watch out for hunger is a good one. So far some desserts made with xylitol bloated me up pretty badly, but that could also be from the other ingredients (cream, peanut butter, etc)

I’d love to have a definitive answer for each sweetener (for me). Like you mention I care more about the insulin response more than anything…


(Beverley Ann Such) #10

Thanks. I live in UK so will have look on the internet


(bulkbiker) #11

If you are looking for a cheap to run blood glucose meter you could get the SD Codefree from Home Health.
If you want one that measures ketones then Spirit Healthcare sell the Caresens Dual which measures both blood sugar and ketones.
The cost of these things is in the test strips… The SD Codefree is the cheapest to run with 50 strips at £7.69 if you have Type 2 (vat free) or £9.23 if you don’t.
The Caresense Dual has test strips that are £9.95 for 50 (ex vat) and the ketone strips are £9.95 for 10 (ie much more expensive…)
Hope that helps


(Allie) #12

n=1 is basically a way of saying “try it for yourself, see what happens, and let us know” :slight_smile:


(Beverley Ann Such) #13

Thank you.


(Adam L) #14

From the faq’s, curious to hear what you find if you test each sweetener


(sue) #15

Thanks for that snippet!

I’ll have to set a few days aside to test that I guess. Test glucose fasted, then take a swig of water + sweetener and then test T30 and T60, kind of like a glucose tolerance test yeah?

And I’ll have to get friendly with my glucometer :confounded: I’m new to testing and have never done more than 2 pricks in one day lol.

If/when I do this I will definitely share!