New York, July 20: It seems like common sense that foods labeled “sugar free” would have no effect on sugar levels in the blood. But sometimes they do.
Most artificial sweeteners — saccharin, aspartame and sucralose, for example —offer the sweetness of sugar without the calories.
They contain no carbohydrates and so have no effect on blood sugar. But these sweeteners are sometimes paired in “sugar free” products with another sugar substitute called sugar alcohols.
Sugar alcohols get their name from their structure, which looks like a cross between a molecule of alcohol and sugar but is technically neither.
Companies have added them to more and more “sugar free” products, such as cookies, chewing gum, hard candy and chocolate.