The nutrition claim "sugar-free" or "made without sugar" may or may not mean calorie- or carbohydrate-free. For that reason, you need to know what these words mean and check the Nutrition Facts labels of products before you drop them in your shopping cart.
These foods fall into several groups:
• made with sugar alcohols and other regular sugars
• sweetened solely with a no-calorie sweetener, such as aspartame or sucralose
• sweetened with both sugar alcohols and no-calorie sweeteners
• sweetened with regular sweeteners and a no-calorie sweetener
The latter two are increasingly common. Sugar alcohols (polyols) are found in some hard and soft candies, chocolate bars, cookies and ice cream. The names that you see on the ingredient list are sorbitol, mannitol and lactitol. Many polyols have an "ol" ending. The benefits of polyols are that they have fewer calories than regular sweeteners, such as high-fructose corn syrup. They may also cause a lower rise in blood glucose than regular sweeteners. However, according to the ADA’s nutrition guidelines, there are no studies that show that the use of foods with polyols help people with diabetes reduce their intake of calories or carbohydrate. Remember, these foods are sugar-free, but not carbohydrate- or calorie-free. And often, they do not lower the calorie or carbohydrate content that much.
One note: high consumption of products containing polyols can cause gas and diarrhea, especially in children. For this reason, the FDA requires manufacturers to put a statement about this on some products. Some foods are made with no-calorie sweeteners. Familiar names of no-calorie sweeteners are acesulfame-k, aspartame, saccharin, sucralose and—the newest—neotame. These sweeteners contain next-to-no calories or carbohydrates. Foods sweetened with no-calorie sweeteners may or may not have calories and carbohydrates from ingredients other than the no-calorie sweetener. Foods, such as diet soda, diet gelatin and powdered drink mixes, contain next-to-no calories.
Other foods sweetened with no-calorie sweeteners, such as hot cocoa mixes, fruit yogurt and maple syrup, contain ingredients other than the sweeteners that may contribute carbohydrates, other nutrients and calories. Remember, it’s always best to use the Nutrition Facts to determine how much carbohydrate is contained in the foods you want to eat!
