Can erythritol lead to digestive upset if consumed in large quantities?
Your body handles erythritol differently than other sugar alcohols. The other sugar alcohols are larger molecules that are slowly and incompletely absorbed from the small intestine into the blood. The absorbed portion of these other sugar alcohols is metabolized by the body or excreted in the urine. The part that is not absorbed into the blood is broken down into smaller segments in the large intestine. These unabsorbed segments may cause digestive discomfort and/or laxation via fermentation by naturally occurring bacteria in the large intestine. Because erythritol is a smaller molecule than the other sugar alcohols, it is well absorbed from the small intestine and removed from the body by the kidneys unchanged and excreted in the urine. Erythritol does not get fermented in the lower intestine like other sugar alcohols. The human body does not convert erythritol to energy or fat, so it contributes no calories. In short, because erythritol is rapidly absorbed from the small intestine an
