Q: Should sugar alcohol be viewed as any other very low-GL food? Claims on lots of products today say don't count it at all. They deduct fiber and sugar-alcohol content to come up with very low-carb food bars. But are they really?
A:The FDA considers sugar alcohols to be carbohydrates. That’s why they are listed as part of the total carbohydrate content on food nutrition labels. Some sugar alcohols actually have a high glycemic index, and those that don’t pull water out of the colon causing diarrhea. Sugar alcohols were first developed as laxatives and are still used for that purpose in products such as ExLax.