What’s worse, sugar or sugar alcohols( sugar replacements )

A friend kindly suggested that the latter are way worse, which made me think, are Erytriol, stevia, and things like that really healthy? Any educated takes? Bro science is acceptable :woozy_face::woozy_face::woozy_face:.

A lot of these things are in keto labeled products.

I don’t think stevia gets classified as a sugar alcohol but beyond that I think this discussion falls back to the “everything in moderation” answer.

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This. In moderation, none of them would be particularly bad, so long as you’re not sensitive or adverse to any of them for some reason. But stevia and erythritol have quite good safety profiles when not used in terrible excess from the studies and research I recall reading. But a little bit of sugar usually isn’t the end of the world either. Moderation, as you said.

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Can I see those studies. I feel like sugar overall has been looked at as super addictive. I’m not throwing it away, but these days I shy away from it as much as possible- in part to keto.

When Rebel ice cream came out, I really started to look at it differently because it’s essentially sugar free, yet, most flavors are really good, probably could fool people into thinking it wasn’t keto.

Oh, I more meant that the research was showing safety of erythritol and stevia IIRC. I’ll see if I can dig them up. I never bothered looking up the safety of moderate sugar intake because I really don’t see anything wrong with it. And calling sugar “super addictive” is sort of misleading IMO. They say “it works on the same pathways as X street drug.” Yeah, sure, that’s how reward works. Doesn’t mean it’s nearly to the same magnitude. Just like a jalapeno and a Carolina Reaper pepper are both spicy, but the difference between them, if you eat one of each, is incredibly vast. I think it’s more than sugar just makes things taste so good, and it’s so cheap, and so omnipresent in foods it’s hard to avoid, and you wouldn’t want to since it tastes so good, but it’s nothing like hard drugs in terms of addictive potential IMO.

Are we talking keto or health?
In either case I would likely say sugar is worse due to the calories.
Sugar alcohols can cause bloating/gas, which might make it worse for some people.
Stevia/other 0 cal sweeteners might be worse then not consuming them, but are allot better then consuming an equivalent amount of sugar

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Yeah, I think that sounds right. A little sugar added to a recipe, or to sweeten your coffee (assuming it’s not one of those massive, super sweet Starbucks-style drinks) isn’t really the same as having a soda or something loaded with sugar.

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“Sugar alcohols can cause bloating/gas, which might make it worse for some people.”

I mistook that for you saying, worse for the people around me having to deal with the gas :joy::joy::joy:

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I see. I guess in that perfect storm of affordability And availability, not to mention our disaster for gratification, it’s a potential disaster on our bodies.