I didn’t read the label on Sprouts “no sugar added” Coconut Ice Cream when I bought it Saturday. When I got home I found it had Erythritol in it. Why? Coconut milk is sweet in itself. There are always hidden reactions to processed food additives.
So it is going back. Geez.
Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that is used as a low calorie sweetener. It is found naturally in some fruits and vegetables, and it is also produced by fermentation of corn or wheat starch. Besides its natural form, erythritol has also been a man-made sweetener since 1990. It is the man-made product that can can cause hidden reactions. Not natural is not good.
And yet per a post on WebMD, erythritol is safe:
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…It’s also sold in bulk to companies that use it to sweeten or thicken products like reduced-calorie and sugar-free foods and drinks.
Calories. Sugar has 4 calories per gram, but erythritol has zero. That’s because your small intestine absorbs it quickly and gets it out of your body through urine within 24 hours. This means erythritol doesn’t have a chance to “metabolize” — turn into energy in your body.
Safety. Though erythritol is one of the newer sugar alcohols on the market — xylitol and mannitol have been around longer — researchers have done a number of studies of it in animals and humans. The World Health Organization (WHO) approved erythritol in 1999, and the FDA did the same in 2001.
It’s also OK for people with diabetes. Erythritol has no effect on glucose or insulin levels. This makes it a safe sugar substitute if you have diabetes. Foods that contain erythritol may still contain carbohydrates, calories, and fat, so it’s important to check the label.
How much can I eat? There aren’t official guidelines on using erythritol, but most people can handle 1 gram for every kilogram of body weight daily. So if you weigh 150 pounds, you can tolerate 68 grams of erythritol a day, or more than 13 teaspoons.
Source: https://www.webmd.com/diet/what-is-erythritol
Thirteen teaspoons? Again, not natural is not good.