I can’t eat or drink sorbitol. It causes severe intestinal discomfort as well as other systems, most but not all of which fall under the catch all IBS. I know that many people are sensitive to sorbitol and other sugar alcohols. I haven’t had the test. I’m a little woo sensitive. I do plan to discuss this with my physician at my next appointment.
I’m not asking for medical advice but I am looking for personal anecdotes. Lately I’ve had similar symptoms from a few items that didn’t contain sorbitol on the ingredient list. The first was Tribe hummus. Contained the ingredient potassium sorbate. Second was a can of Pepsi. The third was a pumpkin spice coffee drink from Dunkin’ Donuts (please don’t judge too harshly). I looked up the ingredients then but my Google fu is failing me now. I believe that the closest I could find on the list was poly sorbate 80.
Each of those times, I felt the symptoms immediately (unusual for me) and each time I also drank caffeine. I find it pretty easy to avoid sorbitol and since I’ve started, no problems except for those 3 times. I don’t want to go into too much detail but we aren’t talking about just a moving through you quickly situation.
TLDR: Do you have a problem digesting sorbitol? What other ingredients cause you similar issues? Have you gotten a diagnosis? Was it part of a larger underlying problem?
I don’t have an intolerance to sorbitol, but you may be interested to know that I used to work at a place that routinely prescribed it as a laxative.
mmm
Sorbitol, IIRC, is what prunes have a lot of, that make them so effective at loosening you up. The problem is, they give some people terrible gas as well. I’m one of them too. And I do have IBS. I’ve had the blood test. There are markers in your blood, and I had just enough of them for the diagnosis, which jibes with the diagnosis of mild IBS that my PCP made symptomatically before the blood test was available.
There are a couple of other artificial sweeteners that also have a laxative effect. IIRC, mannitol is one.
Certain wheat cereals have that effect on me but whole wheat bread doesn’t. Wheaties, wheat checks and shredded wheat are my favorite cereals but tear up my stomach. I still eat them but not as much as I would like to eat. I need to check them for sorbate. I always blamed it on the malt sugars as some chocolate chip cookies give me the same problem.
Sorbitol is a commonly used sweetener in “diabetic” or “sugar-free” candy and other goodies. More than once, I had people tell me, “I’m probably allergic to diabetic candy, because I get really bad diarrhea every time I eat it.”
Usually, it turns out that yes, they did eat half the package. :smack:
Not minimizing the problem, of course. It’s also used as a laxative.
I had no idea I had any sensitivity to sorbitol. But, oh, maybe 30 years ago, I learned I have one in the most awful way.
A friend introduced me to a shop called The Sugarless Shack. They had all kinds of sugar-free treats, but what caught my attention were the bags of sugar-free salt water taffy. I’m crazy for the stuff, so I bought a bag. Thank goodness it was only a bag.
I munched on those over the course of an afternoon before the effects took hold. (Yes, I am the person to whom nearwildheaven refers.)
Oh. My. God.
No diarrhea, but “terrible gas” would be a euphemistic way to put what I endured.
I could not go to work. Even as I expelled noxious fumes, more were being manufactured.
You may recall the scene in Revenge of the Nerds when Booger lets loose with the belch to end all belches. The damn thing just goes on and on. Such were these farts. I could literally feel them filling up my innards begging for immediate release, even as I freed their predecessors. This went on for three days. I was gratefully single at the time and lucky to have had a generous sick leave scheme.
I don’t know if I have a sensitivity to any other variant sweeteners because I’ll never try any to find out. But I assume so.
No diagnosis. Not part of any underlying problem. Mostly my guts are reliable and trouble free. But not with sorbitol.
I was diagnosed with diabetes 12 years ago. After that point, I’d have sugar-free candy from time to time. Never had a problem with it.
About 4 years ago, I was working at a market research firm, where we did product testing for food companies. One of our clients had been developing some low-calorie bakery snacks (brownies, cookies, etc.), and had sent over some samples for us to try.
I had maybe 2 brownies. And then spent much of the rest of the afternoon in the men’s room, miserable. We checked with the client…sweetened with sorbitol.
I hadn’t had an issue with it before, but I’ve avoided it ever since.
Sounds like it is even harder on you than it is on me. I’m not diabetic and have no need (thankfully!) to consume sugar substitutes, but if I were and my only choice was sorbitol, I’d simply learn to do without. Nothing before or since has ever affected me in that way.
Thank you everyone for your responses. I really did think it was more common. I wish I had a more funny story. Sorbitol just makes me feel like I have a belly full of farts and a gremlin who lives in a place I never even knew existed somewhere in my upper intestines. And that gremlin won’t let the farts through because he’s too busy fart biting and torturing me. But when one gets though! Sweet relief!
Some fruits contain sorbitol. Keep an eye out for those.
One time I treated myself to a case of Harry & David Royal Riviera Pears and had a reaction similar to that experienced with some sugar free candies. I don’t have that problem with other pears but these were large and sweet.
I still have dreams/nightmares of that. In fact, I woke up this morning to a dream of passing gas in front of my boss and telling him that I was sorry but it wasn’t any of his business really. And then tonight, my boyfriend told me that I let one rip in the middle of the night, so loud that it woke him. I asked him why he didn’t wake me, it would have been the highlight of my week. He said “no harm no foul”
Once again, I don’t get the shits from sorbitol. I soooo wish I did. I’m really surprised that other people don’t seem to have the issues I do. I don’t think anyone really cares, but I’ll let you all know how the test goes.
I was sure this would get some play. Earlier tonight when I was at the grocery store, there was a guy offering samples of hard cider. I kind of wanted to try but I thought I’d better not. I asked him if he knew if the cider had sorbitol. He said that it didn’t and that his girlfriend couldn’t tolerate any sugar alcohols or anything that ended in tol. I thought hmmmm , maybe it’s not just me. And then I thought I should buy a 4 pack of this cider, but they were sold out.
Ok. This subject didn’t get a lot of interest. I imagine it will die on my third post in a row. 3 posts in row is not cool but just in case someone does some googling in the future and finds this, I’ll share what I can.
I never eat sugar free anything ever. Every artificial sweetener tastes like poison to me. For as long as I can remember. Not just unpalatable, but like poison. But I can’t taste sorbitol. We bought a 30 pack of ice cream bars. I ate 3 ice cream bars. So delicious. The package said low sugar ice cream treat. Sounded good to me and they were. I was suspicious, low sugar means fake sugar to me, but nope! I looked at the ingredients. No yucky stuff and no yucky taste. Yum! Guilt free ice cream bars.
2 days later I felt like I might die. I sat on the toilet for 4 hours. I couldn’t poop and I couldn’t feel like I didn’t have to poop. It passed. Not the poop, just the feeling.
A few days later, I had another one of those super yummy ice cream bars. This time, the gremlins came. I had spent enough time sitting and googling and this point to decide that I definitely had a blockage and that death was imminent. But I waited until the next morning to call my doctor. Because stupid.
I had enough energy the next afternoon to wonder if it was something I ate. I hadn’t eaten anything different but those damn ice cream bars. Looked at the ingredients. I saw sorbitol and didn’t recognize it. Googled again, and sure enough, all signs pointed to sorbitol intestinal gremlins.
I’m happy that no one else has suffered from the gremlins. Please beware