Have you ever wondered why, after eating or drinking something sugar free, you may start experiencing some kind of stomach discomfort, sometimes so bad that it results in painful gas and possible diarrhea? Many people believe that eating and drinking sugar free items allows them to eat more and drink more than they would if ingesting the same item with sugar in it.

Whether they have more or not, sometimes these items cause great distress, and most people aren’t sure why. After all, they still taste sweet, maybe not as sweet as the real thing, but most people have no concept of sweeteners or what they might do to a body.

Most items that are sugar free are sweetened with what are known as “sugar alcohols”. These aren’t alcohols like what one might drink to get a buzz. Rather, these are natural occurring alcohols in plants, which occur naturally. Sugar alcohols are used because many people complain that some sugar free items have an after taste, and these alcohols, because they’re more natural, eliminate that.

Sugar alcohols will reduce tooth decay, and of course they don’t contain sugar, which will keep your glucose level down and possibly help you lose weight, but they can be problems for many people. Sugar alcohols aren’t completely absorbed into the body, which is what contributes to not gaining weight from them. However, because they’re not completely absorbed, this means that your stomach has to try to deal with them, and unfortunately, your stomach and small intestines aren’t prepared to deal with them except in very small quantities.

How can you identify sugar alcohols? Almost all of them end with “ol” after them. So, if you’re someone who looks at ingredients (which everyone should), you’ll notice names like Sorbitol, Glycerol, Maltitol and Mannitol, although there are plenty of others. Names such as HSH and Isomalt are also sugar alcohols.

Sugar alcohols aren’t the only things that can cause problems in some people. There’s a type of natural sugar that can also cause problems in some people. These are known as “disaccharides”, which are a type of carbohydrate sugar created more from chemical reactions than naturally, although they originate in natural states.

Overall, these are harder to determine on their own because, though they end in “ose”, not all items that end in those letters signify that they’re disaccharides. One that definitely is, that many people of many cultures have a problem with, is lactose, which can cause violent stomach distress in some people, especially people of African descent in some fashion. Yet, other sugars, such as sucrose, or table sugar, offer no problems whatsoever. However, if you’re checking ingredients and see a host of these items, and later notice that you had problems, it’s possible that your issues may be related to some of these items.