If you’re a frequent reader of my column, you know that I’ve written in the past about the dangers and health side effects of sugar-free sweeteners like aspartame. There are many other sweeteners in addition to aspartame, all of which claim to be a safe alternative to some of the more reputed sweeteners like aspartame. One of them is sorbitol, and just like saccharin, it, too, is a sweetener you’re better off staying away from. Here’s why...

German doctors have found that the artificial sweetener sorbitol can do some serious damage to your intestinal tract by causing stomach pains, diarrhea and can even lead to unintended weight loss. The ironic thing here is that lots of people chew on gum after eating to clean their teeth or to help the body digest the food they’ve just eaten. And as it turns out, chewing on gum with sorbitol is doing far more harm than good.

Writing in the British Medicine Journal, German doctors decided to investigate the impact of sorbitol in the body after two of their patients came to them complaining of abdominal cramping and bloating that had been occurring for an extended period of time – some eight months in one case and a year in the other case. But these two patients weren’t just suffering from stomach pain and bouts of diarrhea; they also lost quite a bit of weight – 20 pounds in one case and about 50 pounds in the other case!

Now, before you get the idea that chewing gum is the next great way to lose weight, trust me; this isn’t the way you want to lose weight. Sorbitol has laxative properties. I’ll spare you the unnecessary details, but the amount of weight that these two people lost was largely water weight, losing it after spending an inordinate amount of time on the toilet. Very nice.

Anyway, after inquiring about what their diets were like, the doctors fingered sorbitol as the likely culprit of their gastronomic issues after finding out how many sticks of gum they were chewing per day. Even among the most avid gum chewer, the gum these folks were chewing was most definitely excessive: try 15 to 20 sticks per day!!

Chewing that amount of gum is not typical, I grant you, so you might think that all you have to do is avoid chewing more than 10 sticks a day and you won’t have such problems. Au contraire. The good doctors say that as little as 5 grams of sorbitol a day is enough to do a number on your bowels, and with the average stick of sorbitol-sweetened gum containing 1.25 grams of the artificial stuff, just four sticks of gum is enough to have you doubled over in pain.

Now I grant you, this study was limited – two patients being the extent of their cases. But it adds to the growing body of evidence that advises against the use of artificial sweeteners.

If you’re a gum chewer, your best bet is gum sweetened with xylitol. Xylitol is a completely natural sweetener that has been encouraged by dentists the world over as an ingredient that can help fight cavities by eliminating the bacteria in the mouth that cause cavities. While many brands of gum now offer flavor varieties sweetened with xylitol, I recommend Spry gum. The five flavors – peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon, lemon burst and fresh fruit – are great, long-lasting varieties and each flavor is just as good as the next.

So, if you’re an avid gum chewer, you don’t have to kick the habit. Just look for the gum sweetened with xylitol. Your stomach will thank you.