It’s the healthiest option, right? For those of us who want to cut down on unhealthy treats, sugar-free sweets may seem like the perfect alternative. You can have your cake and eat it too, without feeling guilty.

But is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Can you eat too many sugar-free sweets?

The sugars added to regular sweets are a dietary villain for two main reasons. First, they cause the blood glucose level to rise, causing the pancreas to work overtime to produce insulin and eliminate it. This can contribute to high blood pressure, chronic inflammation, and, over time, increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Second, added sugars are empty calories that add to your daily calorie intake without providing any nutrients or making you feel full. This makes them a major contributor to obesity.

Sugar-free treats typically replace sugar with artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols. While soft drinks typically use sweeteners such as aspartame or saccharin, sugar-free sweets more often use sugar alcohols known as polyols, such as xylitol or sorbitol. These are digested very slowly and are not fully absorbed, so these sugar alternatives do not raise blood glucose like normal carbohydrates do.

According to dietitian and gut health expert Dr Emily Leeming, around three-quarters of adults eat more than their recommended daily intake of sugar. Given the known health impacts of excessive sugar consumption, she says choosing a sugar-free alternative to avoid crossing the threshold is usually a good idea.

However, there are some caveats.

Why sugarless sweets can cause diarrhea

“Sugar alcohol causes an osmotic change in the gut,” says Dr. Kait Brown, CEO of America’s Poison Centers. “It’s pulling water out of the tissues and bringing it into the intestine. So, a lot more water is getting into the system. On top of that, the gut bacteria also ferment the sugar alcohol.”

If consumed in excess, these effects can be unpleasant.

“It can cause a lot of gastrointestinal upset,” explains Dr. Brown. If you eat several servings of sugar-free sweets in one sitting, he says, you cause gas and bloating and can get more muscle movement in your gut. “That builds up to having loose, watery diarrhea.”

There are also some concerns about consuming large amounts of sugar substitutes over time. Some studies suggest that regular consumption of artificial sweeteners could have a negative effect on the gut microbiome or even increase the risk of some cancers.

However, these types of sweeteners are usually found in diet sodas rather than sugar-free candy, and experimental data is still inconclusive.

“It’s a little early [stages of] looking at these [long-term] “Most studies seem to be done in mice,” says Dr. Leeming. “The caveat, of course, is that mice are not humans.”

“The other thing that gets overlooked in the conversation is that these studies are done at incredibly high doses,” he adds. “It’s not proportional to anything you would eat as a human being.”

Sugar-free sweets are fine for most people, in moderation

Dr Leeming and Dr Brown conclude that sugar-free sweets can be a positive help for many people to reduce their sugar intake, and most people are unlikely to eat an amount that will cause problems.

“[The consumption] “It would have to be quite large,” says Dr. Leeming. “For example, if you spend all day eating sugar-free sweets.”

The exception, he says, is that “if you have irritable bowel syndrome, then you naturally have some kind of sensitivity to polyols. [one type of sugar alcohol].”

This means that people with this condition should be more careful when checking the ingredients list when consuming sugar-free products and experiment to discover their personal sensitivity to different types of sugar alcohol.

The FDA only requires products to display a label warning of laxative risks for products that could result in consumption of more than 50 grams of polyols per day, while some people with polyol sensitivities may begin to feel discomfort after eating 10 grams or less.

“It is more difficult with food products [than medicines] “You may know that xylitol is number four on the ingredient list, but you don’t know” how much sugar alcohol is actually in the product you’re consuming.

But for most people, both doctors say, there’s no need to think about it too much.

“I would always recommend consuming in moderation,” says Dr. Brown. “If you notice your stomach starting to hurt, you’re probably eating too much and need to cut back.”

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