Like mannitol, lactitol or xylitol, sorbitol belongs to the group of sugar alcohols. It is used in many industrially manufactured foods as a sugar substitute. Sorbitol is only about half as sweet as sucrose (household sugar) and also contains significantly fewer calories. However, sorbitol is not well tolerated by everyone – more and more people suffer from sorbitol intolerance.
What foods contain sorbitol?
Sorbitol is naturally found primarily in pome fruits: Apples, pears, apricots, plums, and peaches all contain larger amounts of sorbitol. In contrast, citrus fruits or berry fruits hardly contain any sorbitol.
Incidentally, the sorbitol content in dried fruit is significantly higher than in fresh fruit due to water loss: a dried apricot, for example, contains about five times as much sorbitol as a fresh one. In addition to fruit, sorbitol is also frequently used in chewing gum or lozenges.
Sorbitol is labeled in the food industry as an additive with the number E 420. It may be present in almost all foods – with the exception of beverages – in quantities of any size. However, a daily dose of 20 grams or more can cause abdominal pain, flatulence and diarrhea. That’s why all foods containing more than ten percent sorbitol must be labeled with the words ‘may have a laxative effect if consumed in excess’.
Sorbitol: Suitable for diabetics
In the past, sorbitol was obtained primarily from the berries of the mountain ash, which can contain up to twelve percent sorbitol. Today, corn starch and wheat starch are used to produce sorbitol. Glucose is extracted from these, which can then be converted to sorbitol.
Sorbitol contains about 2.4 calories per gram, which is significantly less than household sugar (sucrose), which contains about 4 calories per gram. Since no insulin is needed to metabolize sorbitol, it is also well suited for diabetics. It is particularly commonly used to sweeten diet foods.
Use of sorbitol
In the food industry, sorbitol is added to foods such as mustard, toast or chocolate fillings to protect them from drying out. This is because sorbitol has the property of being able to bind water from the environment.
In addition to these foods, sorbitol is also used in various cosmetics and toothpastes due to its hygroscopic properties. Toothpastes not only protects sorbitol from drying out, but together with other substances, it is also responsible for the fresh taste of toothpaste.
Sorbitol intolerance
In the case of sorbitol tolerance – also called sorbitol intolerance – the breakdown of sorbitol in the small intestine is disturbed. Sorbitol is then only partially broken down or not broken down at all. This leads to symptoms such as abdominal pain, flatulence and diarrhea.
Sorbitol intolerance can be diagnosed with the help of a breath test: This measures the level of hydrogen produced by the misdirected metabolism.
If sorbitol intolerance is present, foods containing sorbitol should be completely avoided for a period of at least two weeks. As soon as the symptoms have finally disappeared, the consumption of foods containing sorbitol can be slowly resumed in order to test the individual tolerance limit. This is because, unlike other intolerances, smaller amounts of sorbitol are often well tolerated in sorbitol intolerance.
Sorbitol and fructose
Incidentally, people who suffer from fructose intolerance should also not eat foods containing sorbitol. This is because in the small intestine, sorbitol further inhibits the absorption capacity of fructose, which is already low in those affected.
Compared to the past, sorbitol intolerances occur much more frequently today. Experts attribute this to our changed eating habits: because nowadays more and more foods are being added with fructose or sorbitol to give them a sweeter taste.
