Dr. Fitness says “Beware” of your intake of Sorbitol and do not go on a “Sorbitol Diet.”  An article in this week’s  (BMJ) warns of the dangers of excess sorbitol intake. The warning comes after doctors came across two patients who had chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain and dangerously excessive weight loss. After lengthy investigations which could not identify why the patients were losing so much weight and had chronic diarrhea and pains, a detailed analysis of eating habits put the problem down to eating too much chewing gum with Sorbitol.

Sorbitol is a laxative which is poorly absorbed by the small intestine. Sorbitol, or glucitol, is a sugar alcohol which our bodies metabolize slowly. Sorbitol can be found in cough syrups, sugar free mints, chewing gum, diet foods, diet drinks and ice creams. Sorbitol occurs naturally in some stone fruits and berries from trees of the Sorbus genus. Apples and pears also have natural amounts of sorbitol.

One of the patients, a 21-year-old woman, had been eating the equivalent of 18-20g of sorbitol each day. The average stick of gum has about 1.25g sorbitol - so, she was chewing through 15-18 sticks of gum each day. The other patient, a 46-year-old man, was chewing about 20 sticks of sorbitol-containing gum plus approximately 200g of sweets (candy) each day - his total sorbitol daily intake was about 30g, the authors wrote. As soon as sorbitol intake was stopped, both patients started having normal bowel movements (diarrhea subsided) and normal weight gain was achieved.

Tags: British Medical Journal, Britney Spears, Dr fitness, Eva Longoria, Sienna Miller, Sorbitol

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