I am starting to understand how bad sugar is for us, but I wondered if using sugar substitutes are just as bad??? In my early years I did use Aspartame (yikes) and other super bad sweeteners. I have found that Stevia or Monk alone is not as good as either of them with ERYTHRITOL. Can anyone tell me if Erythritol is super bad as well....
Thanks a lot
My reading on ERYTHRITOL did not leave me confident in my ability to draw a conclusion. I have been using mannitol and Trehalose for over a year. I will post on Trehalose so as to not derail your subject.
I use Mannitol as well, but find I want a substitute to bake with
I miss baking. But I have accepted I won’t be a baker anymore.
I hope you will be able to use everything you know to create a treat that makes you smile. I am reading up about trehalose. So interesting. Thanks for sparking my Interest
Have you tried monk fruit sweetener? Classic, golden (light brown) and liquid? It’s good for low to no glycemic increase, and, for me, tastes as good as sugar.
And just for another tidbit—- have you tried plant based butter with coconut oil?
It’s also very good if you’d like another option for butter: Myokos.
And for a monk fruit zero sugar syrup? Lankanto.
Try your hand at baking again. I bet you’re very good!!
Thanks for all your wonderful suggestions. I have tried Monk fruit sweetener but it is not nearly as good as the ones mixed with Erythritol IMO.
Erythritol and xylitol increased CCK which influence dopamine tandfonline.com/doi/full/10...
Wow!!! Thanks so much for posting those links. Fascinating stuff
you might want to check this feb 2016 clinical rat study:
"A significant percentage of neuronal damage, specifically cellular apoptosis (death), was seen on the experimental group compared to the control group, most likely due to the artificial sweetener, specifically aspartame, sucralose and stevia that were administered."
Study showing CCK influence in Parkinson’s pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/127...
great link, thanks! Since i'm not a scientist (lol) -- this link was very confusing and seemed contradictory at various points. So do you have a further comment about this paragraph in the link?
BOTTOM LINE: Is erythritol bad for PD? thanks!
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journals.lww.com/jpharmacog...
"Cholecystokinin modulates the release of dopamine and dopamine-related behaviours in the mesolimbic pathway, where cholecystokinin and dopamine coexist in dopaminergic neurones. Because cholecystokinin and its receptors (A and B) have a functional interaction with dopaminergic neurotransmission, alterations in them may constitute a predisposition for Parkinson's disease."
" We performed a case–control study to investigate the association between the cholecystokinin system and Parkinson's disease using genetic markers for three genes: cholecystokinin and its two receptors (A and B). One hundred and sixty patients with Parkinson's disease and 160 controls, matched for age, gender, ethnic origin and area of residence, were recruited. Cholecystokinin −45C>T, cholecystokinin-A receptor 779T>C and cholecystokinin-B receptor 1550G>A gene polymorphisms were studied using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses."
"These three gene polymorphisms showed no correlation with risk of Parkinson's disease; however, the cholecystokinin CT/TT genotype was associated with a 4.429-fold increased risk for visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease."
"Cholecystokinin-A receptor and B receptor polymorphisms, considered alone, showed no correlation with hallucinations in Parkinson's disease; however, a combined effect was found in patients with hallucinations harboring both the cholecystokinin CT/TT and cholecystokinin-A receptor TC/CC genotypes."
"Parkinson's disease patients harboring this genotype have a 5.922-fold increased risk for developing visual hallucinations. These results suggest that, in Chinese, visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease are associated with cholecystokinin −45C>T polymorphism, and this association was still observed in the presence of the cholecystokinin-A receptor TC/CC genotype, indicating a possible interaction of these two genes in the visual hallucinogenesis in Parkinson's disease."
I find most baking recipes call for way too much sweetener. I bake with nuts and berries and find the natural sweetness of blueberries mostly suffices.
Another possibility is trehalose which is not very sweet but is beneficial
You always have great suggestions. That is one I will definitely try. I love berries and nuts but I need a sugar substitute for baking 🍪
I just posted about it
? I thought you believed it wasn’t based on stating “unless a couple ounces a day? “.
I do not say that. What I did say was that human equivalent dose to that shown effective in animal studies to alleviate PD was about two ounces per day. I did not say that lesser amounts were not effective. I did not say anything either way about lesser amounts because that is unknown.
Just reread what you had said. I am sorry I misremembered and or misinterpreted. I was frustrated to learn it would require 2 Oz a day.
I understand that you are getting that figure from the study you were sighting but I responded with another that I had also originally posted. I’m concerned that it’s not as simple as translating the volume to humans because it is speculated that any autophagy induced by Trehalose is done indirectly via modifying the gut biome. And, I believe at high doses it may actually decrease autophagy. But that is IF I am understanding the paper correctly.
How do you use Trehalose? and how much are you using? are you also using Mannitol?
I am using mannitol and I use Trehalose usually just a few days a week on berries or sheep milk yogurt. It’s my hope it is benefiting my gut. What is your opinion of it so far?
Your research is far more comprehensive than mine but it looks promising from what I read. What I couldn't comprehend was the recommended amt per day
I remember, years ago, making muffins for a diabetic, and using unsweetened applesauce as the sweetener. And they were really good (even to someone who ate sugar). Must be some recipes online.....
Hello ~ we switched from erythritol because it leaves a ‘cooling’ aftertaste and left both my type 1 diabetic don & husband with gastric issues (a lot of gas, discomfort ), which is what I read occurred in others as well. Easy to find online For a baking 1-1 ratio we switched to a non-gmo Allulose - no aftertaste, no cooling effect, and no gastric issues. Being diabetics, as well as my husband with Parkinson’s, it does not affect their blood sugar levels
Best wishes!
There's Bocha sweet, that I like. It comes from some kind of squash and it's good for baking, but it's pricey.
One of my tricks when I bake (besides making my recipes about half as sweet as called for) is to use a blend of every sweetener I own. Then I figure the negative properties of each are kind of diluted out.
My belief is that (and feel free to disagree) no matter HOW bad sugar substitutes might be, they don't hold a candle to real sugar, and that includes agave, honey, dates, concentrated fruit juice, what-have-you.
The interesting thing is that substitutes have been tested like crazy, and (except for Nutrasweet if you happen to have PKU) nobody has actually done any prospective study proving any non-nutritive sweetener is toxic, at anything like the dose any normal person uses. (If you are a rat and drink 50 cans of soda a day you might be in trouble.)
But the sugar industry keeps trying.
Hard to know. But I really think if you'd been eating sugar you'd STILL have been worse off.
I'd get yourself an array of stuff--some allulose, some splenda (the drops are best, no added sugar) some monk fruit (which usually already comes as a blend with erythritol and btw the "brown" is good, like brown sugar) and then mix it up.
Actually, the one I can't stand is stevia. To me it tastes horrible. And I think the pure stuff is still "not recognized as safe" by the FDA, which is interesting, considering everyone seems to think it's the healthiest.
splenda is not good to consume! i buy the NOW brand of stevia from amazon and it tastes great (but it is expensive)
amazon.com/NOW-Foods-Organi...
The thing about splenda is, nobody has ever SHOWN it's not good to consume. There are associative studies showing that folks who use splenda tend to be overweight (surprise, really?) and or have high blood sugar (ditto)...but they are only that, associations. And because it's so popular, you can bet the sugar industry has tried like crazy to prove that it's bad.
Just FYI, I use it, have lost a lot of weight, and lowered my blood sugar to below normal. So that hasn't been a problem for me, at least.
Of course, that doesn't prove that it's ok. But nobody has shown stevia to be any safer either. Just because something grows in the ground doesn't make it healthy. Think mushrooms :o)
I use stevia leaves that we grow and dry. I make tea from these and substitute this liquid for the milk in recipes and add powdered milk. Also coconut sugar and a small amount of xylitol in baking gluten free desserts, cookies etc
If you set your mind to being healthier, you can do it. I am stronger than 10 years ago for sure.
Do your feet get cold after eating...sugar?
Sugar & alcohol reduce tremors? Undiagnosed diabetes?
Out of control Blood Sugar
Weight loss in Parkinson's predicts poor outcomes - which raises the question; what's worse, losing weight or eating sugar? 
Sugar cravings, night time binge eating from Parkinson’s Meds
