The ultimate low carb sweeteners guide to use while converting between low carb sweeteners or when turning a recipe using regular sugar into a low carb treat.
When going low carb is can be hard to figure out sugar alcohols and tackle the world of low carb eating. Especially when you want to convert your favorite cookie recipe to a low carb treat.
We’ve gone into detail about What Net Carbs are and sugar alcohols are. Here we are talk all about low carb sweeteners. We’ve provided a handy conversion chart below with some of the few possible low carb sweeteners out there.
Our new favorite low carb sweetener is monkfruit. What is monkfruit?
Monkfruit (aff link) has become an absolute favorite of ours. We’ve found for us that it causes no digestive upset for anyone in our family.
It’s sweetness is a 1-1 ratio to cane sugar. I do find that in sweets that sometimes I need to up the ratio a bit more though and it be closer to 2-1 ratio (monkfruit to cane sugar). Regardless it is divine and is our absolute favorite right now.
Our second favorite low carb sweetener is Erythritol. What is Erythritol?
Erythritol (aff link) If you’ve been a reader with us for a while erythritol is a natural sweetener that is about 65% less sweet than traditional sugar and has 0 calories.
For that reason and as you’ll see on the chart you do need to use more of it to compensate.
Erythritol is naturally found in some fruit and naturally fermented foods. It is perhaps why it is our favorite sweetener type since its pretty natural in respect to other alternatives out there. Most of our older recipes use erythritol for this reason. I also love that it has a powdered erythritol available for purchase that can be used for frostings like our cream cheese frosting and chocolate frostings.
It isssss slightly common to cause digestive upset in some though so it is something to keep in mind if you are new to sugar alcohols. Our family is a 50/50 some react and some do not. Which is why it’s our second favorite and now why monkfruit is the winner in our household.
erythritol vs xylitol
Xylitol (aff link) is another favorite and one you’ll find in our recipes. It is another natural low carb sweetener. We’ve used it a few times in our recipes and fortunately can be used in replacement of each other all the time.
Xylitol is 100% the same sweetness as traditional sugar and therefore most of the times is a direct 1-1 ratio. This only thing that I find with xylitol is that is sometimes has difficulties ‘melting’ down and if a dessert is not cooked hot or longer enough it can cause a grainy result. So generally I’d avoid this in dishes like our cashew chicken lettuce wraps where it calls for a little bit of sweetness at the end of cooking the dish.
erythritol vs stevia
Stevia (aff link) is another fabulous alternative. It comes in little packets or liquid drops. We prefer the liquid drops for adding to drinks. It is also 0 calories and does not raise blood sugar levels at all. It is harder to substitute stevia for granular substitutes though and can significantly change the outcome when baking.
But for adding to drinks, coffee and tea it is a FANTASTIC replacement. It is great for sweetening in our fat bomb coffee or if you want just a tad bit more sweetness into your batter after tasting it.
Now you have any idea WHAT sugar alcohols are. What does that mean now?
So now you know what sugar alcohols are and the types of sugar alcohols to use in the keto and low carb diet. I think the second biggest question we get is indeed how to calculate that into your carb and net carbs.
Head on over to our What are Net Carbs? if you need some guidance on this. This will help you on how to read a nutrition label and calculate your net carbs. We will also give you some guidance on where to go from there.
If you are here for the low carb sugar alcohol sweetener conversion chart. Here you go ?Â
