The Sugar Alcohols: a Profile

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the sugar alcohols. The relative cariogenicity of the different dietary carbohydrates is at present not well defined, but sucrose is generally considered the most cariogenic of the sugars widely represented in the human diet. As the sweet taste cannot be completely removed from foods, much effort has been made to replace sugars with other sweetening agents in the aim of obtaining dietary control of dental decay. Of the most common sucrose substitutes, sugar alcohols or polyols are considered suitable means of preventing or controlling dental caries. The polyol of glucose (sorbitol) and of mannose (mannitol) and a pentose alcohol (xylitol) have all been proposed as noncariogenic natural sweeteners, useful for partial substitution of sucrose in foods. The aim of this chapter is to report knowledge to date concerning the possible utility of these three polyols as sucrose substitutes in widely consumed foods, candies and chewing gums, in relation to their toxicity, their degradation by bacterial and mammalian metabolism, and their real activity in caries control.