Erythritol in Australia?
 

Am I right that the only place from which one can buy erythritol in Australia is http://www.health-smart.com.au/inde...n=category&id=9 at $55 a kg?

Has anyone found anywhere else that's started stocking it over the last year or so?

Hmmm I had to do a net search for this one - never heard of it. In picture it looks like the same manufacturer (just by the packaging) as xylitol, which is avail in Aust. Have you tried this?

What do you like about erythritol as a sweetener? I'm a Stevia user myself so very curious :)

e

Hi,
I use xylitol, i got it from Go-Vita in Woy-Woy, it was $15.90 for 500g, it has no carbs and it so sweet! i have used it in quite a few things now with no problem. I tried Stevia which was too expensive, i am on a limited budget, and splenda had carbs so i thought that the xylitol was the way to go, i get my sweetness without the carbs!

I haven't ever seen erythritol anywhere either. I'm not sure why it is not available in the health food shops, but maybe it will appear one of these days.

I use a combination of xylitol and Splenda. The beauty of combining sweeteners is that you only need half as much in total, ie if the recipe calls for 1 cup of sweetners, you only need ¼ cup each of the two sweeteners. Works out much cheaper, and it definitely tastes better, too. ;)

And BTW I only ever use Splenda tablets, as they have far fewer carbs - only 0.075 per tablet. :)

Roz

My apologies for not getting back to this thread sooner, I managed to miss Erika's reply, sorry Erika!

The difference between xylitol and erythritol is that erythritol doesn't cause gastric distress. I really can't eat xylitol at all for this reason, even in small quantities unfortunately. I guess I have an overly sensitive digestive system, which is no surprise given how much of a mess my digestive system was before I went low carb.

At the moment I use liquid splenda which I got via a friend from the US. It's great stuff, 0 carbs and the 2 oz bottle I have will last me for literally years and years.

However, as Rosebud says, having a second sweetener really helps with both sweetness and taste generally.

I've also tried Stevia but wasn't very impressed, although I imagine that different brands and batches would differ greatly since it's such a natural product.

So yes, still on the hunt for erythritol, but I certainly don't want it enough to pay $55 a kilo for it!

Thanks for the suggestions though ladies.

Emma

Oh I use liquid stevia for the reasons stated :)

But I guess you need to try them all and figure out what works for you. I'll keep an eye out for erthritol if I see it too :thup:

Didn't know that about mixing sweeteners! Why would you only need half as much? I don't understand how they'd enhance the sweetness of each other ...

e