The Sugar Alcohols May Not Affect BG Within The 1 or 2 Hours After A Meal That

Sugar alcohols are neither sugars nor alcohols. They're found in artificially sweetened foods, especially candy and sugar free gum. Most people tolerate them okay, but many complain of gas and diarrhea if too much is ingested. Wikipedia has a good article, but unfortunately, it uses a lot of technical-chemical language. Still and all, there's some solid info there (including the names of various sugar alcohols that you can find on ingredient lists).

The other thing you need to know about sugar alcohols is that although individuals vary, for the vast majority of people they act on blood sugar like half that amount of sugar: in other words, a candy with 10g of sugar alcohol is going to have the same effect as candy with 5g sugar.

Some people also find that although the sugar alcohols may not affect bg within the 1 or 2 hours after a meal that we generally test, they may cause an "unexplained" spike many hours later.

I'm sorry, I don't recall where I got the information; it was from a source I found likely to be valid at the time, but remembered only the information and not the context.