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Because price per pound: Erythritol: $20 Sugar: $0.44 Source: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mhVolOSp6k8J:https://sweetenerusers.org

Because price per pound: Erythritol: $20 Sugar: $0.44 Source: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mhVolOSp6k8J:https://sweetenerusers.org/The%2520True%2520Story%2520About%2520US%2520Sugar%2520Prices.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mhVolO... [Google cache, the original PDF is 404 Not Found] Edit: looks like one can find erythritol for as little as $15, which is still 34 times more than sugar.

donjoe 9y ago
Switch to stevia instead?
- hans_mueller 9y ago
  no, switch to xylitol.
  - chiefalchemist 9y ago
    No. Train yourself to avoid sweeteners all together :)
    - hans_mueller 9y ago
      even better
leadingthenet 9y ago
Well sure, now. But once the forces of scale take over it could potentially become cheaper than sugar.
- pizza234 9y ago
  > Doses over 50 grams (1.8 oz) can cause severe diarrhea, plus a significant increase in nausea and stomach rumbling. ... and that's "just" 50 grams.
wlesieutre 9y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythritol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythritol > Doses over 50 grams (1.8 oz) can cause severe diarrhea, plus a significant increase in nausea and stomach rumbling. I don't know what the weight ratio would be to substitute that for sugar, but a can of soda has ~40g of sugar so I'm guessing you need to be careful with it similar to other sugar alcohols.
LolWolf 9y ago
I think it's not weight-by-weight equivalent. I believe that a tiny amount of Erythritol is enough to be equivalently sweet relative to a much larger amount of sugar. That being said: I'm not sure if it's enough to make it cheaper than sugar.
- gtrubetskoy 9y ago
  Good point, and there is another twist I realized: sugar is used as filler (e.g. for removed fat in low-fat stuff), so Erythritol might not work because same volume of it would make it unbearably sweet. Personally, I'd prefer they just kept the original fat and call it a day as there seems to be absolutely nothing wrong with it health-wise.
  - silviogutierrez 9y ago
    You are both thinking of other sweeteners, like sucralose (Splenda). Erythritol is actually 70% as sweet as sugar. So you actually need to supplement it with something else to match sugar.

donjoe 9y ago

Switch to stevia instead?

hans_mueller 9y ago
no, switch to xylitol.
- chiefalchemist 9y ago
  No. Train yourself to avoid sweeteners all together :)
  - hans_mueller 9y ago
    even better

leadingthenet 9y ago

Well sure, now. But once the forces of scale take over it could potentially become cheaper than sugar.

pizza234 9y ago
> Doses over 50 grams (1.8 oz) can cause severe diarrhea, plus a significant increase in nausea and stomach rumbling. ... and that's "just" 50 grams.

wlesieutre 9y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythritol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythritol > Doses over 50 grams (1.8 oz) can cause severe diarrhea, plus a significant increase in nausea and stomach rumbling. I don't know what the weight ratio would be to substitute that for sugar, but a can of soda has ~40g of sugar so I'm guessing you need to be careful with it similar to other sugar alcohols.

LolWolf 9y ago

I think it's not weight-by-weight equivalent. I believe that a tiny amount of Erythritol is enough to be equivalently sweet relative to a much larger amount of sugar. That being said: I'm not sure if it's enough to make it cheaper than sugar.

gtrubetskoy 9y ago
Good point, and there is another twist I realized: sugar is used as filler (e.g. for removed fat in low-fat stuff), so Erythritol might not work because same volume of it would make it unbearably sweet. Personally, I'd prefer they just kept the original fat and call it a day as there seems to be absolutely nothing wrong with it health-wise.
- silviogutierrez 9y ago
  You are both thinking of other sweeteners, like sucralose (Splenda). Erythritol is actually 70% as sweet as sugar. So you actually need to supplement it with something else to match sugar.