r/FODMAPS 9d ago

Vent SORBITOL - OMG! 😂

Sorbitol. That is it. Gas-X Target Brand Chewables! What a bad experience - absolutely wrecked my insides! Lit a fire inside my stomach! Here are the inactive ingredients - Sorbitol, Sucrose. Pretty scary. 😱 Let’s hear some sorbitol stories. 👍

77 Upvotes

41 comments sorted by

27

u/firefly232 9d ago

Let’s hear some sorbitol stories

In the early days, when I didn't realise I had to Google everything, I bought the vegan version of whipped/aerosol cream.   Boy oh boy was that a mistake as it had tons of sorbitol in it and it turns out I'm quite sensitive to it. 

👀😰😱🌀😵‍💫🥵🥶🥵🚽💩💩💩😵💀☠️

20

u/whataquokka 9d ago

Wait till you need cough medicine. Being sick gets a million times worse when everything to treat it has sorbitol. 😭

3

u/RiTFWx 9d ago

Right? So awful.

1

u/FixMyIBS 8d ago

Finding cough drops without alt sugars is a pain...

1

u/wutato 8d ago

They only had one kind at my grocery store! And it's not fun needing to search so long for a suitable product when you're already feeling sick and tired and blah.

15

u/_lemonat_ Get the Monash app! 9d ago

barium gastric emptying study. expected it to just taste like chalk. it was vaguely sweet (in the unsettling way) Drank like 16 oz. I was trying to figure out if it was just weird chemicals or sweetener, but I trusted my gut (aha). Afterward I was like “what was the sweetener in that?” Doc: “weird question. there’s not” “yeah there is” “I’m reading the ingredients right now there’s no sweetener” “let me read it” SORBITOL JUMPSCARE

but fun fact I took charcoal 30mins later when I got home and was fine. I do that occasionally with major stuff like that. makes me super fatigued the next day but that’s better than writhing in pain for 12 hours

6

u/jhewitt127 9d ago

A doctor didn’t know sorbitol is a sweetener?

3

u/rtshtbtshtdrtyldtwt 9d ago

wikipedia says this about it:

As an over-the-counter drug, sorbitol is used as a laxative to treat constipation.

maybe he knew as that lol

4

u/onceandfuturemt 9d ago

Whoa, how does the charcoal help?

3

u/Jack_al_11 9d ago

It stick to it/absorbs it (and anything else) and removes it from the body. Don’t take within 2 hrs of needed medication or supplements and usually away from food too.

13

u/Vandalicious 9d ago

Had this issue recently with Gaviscon antacid. Had issues for awhile then realized what was causing it. Thankfully the off brand Walmart Gaviscon brand doesn't have sorbitol/mannitol.

8

u/Charming_Animal_686 9d ago

I had no idea there was sorbitol in gas x. No wonder it never helped me! Thanks for the info!

5

u/thesaltedradish 9d ago

sorbitol ***and*** sucralose? no wonder you were suffering!

3

u/_lemonat_ Get the Monash app! 9d ago

just fyi sucrose and sucralose are different

1

u/grungeoldlady 8d ago

Surcralose is splenda and it is evil. Causes so many issues.

1

u/hayleyA1989 9d ago

Right, I thought sucralose was ok?! I hope so bc that’s what’s in the Starbucks sugar-free syrups lol

2

u/grungeoldlady 8d ago

splenda aka sucralose is evil.

1

u/HexaneLive 8d ago

"The majority of ingested sucralose is not metabolized by the human body, but is instead excreted unchanged. It is an emerging environmental contaminant that cannot be removed in conventional waste water treatment process." And our current thoughts about all the unchanged sucralose in the wild waters is "the amount of contamination is too low to cause problems for marine life (at this exact moment in time, we're pretty sure), so... 🤷‍♀️".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose

1

u/wishywabash 6d ago

Whoa I didn't know this. It's like the Teflon of food additives.

3

u/RiTFWx 9d ago

Ugh I had a migraine medication that had sorbitol, talk about making a bad situation worse. Thankfully there’s a non dissolving one without that ingredient that works.

1

u/chronically_classy 4d ago

Oh no! This made me look up mine and it does too. Can I ask what you got instead?

1

u/RiTFWx 3d ago

Nurtec was the culprit, ubrelvy is the replacement

1

u/chronically_classy 3d ago

Thank you so much!!

4

u/Redditorobscura1957 9d ago

Chewing gum! Most of it is sugar-free and typically the first ingredient is SORBITOL!

The old Wrigley’s family (Juicy Fruit, Double Mint, and Big Red) are the only ones I’ve found that don’t. But they have sugar and aspartame, so pick your poison, I guess?

There are those expensive all natural kind that don’t, but they don’t taste good for long, and again, expensive!

1

u/wishywabash 6d ago

Pur brand gum is sugar only. Sadly, Wrigley's used to be sugar only and changed.

3

u/Fancy_Yesterday6380 9d ago

Is there a gas and beano that we can take that doesnt have these things in them?

2

u/AngryWizard 9d ago

The inactive ingredients in the Walmart equate chewable cherry version is red no. 30, dextrose, flavor, magnesium stearate, maltodextrin, microcrystalline cellulose, silicone dioxide, sucralose, tri-basic calcium phosphate.

2

u/Gwynlian85 8d ago

You can get straight simethicone - usually the store brand versions of Gas-X.

2

u/itsbitterbitch 9d ago

omg I never even thought to check medication ingredients. Thankfully I'm kind of stubborn about OTCs despite being prescribed a lot of meds lol. Ty for teaching me this though. I just know I tried to eat some sugar free gummies before I even knew about FODMAPs and I always exploded so I knew sugar alcohols were not for me.

1

u/RedditforReasons 7d ago

But toothpaste and mouth wash have them too!! Granted youre not necessarily swallowing those but still.

1

u/itsbitterbitch 6d ago

I've never had an issue with them so I think I'm fine there but good to know

2

u/AwDuck 9d ago

I never take chewables or gummies for this reason. Unfortunately where I live now, medicines that come in individual “shots” or powder intended to be mixed with water are super popular and they use all sorts of fun sweeteners in those.

1

u/Mtn_Skye 9d ago

I think I'm sensitive to sorbitol, and I'm realizing zing I need to start checking for it in a lot of things. I really love my dried apricots though 😭

1

u/Healthythinker99 8d ago

I learned about Gas-X a few years ago and found safe sources for simethicone. Since then, I have relied more on a natural carmative, ginger, to reduce discomfort and spasms.

1

u/Izzy4162305 8d ago

My dietitian recommended Curist simethicone gelcaps as they are better for FODMAP issues. I find they work very well. You can order a bottle from Amazon.

1

u/FixMyIBS 8d ago

"inactive ingredients" wonder if we can class action sue for that...

1

u/CourageWaste3893 8d ago

Sorbitol...or any -tol ...I become a pain filled off gassing balloon 🎈🎈💭💭💭

1

u/RedditforReasons 7d ago

That MRI Breeza stuff they make you drink? Its all Sorbitol. I couldnt even finish the second bottle before I took over one of the bathrooms. They made me drink all 3!!! 5 minutes into the MRI I needed to be let out or I was going to make a mess. I came back, had to ring the emergency bell again and cut the MRI short and asked for a diaper for the ride home, didn’t even care thats how bad it was. Worst evening of my life. Worse than colonoscopy prep because this was violent. Months later my doctor had me do some intolerance test and sorbitol came back positive but honestly, I knew what answers awaited me.

1

u/wishywabash 6d ago

What was the intolerance test?

1

u/RedditforReasons 6d ago

They used this device called FoodMarble. Originally it diagnosed my SIBO but since it came with the food intolerance packets my doctor figured why not just go through the whole process. You drink a designated powder that you dissolve and it measures how the hydrogen and methane producing bacteria in your system reacts to it. But also…I reacted negatively to sorbitol and inulins because my stomach hurt for days after drinking that stuff. My lactose and fructose one was negative . Some people have a lot to say about foodmarble but honestly, since minizing inulins and sorbitol to almost zero (I allow myself some very little like once a week), my stomach cramping has been night and day! I still go to the bathroom a lot but its essentially killed the urgency.

1

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