Sorbitol In Oyster Sauce

[rak sa_ngop]

I just purchased a 500ml (16.67 fl.oz) bottle of Good Life oyster sauce. Apart from the cleverly worded potentially misleading statement 'Oyster Sauce, 60% Less Sodium Formula' (only 30% Oyster Sauce content in reality), it contains 20% Sorbitol.

According to Wikkipedial Sorbitol is a sugar subsitute and it also occurs naturally in many stone fruits and berries from trees of the genus Sorbus.

^{The overdose affects are stated as follows:}

Ingesting large amounts of sorbitol can lead to abdominal pain, flatulence, and mild to severe

diarrhea. Sorbitol ingestion of 20 grams (0.7 oz) per day as sugar-free gum has led to severe diarrhea leading to unintended weight loss of 11 kilograms (24 lb) in eight months, in a woman originally weighing 52 kilograms (110 lb); another patient required hospitalization after habitually consuming 30 grams (1 oz) per day

Considering that the 16.67 fl oz bottle contains 3.334 fl oz of Sorbitol (20%) does this mean that consuming 1 bottle over the period of about 5 days could lead to severe diarrhea. Maybe the bottle should contain a health warning?

[Neha]

Sorbitol is also found in prunes and prune juice (the reason why those bad boys have laxative action if you have enough). Some people I know have a cup of prune juice 1-2x a week just to um, eliminate. It's also found in less quantities in apples, pears, and some other fruit if I recall correctly. As you mentioned, it's a sugar alcohol, that's why it's used to sweeten things. Sort of like xylitol which also has similar laxative effects.

Unless you plan on ingesting a cupful or more of oyster sauce (not recommended), I don't think you have to worry about any issues. Everything has a negative effect if overdosed - even water. A couple of spoonfuls should probably be alright. Try it out and see how you feel. At least you know now what to expect. All the best.

[AyG]

With the Good Life low sodium oyster sauce, I wouldn't worry so much about the sorbitol, but the taste: it's dreadful.

[rak sa_ngop]

Strange, I quite like it. Of course I squirt some soya sauce into the mix to get a bit of salt back in!