Sat Dec 10, 2005 10:22 pm
[biologist]
Carbohydrates more complex than monosaccharides are only fermentable if the organism has the appropriate enzymes to reduce them to simple sugars. Since sucralose is an artificial molecule, its unlikely that any naturally occuring enzyme would "fit" it sufficiently to break it down. The maltodextrin you saw in the packaging information is a bulking agent, since sucralose goes about 600 times farther by weight in sweetening than sucrose does. People like to add a teaspoon of sweetener to their coffee - you can't just tell them to use 1/600 teaspoon of sucralose, so the manufacturer adds maltodextrin to bulk the powder up. Since its sparingly digestible by humans, it doesn't add much to the calorie count. Maltodextrins are, naturally, fermentable, so if you add yeast to Splenda (sucralose mixed with maltodextrins) dissolved in water, you will get fermentation, but you'll end up with a sweet liquid as the sucralose will probably remain unchanged.
From what I gather about diabetics and alchohol, the body reacts to ethanol as though it was a simple carbohydrate, so you need to count any alcohol consumption against your daily allowance of carbs.
[/biologist]
On Deck:
Primary: American Amber Ale
Conditioning:
On tap (kegerator!):
Fond memories:
Beer-gut: 38"