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Comment by darkerside | Hacker News Reader

What about xylitol?

I keep seeing things indicating this is good for your teeth (e.g. chewing gum with xylitol) but can't tell if it is astro-turfing or not (on my list of things to research when I retire).

Iirc it disrupts the metabolism of microbes involves in tooth decay. It seems to also protect against throat infections. From personal experience, after eating/drinking xylitol, my mouth feels fresh as if I had just brushed.

I've asked three different dentists about it and they all said it actively prevents tooth decay, in so many words. Two of them also mentioned hydration being really good during the same conversation fwiw.

Personal experience, it really helps. I credit it to having good dentist visits despite mediocre dental hygiene.

Great sweetener, maybe my only complaint is ... slight minty taste, but be damn careful with it if you or anybody you know has a dog. Even very small quantities are lethal to them.

Yikes, didn't know this. Thanks. Cats?

Also lethal to them. The big issue for dogs is that xylitol is used in several brands of peanut butter (or it was) and that's a common treat or medicine aid for dog owners

Is it lethal to cats though? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29430681/

I mean, better to be safe than sorry, but it doesn't seem to affect them in this study. Other non-scientific sources are all over the map on the question.

1000x this. The most worried I've even been for my dog was when she got into a pack of gum sweetened with xylitol. She's fine, thankfully. Fun fact: the ASPCA poison control line has a database of products containing xylitol (and presumably tons of other stuff) and the concentration in each. Strongly recommend a call if your dog or cat gets into something dangerous (while you're driving to the vet).

(German) wikipedia mentions it is a relatively expensive sugar replacement. Maybe that's why it is less popular. Interesting is that it is pretty common in multiple plants (it sounds more natural at least)

poisonous to dogs

more profound cooling effect than erythritol (which has some)

more expensive

really, really does not caramelize and cooks very differently

gastrointestinal effects

causes an insulin spike

> gastrointestinal effects

Yeah Xylitol always caused me problems when I was younger and suffering more from ulcerative colitis.

No problem with the other substitutes that I remember.

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