The ultimate low carb sweeteners guide to use while converting between low carb sweeteners or when turning a recipe using regular sugar into a low carb treat.
When going low carb is can be hard to figure out sugar alcohols and tackle the world of low carb eating. Especially when you want to convert your favorite cookie recipe to a low carb treat.
We’ve gone into detail about What Net Carbs are and sugar alcohols are. Here we are talk all about low carb sweeteners. We’ve provided a handy conversion chart below with some of the few possible low carb sweeteners out there.
Our new favorite low carb sweetener is monkfruit. What is monkfruit?
Monkfruit (aff link) has become an absolute favorite of ours. We’ve found for us that it causes no digestive upset for anyone in our family.
It’s sweetness is a 1-1 ratio to cane sugar. I do find that in sweets that sometimes I need to up the ratio a bit more though and it be closer to 2-1 ratio (monkfruit to cane sugar). Regardless it is divine and is our absolute favorite right now.
Our second favorite low carb sweetener is Erythritol. What is Erythritol?
Erythritol (aff link) If you’ve been a reader with us for a while erythritol is a natural sweetener that is about 65% less sweet than traditional sugar and has 0 calories.
For that reason and as you’ll see on the chart you do need to use more of it to compensate.
Erythritol is naturally found in some fruit and naturally fermented foods. It is perhaps why it is our favorite sweetener type since its pretty natural in respect to other alternatives out there. Most of our older recipes use erythritol for this reason. I also love that it has a powdered erythritol available for purchase that can be used for frostings like our cream cheese frosting and chocolate frostings.
It isssss slightly common to cause digestive upset in some though so it is something to keep in mind if you are new to sugar alcohols. Our family is a 50/50 some react and some do not. Which is why it’s our second favorite and now why monkfruit is the winner in our household.
erythritol vs xylitol
Xylitol (aff link) is another favorite and one you’ll find in our recipes. It is another natural low carb sweetener. We’ve used it a few times in our recipes and fortunately can be used in replacement of each other all the time.
Xylitol is 100% the same sweetness as traditional sugar and therefore most of the times is a direct 1-1 ratio. This only thing that I find with xylitol is that is sometimes has difficulties ‘melting’ down and if a dessert is not cooked hot or longer enough it can cause a grainy result. So generally I’d avoid this in dishes like our cashew chicken lettuce wraps where it calls for a little bit of sweetness at the end of cooking the dish.
erythritol vs stevia
Stevia (aff link) is another fabulous alternative. It comes in little packets or liquid drops. We prefer the liquid drops for adding to drinks. It is also 0 calories and does not raise blood sugar levels at all. It is harder to substitute stevia for granular substitutes though and can significantly change the outcome when baking.
But for adding to drinks, coffee and tea it is a FANTASTIC replacement. It is great for sweetening in our fat bomb coffee or if you want just a tad bit more sweetness into your batter after tasting it.
Now you have any idea WHAT sugar alcohols are. What does that mean now?
So now you know what sugar alcohols are and the types of sugar alcohols to use in the keto and low carb diet. I think the second biggest question we get is indeed how to calculate that into your carb and net carbs.
Head on over to our What are Net Carbs? if you need some guidance on this. This will help you on how to read a nutrition label and calculate your net carbs. We will also give you some guidance on where to go from there.
If you are here for the low carb sugar alcohol sweetener conversion chart. Here you go ?Â
Are all the sweeteners above interchangeable? I noticed in your chocolate bar recipe that you list both erythritol and stevia. Why?
Mainly because liquid stevia is 100% zero carbs and if we can get away with it we personally like to the amount of erythritol but want just a litttttle bit of extra sweeteness we add a few drops of stevia. Erythritol also is subjective to its carb count. Some subtract half (diabetic reasons), some are a little sensitive to it (tummy wise), so thats why you’ll find at times we do a combination. Hope that helps and makes sense! 🙂
If I use powdered erythropoietin instead of powdered monk fruit does that mean I use less. I am going to try your pancake syrup that’s why I am asking.
Is erythropoietin by chance erythritol? I’ve actually not come across this sweetener name yet – is there a brand you are purchasing that is calling it erythropoietin so I can research more? If it’s in powdered form and if it’s based on what I THINK it might be then you should be able to use it as a 1-1 ratio but I don’t know for sure until I can research a bit more.
Erythropoietin (EPO) is a hormone produced primarily by the kidneys. It plays a key role in the production of red blood cells (RBCs), which carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.
Thank you for chiming in Jody
Hi I JUST HAPPENED ON YOUR SITE LOOKING FOR KETO PANCAKE SYRUP AND HAVE FOUND IT VERY INFORNATIVE. I’D LIKE TO KNOW WHY THERE ARE NO AMOUNTS TO THE MENTIONED INGREDENTS UNLESS THERE MENTIONED IN THE VIDEOS THAT ARE NOT WORKING RIGHT NOW. OH YOUR PANCAKES LOOK SO GOOD. I HOPE I CAN SOON SEE THE AMOUNTS. I’M GOING TO BE USING YOUR SITE ALOT TO LEARN ALOT MORE ABOUT EATING RIGHT. THANKS FOR BEING FREE. I’M 90 YRS YOUNG AN STILL TRYING TO GET IT RIGHT. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP.
ERN
Hi Fern, Welcome! Not sure I’m understanding the question. Our recipe cards are at the bottom of each post. We sometimes list the ingredients within the posts just so people can quickly scan and see if they’ve got the ingredients but the recipe cards with amounts required to make the recipe is at the bottom of each post. Hope this helps and I’m in the right ballpark of what you are asking.
can you tell me why I can not copy and past this into notebook so I can save it to my flashdrive
I have tried and tried but it will only let me post part of it..
thank for any help on this , as I really want to save this
If you are asking about the image itself for the sweetener guide you won’t be able to copy and paste it because it’s an image. Not sure why it’s only saving a part of it but in the next month we are including this guide in our Ultimate Keto Bundle and you should be able to save that page without any issues for future reference.
I just took a screen shot from phone. You should also be able to use your snipping tool from your PC. (Microsoft) and add to a word document.
Love this… Thank you for sharing.
VERY handy-I have been looking for something like this. Thanks!
Glad we can help! 🙂
Hi Lindsay,
We are Canadian and have Splenda as our go to. It is Sucralose. I don’t see it on the list but says it is 0 calories and made from sugar, and can be used 1 to 1.
Hi Joan! I unfortunately don’t use Splenda in our ingredients for personal reasons so really do not have a good idea of those conversion ratios so that is why it is not included. Perhaps someone here will be able to chime in and let us know. 🙂
great guide! can you add allulose?? thanks!
We’ll see what we can do 🙂
Just an FYI, be careful using xylitol around pets, particularly dogs. It is extremely poisonous to them.
Thank you for pointing this out. I am diabetic but also a dog lover. As a result, I will not have xylitol in the house
Thanks so much for your reply!
You make doing low carb so easy and delicious!!
Thanks again!
Nancy
<3 Thanks Nancy <3
Please remember that xylitol is poisonous for our pets. Please do not use if you have cats or dogs.
Thank you Judith, this is a VERY good point to make.