Consuming sweets and chewing gum with sugar substitutes may help the weight-conscious slash calories, but excessive use of the sweetener sorbitol can cause extreme weight loss and other problems, according to a new report. In this week’s BMJ, Juergen Bauditz, MD, of the University of Berlin, and colleagues describe two patients with a sorbitol habit who had dramatic, unexplained weight loss until their excessive use of the sweetener was discovered. (Do you include items with sorbitol in your diet? What foods and how often? Tell us about it on WebMD’s Type 2 Diabetes Support Group board.) Sugar-Free Sweeteners and Side Effects: Case Histories One patient, a 21-year-old woman, had unexplained diarrhea and abdominal pain for eight months. She reported an unintended weight loss of 24 pounds, weighing in at about 90 pounds. After she was asked about diet, she said she chewed sugar-free gum with sorbitol daily, taking in about 18 to 20 grams a day. One stick typically has 1.25 grams. Once she eliminated sorbitol from her diet, the gastrointestinal problems stopped and she gained back more than 15 pounds. The second patient, a 46-year-old man, had been hospitalized because of diarrhea and […]