For millions of Americans with diabetes and prediabetes, reaching for a sugar-free candy bar, a "diabetic-friendly" cookie, or a stick of sugar-free gum feels like a safe choice — a way to satisfy the desire for sweetness while protecting blood sugar. New research from Washington University Medicine in St. Louis suggests that for some of these individuals, the reality may be more complicated, and the organ quietly bearing the cost may be their liver.
A study published in Science Signaling and highlighted in coverage by ScienceDaily, the Detroit News, and SciTechDaily found that sorbitol — one of the most widely used sugar alcohols in foods marketed as low-calorie or diabetes-appropriate — can trigger processes linked to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD, formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease) in individuals whose gut bacteria cannot adequately break it down.
