Sugar alcohols can be a problem when it comes to weight loss. In general, sugar-free foods that are sweetened with sugar alcohols (sorbitol, xylitol, malitol and isomalt) instead of sucrose or fructose or high fructose corn syrup – are lower in carbohydrate than their sugared counterpart. But these sugar-free foods are not necessarily lower in calories than sugared candy or sugared cakes or sugared cookies or sugared ice cream or sugared whatever. Fortunately, the label on most sugar alcohol flavored foods explicitly states that this is not a low calorie food. Sometimes the calorie content of sugar alcohol sweetened food is even higher than the sugared version of the same food, because fat calories are substituted for carbohydrate calories. Fat contains 9 calories per gram, while carbohydrate contains 4 calories per gram. Calories count. There’s no free lunch. Read labels.