STEER CLEAR IF YOU SUFFER FROM IBS

SWEETENERS erythritol and xylitol are the other common ingredient in these ice creams.

These are less intense than aspartame, which is found in Diet Coke, and sucralose, of which the artificial sweetener Splenda is made.

Manufacturers love them as they can be described as ‘natural’. While it is true that they do occur in small amounts in fruits and vegetables, industrial-scale production is far removed from just extracting these ‘sugar alcohols’ from a fruit.

For example, biotech companies make xylitol from agricultural or forestry waste products such straw and wood pulp, treating them with acid to extract a carbohydrate known as xylose, and then fermenting this with yeast and putting it through various purification steps to produce the final product.

For most people, these low-cal ice creams won’t cause digestive problems – but if you have a sensitive gut, they can be very bad news.

That’s because the added fibres and sugar alcohols can both pass through the small intestine unchanged and then get fermented by gut bacteria, producing gas as a by-product.

Fibres such as inulin and oligofructose can stimulate symptoms in people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), causing stomach discomfort, flatulence, cramping and diarrhoea as a result.

To add insult to injury, sugar alcohols can pull water into your intestine, which has a laxative effect. Some people react to much lower levels than others. If IBS is a concern, I would suggest testing a tiny portion first to see how much you can tolerate.

In the panel, left, I have examined what’s in these new tubs, and the health implications of eating them, so you can decide, which ones – if any – you’d like to have in your freezer. And, of course, I just had to taste them too…