NIRVANA XYLITOL

“Our Xylitol allows you to indulge your sweet tooth in a natural way, and is popular with adults and children alike. It’s natural sweetness makes it the ideal substitute for sugar as it is a proven tool in the fight against dental decay, and our high quality product is incredible value for money!”

The Xylitol Story

Xylitol (pronounced zy-li-tol) is a remarkable, natural substance that occurs naturally in fibrous fruits and vegetables such as plums, strawberries, corncobs and mushrooms, and is also found in some hardwood trees, including Birch. It is used as a natural sweetener, and is renowned for its delicious, refreshing taste. Xylitol is used around the world, mainly as a sweetener in chewing gums and pastilles, but its other applications include oral hygiene products, such as toothpaste, fluoride tablets and mouthwashes. The pharmaceutical industry uses Xylitol as a sweetener in many of its products.

Perfect for those on weight management programs or for those looking to manage blood sugar levels, Xylitol has a low GI of just 7, making it a smart choice over high-calorie, high-carbohydrate sweeteners. There is no sugar, no artificial sweeteners, 40% less calories than sugar, no fat, no protein, no artificial flavours, no artificial colourings and no preservatives. Xylitol is metabolized independently of insulin and, following ingestion of Xylitol, the blood glucose and serum insulin responses are significantly lower than for glucose or sugar

Xylitol has a long history, and was first discovered simultaneously by chemists Fisher and Stahe in Germany and by Betrand in France in the 1890s. Later, it was discovered in its natural state in some plants and in the 1960s it was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for special dietary purposes.

In 1983, the JECFA (a joint expert committee of WHO and FAO) announced that Xylitol was a safe sweetener for foods, and this was shortly followed by the Finnish Dental Association giving Xylitol its first endorsement in the world.  Xylitol has since been approved for use in Australia by the Food Standards of Australia & New Zealand.

For more than 30 years, dental researches have pointed to Xylitol as a key ingredient in helping to protect against tooth decay.  Since the 1980s, Xylitol was endorsed by many other European countries’ dental associations, including Britain and Sweden and, after a three year campaign by school children in the 1990s, products containing Xylitol were excluded from confectionary taxation in Finland.  In fact, the use of Xylitol in Finland is so prevalent that it is used in many Finnish child care centres, with gum pellets chewed after each meal.  Also, the Finnish government is thought to have saved millions of dollars by using Xylitol in its health programs.

Many other health benefits have be attributed to Xylitol, with a myriad of independent research reports available to read online and many natural health practitioners now recommending Xylitol to their clients.

Xylitol is very easy to use, as a spoonful is approximately equivalent in sweetness to one spoonful of sugar and  it performs remarkably similar to sugar in cooking and baking, and can be used in everything from home-made ice-cream to sauces and chutneys.