It grades clean on overall FODMAP load but high on polyols specifically, which is the confusing part. Erythritol is a polyol by chemistry, so strict elimination protocols exclude it, but unlike sorbitol or xylitol it is absorbed in the small intestine rather than fermented in the colon, so in practice most people tolerate normal amounts. Reintroduce it on its own and at a realistic serving before you decide.

Molecule size and absorption. About 90 percent of ingested erythritol crosses the small intestine wall and leaves in urine unchanged, so only a small fraction ever reaches the gut bacteria that ferment sugar alcohols into gas. Sorbitol and xylitol are poorly absorbed and arrive in the colon largely intact, which is what produces the osmotic pull and the gas.

Nobody can answer that cleanly yet. A 2023 Cleveland Clinic study in Nature Medicine found that people with high blood erythritol had roughly double the rate of major cardiac events over three years, and that erythritol made platelets more prone to clot in lab and animal work. It is an association study in high cardiac risk cohorts that did not measure what anyone ate, and the body makes its own erythritol from glucose, so the raised levels may partly reflect existing disease. A 2024 follow-up found the same platelet effect in healthy volunteers after a 30 g drink. If you have cardiovascular risk factors it is worth discussing rather than dismissing.

No. Oral bacteria cannot ferment erythritol into the acid that demineralises enamel, which is why it turns up in sugar-free gum and mints. That is a separate question from how your gut handles it.