You'd consider Wikipedia unbiased? Big assumption, in my biased opinion!
Sorry, that was unclear. I meant that
I was unbiased as I had
no preferences prior to my investigation. My investigation included a lot more than good ole wikipedia. Wikipedia just seemed to sum up what I read elsewhere. As I say, I am open to factual correction but for instance, lets pick this comment apart:
Erythritol doesn't have the extensive studies done on oral health as xylitol has.Probably true but from what I read, it does provide for oral health just not so many studies so this sounds like an attempt at distraction.
It's less sweet, so you need more. This is true as far as I can tell. Give the small amount likely to be needed for gum would it be a problem. Possibly - needs more investigation.
It's more expensive compared to xylitol. Can't say for sure if this is true or not. I do know that I can buy a single kilo lot for a fairly trivial amount as compared to the likely end cost of gum. This makes me think that this comment is either an in general comment or heavilly biased - ie ignoring the fact that for gum the cost is too trivial to be an issue.
Most people do not react to the relative small amount of xylitol in a gum.This is a defensive comment. It doesn't really matter that they do or don't react, the issue is that they might and that there is an alternative that this won't happen with. If the alternative is worse in some other area, then this advantage of Erythritol is diminished.
Basically I looked at all the listed available sweetners and just felt that Erythritol seemed pretty good and wondered why it is not used more extensively. It seems to me to be a highly protected market with a huge amount of vested intrests coming into play. This means that the best product may not always be used and I see it as being up to us the end consumer to demand it.
Now if you can show me some good reason why Erythritol is not better than most of the competition, I'll happily change my view point but I will not be swayed by irrational belief systems brought about by marketing more than science. Selection based on factual criteria presented is not bias, just decision making. I defend my descisions until such time as new facts make the decision incorrect.