I am familiar (personally) with the side effects of sugar alcohols, and they get tricky in measurement, because serious studies in humans would only use single portions, like “serving size 1 piece of candy”, which are unrealistic. Most people might eat half a dozen or more at one sitting, as an example.
Importantly, one of the sugar alcohols, Xylitol, is extremely toxic to dogs.
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/xylitol.asp
It is found in food, pharmaceuticals and OTC “sugar free” products.
One of the weirder sugar substitutes, not a sugar alcohol, is Stevia, from a South American plant. Odd stuff indeed. It is so intensely sweet (300x sugar) that it can overwhelm the sweet taste buds. It also has some unexplored relationship with the bodies calcium, and may reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
Speaking of weird sweetener facts. There is no proof that Cyclomate was a carcinogen but it was banned. There is proof that Saccharin is a carcinogen in animal models but it was given a pass.
Our government in action.