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Xylitol in Memo Volt: An Excipient Counted as an Ingredient
A sugar alcohol used as a carrier and sweetener, not an active brain ingredient.
Xylitol is a sugar alcohol used in supplements and food as a sweetener, a bulking agent and a carrier. In a capsule it is almost certainly there to help the formula flow and taste acceptable, not to do anything for your brain.
It is also seriously toxic to dogs, which is a practical thing to know if you keep the bottle where a pet could reach it.
- Also known as
- Birch sugar, E967, wood sugar
- Source
- Made from birch or corn cob material, and also found naturally in small amounts in fruit
- Dose used in research
- Dental studies use 6–10g a day in chewing gum. Not relevant to a capsule
- Studied for
- Dental cavity prevention
- Evidence strength
- Reasonable for dental use. None for cognition
- Role in this formula
- Almost certainly an excipient rather than an active ingredient
Why it is on the list at all
Xylitol has a real, evidenced use: chewed as gum at six to ten grams a day, it reduces cavity-causing bacteria. That research has nothing to do with a capsule you swallow, and nothing to do with memory.
In a supplement capsule, xylitol does one of the jobs excipients do — adding bulk, improving flow through the filling machine, or masking bitterness from ingredients like berberine, which is famously unpleasant.
There is nothing wrong with using an excipient. Every capsule has them. What is worth noticing is that counting it as one of ten ingredients makes the formula sound fuller than it is. Nine active ingredients plus a carrier is a more honest description than a ten-in-one formula.
What it means for you
In the small amount a capsule holds, xylitol is unlikely to cause any problem. Sugar alcohols can cause gas, bloating and a laxative effect, but that typically needs several grams — far more than a capsule contains.
If you are counting carbohydrates, xylitol has a low glycaemic impact and is often used by people managing blood sugar for that reason.
The bottom line on Xylitol
A carrier ingredient counted as an active one. It is harmless in the amount present, and it is a fair example of why an ingredient count is a weak way to judge any supplement.
Remember what this page is. Everything above is about Xylitol as a compound, at the doses used in its own research. It is not evidence about Memo Volt, because Memo Volt does not publish how much of it a capsule contains. Research on an ingredient is never the same thing as evidence about a finished product.
Xylitol: common questions
Almost certainly as an excipient — a carrier, bulking agent or taste masker — rather than as an active ingredient. It has no research connecting it to memory or cognitive function.
For people, yes, in normal amounts. Large amounts of sugar alcohols can cause gas, bloating and loose stools, but a capsule contains far too little for that. It is extremely toxic to dogs.
It has a much lower glycaemic impact than ordinary sugar, which is one reason it is used by people managing blood sugar.
Other Memo Volt ingredients
Know the ingredient. Now check the price and the terms.
Current packages run from $79 a bottle down to $49, with a 60-day money-back guarantee set by the seller.
See Pricing & Packages Read the safety page before your first capsule.