With health and diet fads coming and going faster than a toupee in a hurricane, the need to innovate is constant. The juice cleanse—specifically the green variety—has been the latest, and perhaps longest running health-oriented “cleanse.” It’s meant to reset your gut, and get you on track for your health goals.  A recent Washington Post article is claiming that juice cleanses are ‘so last year;’ supposedly the latest movement is the so-called “gummy bear cleanse.” Since our name is Seattle Gummy Company, our interests were certainly piqued.

We wanted to understand exactly why this would work, and what the effects might be (nasty, is what we discovered). After some research it seems the company offering this week-long cleanse, Sugarfina, is offering more of a tongue-in-cheek gimmick. However, there is, perhaps, a more niche trend out there that involves “sugar-free” gummies; more specifically, gummies that contain pass-through sugars. “A pass-through sugar is a type of carbohydrate that is not absorbed by the digestive track,” says Brenden Carlson, our resident gummy scientist.

The more niche version of this cleanse works because one notable property of these sugar-substitutes is that they aren’t absorbed by the digestive tract. These sugars are also very hydrophilic and can lead to more water being absorbed into the colon. Without going into too much graphic detail, this may lead to gastric distress. “Long after eating about 20 of these all hell broke loose. I had a gastrointestinal experience like nothing I’ve ever imagined,” said a reviewer of some sugar-free gummy bears.

To be clear, none of our products should be taken to fulfill your gummy cleanse; they won’t have any of the above-mentioned effects.