Well, look at this.
In a new study, it was discovered that a commonly used artificial sweetener is associated with an increased risk of stroke and heart attack.
It seems like everything is out to kill us, right?
According to CNN, erythritol is a sweetener found in stevia, monk fruit, and keto-reduced sugar products. According to CNN, Dr. Stanley Hazen, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute and lead author of the study, is also a risk for many populations.
“The degree of risk was not modest,” Hazen said, according to CNN.
He stated that those with risk factors for heart disease, such as diabetes, are most at risk if they have high levels of erythritol in their blood.
“If your blood level of erythritol was in the top 25 percent compared to the bottom 25 percent, there was about a two-fold higher risk for heart attack and stroke. It’s on par with the strongest of cardiac risk factors, like diabetes,” Hazen said.
According to CNN, the substance is widely used by food companies as a sugar substitute.
“Artificial sweeteners are widely used sugar substitutes, but little is known about their long-term effects on cardiometabolic disease risks,” reported the study, published in January by the medical journal Nature Medicine.
“Our findings reveal that erythritol is both associated with incident MACE [major adverse cardiovascular events] risk and fosters enhanced thrombosis. Studies assessing the long-term safety of erythritol are warranted,” the study reported.
Erythritol was also linked to increased blood clotting, according to the study. Clots in blood vessels are dangerous because they can cause a heart attack or stroke.
“This certainly sounds an alarm,” Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health, a hospital in Denver, told CNN.
Freeman was not involved in the study.
“There appears to be a clotting risk from using erythritol. Obviously, more research is needed, but in an abundance of caution, it might make sense to limit erythritol in your diet for now,” he said.
Hazen agreed.
“For people who are at risk for clotting, heart attack and stroke – like people with existing cardiac disease or people with diabetes – I think that there’s sufficient data here to say stay away from erythritol until more studies are done,” Hazen said.
New study suggests harm from low-calorie sweetener erythritol (https://t.co/nZ8uSM4zmY). Today’s published interventional data, though only in mice and in vitro, is concerning enough for me to urge everyone stop eating it until we know more. https://t.co/tHcE5ZQAbD pic.twitter.com/NcDH4lTQUM
— Michael Greger, M.D. (@nutrition_facts) February 27, 2023
“Any possible (and, as yet unproven) risks of excess erythritol would also need to be balanced against the very real health risks of excess glucose consumption,” the statement said, according to CNN.
The Calorie Control Council, an industry group, pushed back against the study.
“The results of this study are contrary to decades of scientific research showing reduced-calorie sweeteners like erythritol are safe, as evidenced by global regulatory permissions for their use in foods and beverages,” Robert Rankin, the council’s executive director, wrote in an email to CNN, the network reported.
The findings “should not be extrapolated to the general population because the intervention participants were already at increased risk for cardiovascular events,” according to Rankin.
According to Freeman, the question of the risks of a widely used product requires immediate answers.
“Science needs to take a deeper dive into erythritol and in a hurry because this substance is widely available right now. If it’s harmful, we should know about it,” he said, according to CNN.
Hazen, the study’s author, agreed.
“I normally don’t get up on a pedestal and sound the alarm,” he said. “But this is something that I think we need to be looking at carefully.”
In a news release on the Cleveland Clinic’s website, Hazen said the realm of artificial sweeteners needs a thorough review.
“Our study shows that when participants consumed an artificially sweetened beverage with an amount of erythritol found in many processed foods, markedly elevated levels in the blood are observed for days – levels well above those observed to enhance clotting risks,” he said.
“It is important that further safety studies are conducted to examine the long-term effects of artificial sweeteners in general, and erythritol specifically, on risks for heart attack and stroke, particularly in people at higher risk for cardiovascular disease,” he said.