Artificial sweetener erythritol linked to heart attacks and strokes

Lab experiments have shown that common sweeteners can promote blood clot formation in humans, but studies have linked the product to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. It is also shown that

To Claire Wilson

A commonly used sweetener called erythritol is associated with an increased incidence of heart attack and stroke.

The claim was made after researchers found a correlation between cardiovascular problems and blood erythritol levels. It is backed by tests on human blood samples shown.

Medical advice is that you should try to cut back on sugar to maintain a healthy weight, and that foods and drinks containing sweeteners are better for you than products containing natural sugar.

Erythritol is relatively recent as an artificial food additive. A type of sugar alcohol, it is about 70% as sweet as its weight of sugar and has almost no calories. Along with other sugar alcohols, erythritol is found at low levels in many fruits and vegetables and is also produced naturally by our bodies.

However, erythritol is now added to so many foods that some people have blood levels that are much higher than they occur naturally. “It’s one of the fastest growing artificial sweeteners,” Hazen says.

Hazen’s team began investigating erythritol’s effects by testing blood samples from two previous studies that tracked heart attack or stroke rates in people.

Two studies looked at people at risk for these events because of health factors such as being overweight and diabetes: one included about 2100 people in the United States and another about 830 people in Europe. I was.

Hazen and his colleagues found that people with the highest quarters of erythritol had a three-year higher risk of heart attack and stroke than those with the lowest levels. Adjusting the numbers for the fact that people who are overweight or in poor health are more likely to consume more erythritol, the risk was about twice as high between the two groups.

As an “observational study,” the study did not prove that erythritol caused a higher risk — something else could explain the correlation. Both heart attack and stroke can be caused by the formation of blood clots, the team next investigated the effects of erythritol on the blood.

In eight volunteers considered at low risk of heart attack or stroke, consuming a food or drink containing 30 grams of erythritol (such as 0.5 liters of low-carb ice cream) reduced blood levels of the sweetener to approximately 4 microliters. Jumped up from molar (concentration measurement). ) reached about 6000 micromolar and remained high for several hours. “As soon as you drink an artificially sweetened drink, the levels in your blood overwhelm normal levels,” says Hazen.

Erythritol also promoted clot formation in mice and was found to be at levels of 300 and 45 micromolar, respectively, when added to human blood samples. “Everything suggests that this isn’t just a harmless bystander, it’s directly increasing platelet reactivity,” Hazen says.

But Duane Mellor, a spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, said most people wouldn’t be eating enough to reach the levels tested for clotting effects in this study.

Mellor says the findings shouldn’t stop people from consuming foods and drinks that contain sweeteners.