Wikipedia: Erythritol
Erythritol is a zero-calorie non-sugar sweetener. It exists in nature and is produced in small amounts in the human body. It's popular because it tastes a lot like sugar, but is mostly excreted in the urine, rather than staying in the gut where bacteria would ferment it and cause gas.
A new study suggests a link to blood clotting, heart attacks, and strokes. But at this stage, the link is very much unproven. Here are a few links and excerpts:
New Scientist:
Artificial sweetener erythritol linked to heart attacks and strokes"...Hazen’s team began investigating the effects of erythritol by testing blood samples from two previous studies that tracked people’s rate of heart attacks or strokes. ...
Hazen and his colleagues discovered that those in the quarter with the highest levels of erythritol had a higher risk of heart attack or stroke than those in the lowest quarter, over three years. The risk was about twice as high between the two groups, once the figures had been adjusted to account for the fact that people who are more overweight or had worse health were more likely to be consuming more erythritol.
As what is termed “observational research”, the studies didn’t prove that erythritol was causing the higher risk – something else could explain the correlation. ..."
Stat:
One type of artificial sweetener may increase heart attack risk, preliminary study says"Then Hazen’s group conducted other studies that showed that erythritol seemed to cause clotting of blood in laboratory experiments, and that the compound appeared to increase the risk of clotting in certain genetically engineered mice. Heart attacks and strokes generally begin as clots in blood vessels.
After that, researchers gave eight volunteers 30 grams of erythritol in a drink, about the amount that might be found in a pint of low-sugar ice cream. They found that blood levels of the compound persisted. ...
Some outside researchers praised the paper for not only establishing that there might be a risk, but also explaining how it might be that a sugar alcohol could cause that risk. ...
But other researchers in nutrition saw significant reasons to doubt the results. One issue [raised by three researchers] is that conditions that cause heart disease might also cause high levels of erythritol in the blood. ..."
Sorting out cause and effect is tricky!
One more link: the press release from Cleveland Clinic:
Cleveland Clinic Study Finds Common Artificial Sweetener Linked to Higher Rates of Heart Attack and Stroke
