United States: Eating foods with erythritol, a synthetic sweetener often added to keto foods, puts one at risk of a heart attack and stroke, Cleveland Clinic research reveals.
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Professionals said on Thursday that erythritol increases the activity of platelets in the blood and may result in blood clots, as explained in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
According to Dr. W. H. Wilson Tang, the study co-author and the research director for Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, “This research raises some concerns that a standard serving of an erythritol-sweetened food or beverage may acutely stimulate a direct clot-forming effect,” as the New York Post reported.
Moreover, the classification of erythritol by the US FDA as a GRAS or “generally recognized as safe” ingredient permitted the usage of ir without putting any restrictions.
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Made from corn, occurring in some fruits, and manufactured by the body in trace quantities, erythritol is almost a non-calorie sweetener, about 70 percent as potent as sucrose.
It serves as a filler for monk fruit and stevia sweeteners, gives cookies and muffins a crispy texture, and gives customers an icy sensation in their mouths.
However, erythritol is not well metabolized, so it tends to accumulate in the body.
Previous clinical studies conducted by the Cleveland Clinic identified that subjects with high chances of heart disease had twice the probability of a severe cardiac episode over the next three years when their erythritol levels were high compared to low levels.
As the senior and corresponding author, Dr. Stanley Hazen, added, “Many professional societies and clinicians routinely recommend that people at high cardiovascular risk — those with obesity, diabetes or metabolic syndrome — consume foods that contain sugar substitutes rather than sugar,” as the New York Post reported.
Furthermore, the chairman of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences in Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute and co-section head of Preventive Cardiology, Hazen, added, “These findings underscore the importance of further long-term clinical studies to assess the cardiovascular safety of erythritol and other sugar substitutes.”
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Protein intake was recently assessed in healthy adults in this new study. Thus, when participants received an amount of erythritol in a serving of muffin or sugar-free soda, their platelet activity increased compared to eating sugar.
Therefore, as Hazen noted, “Cardiovascular disease builds over time, and heart disease is the leading cause of death globally. We need to ensure the foods we eat aren’t hidden contributors.”
Hazen’s team has also recently found out that consuming large amounts of xylitol, erythritol, a sort of sugar alcohol found in sugar-free candy, gums, baked foods, and toothpaste, can lead to a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
As Hazen said, “I feel that choosing sugar-sweetened treats occasionally and in small amounts would be preferable to consuming drinks and foods sweetened with these sugar alcohols, especially for people at elevated risk of thrombosis such as those with heart disease, diabetes or metabolic syndrome.”