Surprise! Sugar Substitute Erythritol Linked To Heart Attack And Stroke
I finally stopped using Sweet N’ Low in my coffee last year because that artificial sweetener (saccharin) has been linked to bladder cancer in lab rats, and I switched to Stevia because it is (was) considered the healthy alternative. Well, fuck my life, because now a study has found that erythritol—the main ingredient in Stevia—is linked to heart attacks and strokes. Full breakdown on the results of the study at the link below, but here’s a summary via CNN:
A sugar replacement called erythritol — used to add bulk or sweeten stevia, monkfruit and keto reduced-sugar products — has been linked to blood clotting, stroke, heart attack and death, according to a study.
“The degree of risk was not modest,” said lead study author Dr. Stanley Hazen, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute.
“If your blood level of erythritol was in the top 25% compared to the bottom 25%, there was about a two-fold higher risk for heart attack and stroke,” Hazen said. “It’s on par with the strongest of cardiac risk factors, like diabetes.”
Additional lab and animal research presented in the paper revealed that erythritol appeared to be causing blood platelets to clot more readily. Clots can break off and travel to the heart, triggering a heart attack, or to the brain, triggering a stroke.
“This certainly sounds an alarm,” said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health, a hospital in Denver, who was not involved in the research.
“There appears to be a clotting risk from using erythritol,” Freeman said. “Obviously, more research is needed, but in an abundance of caution, it might make sense to limit erythritol in your diet for now.”
[CNN]
I guess I’ll go back to the pink packets that give lab rats cancer. Or, maybe just drink my cold brew without anything sweet in it?
