Doctors warn about the danger to the heart of the popular sweetener erythritol

The sweetener erythritol may increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. It is reported by the New Cleveland Clinic.

Artificial sweeteners such as erythritol often replace sugar in low-calorie, low-carb foods. Sugar-free products containing erythritol are often recommended for people with obesity, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome who are looking for options to help control their sugar or calorie intake. Erythritol is about 70% sweeter than sugar and is produced by fermenting corn. After oral administration, erythritol is poorly metabolized in the body. Instead, it enters the bloodstream and leaves the body in the urine without causing changes in glucose levels or obesity.

American doctors conducted a study involving over 4 thousand people over the course of three years, some of these volunteers regularly consumed products with this sweetener in their composition. Observations conducted by scientists unexpectedly showed that erythritol significantly increases the risk of developing several dangerous diseases of the heart and blood vessels at once. The use of large amounts of products based on it increased the risk of developing heart attacks, strokes and thrombosis by about 80%. These calculation results were subsequently confirmed in the course of two subsequent series of observations.

The authors suggest that erythritol has a similar effect due to its rapid accumulation in the body. In addition, the current study only fixes a correlation, not establishes a causal relationship.