Dangerous sugar substitute: The artificial sweetener erythritol, also known as erythritol or E 968, is not as healthy as it has long been assumed. Experiments have now shown that the drug can cause blood clots, which in turn increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke. Even in healthy people, the sweetener accumulates alarmingly in the blood, exceeding the threshold for clot formation. The scientists recommend keeping an eye on the sweetener and further researching its negative effects.
Sweet taste, but no calories: This is what artificial sugar substitutes such as erythritol or stevia promise. They are often recommended as a sugar-free alternative, especially for people with diabetes, heart disease or overweight. But there are increasing reports that stevia and co. are not the miracle cures they have long been touted as. For example, there is evidence that they can increase appetite, promote diabetes and unbalance the intestinal flora.
Erythritol is linked to cardiovascular disease
The health disadvantages of sweeteners could be even more far-reaching than previously thought, as researchers led by Marco Witkowski from the Cleveland Clinic in the US state of Ohio have now discovered. The team examined the blood samples of about 4,000 people at high risk of cardiovascular disease. In those participants who suffered serious complications such as a heart attack or stroke, the scientists also found a high concentration of the sugar substitute erythritol in their blood.
The sweetener is also known as erythritol or E 968. It is about 70 percent as sweet as sugar and is made by fermenting corn. Erythritol is in sugar-free chewing gum or diet drinks, for example. It is currently one of eight sugar substitutes approved in the European Union and may be added in any amount to certain industrially produced foods. a mistake?
The connection that has now been established between high erythritol concentrations in the blood and an increased risk of a stroke or heart attack at least suggests this. To find out exactly how the two are related, Witkowski’s team examined the effect of erythritol on blood in laboratory experiments. To do this, they added the sweetener to whole blood and previously isolated platelets. The latter help us to recover from injuries such as a cut. The platelets form a blood clot and seal the wound.
Even one diet drink could increase the risk of clots
The experiments show that apparently erythritol can also activate the blood platelets and thus trigger them to clump together. The intake of the sweetener via diet soda, chewing gum and chocolate can therefore probably increase the formation of clots, as the researchers explain. These clots, in turn, could then block cerebral arteries or coronary arteries and lead to a stroke or heart attack.
This effect may not even require particularly large amounts of the sweetener, as a follow-up study showed. According to this, the blood erythritol level of eight healthy participants rose above the clot threshold values when they consumed just 30 grams of the sweetener – as much as there is in a can of a commercially available, artificially sweetened drink.
Further studies required
According to Witkowski’s team, there are two main reasons why erythritol can accumulate so strongly in the body. First, our body has difficulty metabolizing the sweetener. Instead, it ends up in the bloodstream and is excreted in the urine. Second, our bodies also naturally make small amounts of erythritol, so any extra consumption can “add up.”
“It is important that further safety studies are conducted to investigate the long-term effects of artificial sweeteners in general and erythritol in particular on the risk of heart attack and stroke,” says Witkowski’s colleague Stanley Hazen. In these follow-up studies, the effect of erythritol on healthy people must also come into focus in order to rule out possible distortion due to previous illnesses. (Nature Medicine, 2023; two: 10.1038/s41591-023-02223-9)
Quelle: Cleveland Clinic, Science Media Center