What study? Where? I use erythritol all the time.

Artificial sweetners have been linked to stroke for years. And dementia too.

link from 2017 https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/2017/diet-sodas-tied-dementia-and-stroke

And this week‘s report on the dangers of sugar alcohol substitutes https://www.everydayhealth.com/diabetes/sugar-substitute-erythritol-may-increase-risk-for-blood-clotting-and-stroke/

LynnNM, just google Erythritol and i will come up. its on every news site and paper.

CNN, NYPost, MSN, Phila Inquier, Yahoo News, Cleveland Clinic., USA today...

WashPo....i am sure NYtimes has it as well... it was on GMA or the one with Michael Strahan. will stop it for sure. Erythritol is in all the sweeteners- Monkfruit, Stevia Truvia ....

went to WH today to look for something else, and there is only real sugar, honey, agave, sugar in the raw...

Artificial sugars are also linked to metabolic syndrome as much as real sugars for they make those using it hungrier than the real thing would. Real foods are always best even in the form of carbs and sugars. Diets, restrictions, fasting and artificial sweetners are dangerous and often deadly and usually only give temporary weight loss to boot.

Thank you for posting that information. I've been using real white sugar for the last year.. Aspartame is in my water bottle sweeteners. Just checked. The Stevia we have does NOT list Erythritol in it.....maybe paying a little more helps?

it is not just one substitute, there is a known risk to all sweetners on the market. The diet soda link to cardiovascular disease, strokes and dementia is over ten years old and aspartame was the prevelent sweetner studied. Have the real mountain dew never the diet or zero calorie option ever.

In my 40s after weight, cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure were all in nornal range during a workup after a massive stroke, I was asked by the icu neurologist, how much artificial sweetner I used! I had not used it in years but was a habitual diet coke user in my teens and twenties. He said he tells all his patients to stay away from any zero calorie sweetners. This was in 2018.

aspartame was linked to neurological issuses in mice studies in the 80s https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1474447/

I don't understand why the average person would use artificial sweetner.

Nothing we eat is safe for everyone. Any damage may take years for it to appear so there other than for emotional relief any bloodwork or doctor's visits for most people are of little benefit. Any changes have already taken place or have yet to take place. Each person's body reacts differently so being scared of the what ifs is more of a mental anguish problem than something that will happen. As many of the things that have been stated to cause health problems during my lifetime I have to be realistic and be aware that something that I might have done years ago could be causing problems. Whatever I do today will not negate what I did yesterday.

Over the years I have listened to my body. Somethings including things that are considered healthy my body reacts to or most frequently they just do not taste right. I may try them again later but consider that it is my body telling me that while they may be good for others they may not be good for me.

What came first is what I read to be the bottom line on these products. The people in the study had cardiovascular issues ALREADY! How much of this sweetener does one ingest? If you read the actual studies often time you find they are inoculating mice (think SMALL critter) with more of this stuff than one could eat in a year! The part that those who are concerned might care about is the sentence that said as of now the FDA does not require companies to be specific about this sweetner when labeling--so you might not know where it all is. I have to wonder if these sweeteners became popular because we can't seem to accept we have to eat in moderation.

for diabetics, they cannot have real sugar and this was sweetener they could use that didn't spike their blood sugar.

its not all about moderation.

even fruit can have too much natural sugar for a diabetic

Arcy, if you read the abstract of the study, patients did not necessarily already have cardiac disease but were undergoing cardiac risk assessment. And there is no suggestion that this study included mice at all.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02223-9

I think these sweeteners have become popular because people want sweet things to eat and drink without the calories or the impact of carbs on their body. So far, science has failed at providing a safe alternative without side effects.

Science is not a good substitute for nature.

I see that these sweeteners are not merely substitutes for suger, but as much as 600 times sweeter than sugar. DH has always used saccharine in coffee and tea, not to control weight, but because, "Sugar isn't sweet enough." Funny, because it's *bitter* to me. We don't use any soft drinks, but I know artificial sweeteners are in many products -- maybe because they *are* sweeter? After all, sugar is quite cheap.

I don't see saccharine mentioned in these new warnings. Did I miss something?

Annie, I get that. But how many times have you seen an overweight person with a full high caloric dinner, order a diet coke?

The taste of the sweetner or what ever chemical, can be addicting. I have seen my her two children experience this.

my neurologist believes all artificial sweeteners negatively effect our gut flora even more so than sugar and this is why they may increase all cause mortality in users. studies have shown this for years and yes saccharine is among the worst offenders.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6363527/

Always consider the source:

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Hazen reports being named as co-inventor on pending and issued patents held by the Cleveland Clinic relating to cardiovascular diagnostics and therapeutics, being a paid consultant formerly for Procter and Gamble and currently with Zehna Therapeutics. He also reports having received research funds from Procter and Gamble, Zehna Therapeutics and Roche Diagnostics, and being eligible to receive royalty payments for inventions or discoveries related to cardiovascular diagnostics or therapeutics from Cleveland HeartLab, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics, Procter and Gamble and Zehna therapeutics. Tang reports being a consultant for Sequana Medical A.G., Owkin Inc., Relypsa Inc. and PreCardiac Inc., having received an honorarium from Springer Nature for authorship/editorship and American Board of Internal Medicine for exam writing committee participation—all unrelated to the subject and contents of this paper. The other authors have reported that they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose.

From Roarah's link:

Erythritol

Erythritol (E-968), a four-carbon sugar alcohol, occurs widely in nature and in foods such as wine, beer, mushrooms, pears, grapes, and soy sauce (68). Industrially, it is produced from glucose by an osmophilic yeast and subsequently, by separation and purification, yields a crystalline product with a purity of 99% (69). The estimated daily intake of erythritol is 1.24 g (53). Oral microorganisms do not metabolize erythritol and the in vitro incubation of erythritol with Streptococci species does not produce lactic acid or other organic acids (70, 71).

Erythritol is rapidly absorbed in the small intestine by passive diffusion, it is scattered widely through tissues with minimum metabolism, and finally, it is quantitatively excreted in the urine (68). Hence, erythritol does not affect plasma glucose or insulin concentrations or gut microbiota (72, 73). Despite the adjustment and consideration of all the fermentation variables (e.g., gas production, hydrogen accumulation, pH, SCFA production, and substrate degradation), erythritol is completely nonfermentable by freshly collected human fecal microbiota within a period of 24 h (71). Although there is no evidence on the effects of erythritol on gut microbiota in humans in clinical trials, erythritol is considered a safe additive after many specific tests on its toxicity, carcinogenicity, and reproductive hazards were found to be negative (5).

Some doctors tell their diabetic patients to use real sugar but in moderation rather than the artificial type. Denial will lead most people to craving exactly what they should not have but a small serving can help reduce the craving before it gets out of hand. Of my friends whose doctor's have told them to eat a snack including cookies before bed to prevent crashing while asleep all keep foods with regular sugar on hand as a safety precaution.

I bought a bag of Erythritol 5 months ago when I started Keto because I had been watching You Tube Keto influencers make Keto desserts using the sweetener. I know it is made from fruit but I got fat by eating sweet treats and desserts so even though something was made with a zero calorie sweetener it still is a sweet treat and that would put me on a rocky road to wanting and eating more. i was not willing to do that. I am already at a high stroke risk because of my A-Fib so I am happy I never started using the sweetener. I have never drank diet pop, except maybe the odd Tab haha back in the 1970's and that was horrible tasting. Stevia tastes horrible so i would never use that either. Allulose is also made from fruit but Health Canada hasn't approved it yet. I did have some sugar free Jello last week made with Aspartame but not sure if I want to eat it again. If I want something sweet I will eat some fresh raspberries or strawberries with whipped cream if I want to fancy it up. The people that did the research into this suggested more studies need to be done but at least they made us aware of the risk.

Mary all studies of all ASDs show links to issues, but causation is not always proven. I have tons of type one diabetic friends who never touch fake sugar but still eat carbs and the real thing but keep ontop of their insulin are super fit and healthy. now type two is a lot trickier. But natural is always a better choice, ie honey.

I have never used artificial sweeteners in my life and never have drunk diet sodas. I haven't had real soda in 20 years now. Cheeryfizz, I did try Tab back in the 70s, and I agree it was the worse. I think it was made by Coke. I use hardly any regular sugar, but my weakness is salt. That's another subject of the bad effects.

Just remember ALL forms of sugar are not safe. Regular granulated sugar is not safe. Ever since the sugar industry said fat makes you fat and sugar doesn't, diabetes has gone through the roof. Heart disease has sky rocketed. Obesity is at an all time high. Processed foods period are so unhealthy! I remember when grocery stores were small and there was very little in the form of processed food. The cereal aisle was maybe 8 feet long, but now it's the entire length of the aisle. The cookie aisle! OMG! 20' at least! Oreo's in all different flavours.

If you want to eat healthy: shop the OUTSIDE of the store. The only things you really need in the inside aisles are maybe mayo, mustard and ketchup. And the occasional peanut butter...... ;) You really don't need to buy much from the middle aisles.

Buy food with no list of ingredients (fresh fruit and veggies, meat, butter, dairy etc): only whole foods. Bread that isn't white: whole grain is the best as it's the least processed. Your overall health will improve when you go back to basics whichis pretty much what Keto is: back to basics. While I don't listen to my own advice, it's what my parents taught us while still living at home and I didn't listen to them. I was never fat while I lived at home. I've gained and lost 50 pounds so many times............ Those inside aisles are highly addictive. They're made for people who want an easy way out of cooking and baking. The freezers full of premade dinners, lunches and now even breakfasts! You just nuke your meal and your done and they're full of salt for preservatives. So unhealthy!

Artificial sugar is the least of your worries. Processed food in general is bad for you.

roarah's study lists the affects of various sweeteners on the microbiome, but I have no idea whether those are good or bad things. I know xylitol is supposed to have antibiotic properties, but not sure what is good or bad for the gut biome.

I read a blog by a man named Chris Kresser. Here is his take on it:

Does erythritol increase heart attacks and early death?

A recent study found that higher blood levels of erythritol are associated with an increased risk of blood clotting, stroke, heart attack, and death. As is often the case, the media has completely distorted the findings of this study with headlines like “Erythritol increases the risk of heart attacks and stroke, study finds!” But that’s not what the study found at all. It simply determined that people with higher blood levels of erythritol have a greater risk of cardiac events and death. I’ll be covering this in more detail in a blog post or video soon, but in short, there are two big problems with this study. First, the researchers didn’t measure erythritol intake, they only measured levels of erythritol in the blood. This is a huge omission because previous studies have shown that consumption of excess fructose and glucose can lead to elevated serum erythritol levels. Second, correlation is not causation. We don’t yet know if the elevated levels of erythritol in the blood are causing the higher risk of cardiac events, or whether they are simply a marker for another underlying cause (like excess fructose and glucose consumption). Stay tuned for more on this paper soon.