Erythritol sweetener may pose greater health risks than sugar - study

More than half-a-century ago, Prof. John Yudkin – a British nutritionist and physiologist at Queen Elizabeth College in London – shocked the world when he warned that consuming sugar is very dangerous to one’s health as it promotes obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, high blood fats, and dental cavities.

To prove his arguments, Yudkin – who had been raised on the city’s East End by a family that had fled the Russian pogroms of 1905 – published a groundbreaking book in 1972 about glucose entitled Pure, White and Deadly.

In 2016, the prestigious journal JAMA Internal Medicine revealed concealed internal documents proving that in the 1960s, the Sugar Research Foundation acting as a lobbyist on behalf of the industry funded research that downplayed the risks of its lucrative and popular product, instead paying scientists to blame fat for the risks to human health.

Unfortunately, sugar lobbyists derided his findings and tried to ruin Yudkin’s reputation, but years later his book was re-published and praised by objective researchers. A lover of Israel from the early years of the Jewish state, he was asked by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to advise its researchers on the damage caused by sugar – comprised of sucrose and fructose (the latter still widely used around the world in the form of the innocuous-sounding but harmful and pervasive sweetener corn syrup) and was an active governor of HU, leaving most of his antique-book collection to the National Library of Israel.

And China has now been revealed in Tropical Plants as a leading promoter of sugarcane, vital to its economy, by developing a new variety that is high yield and has high sugar content and strong tolerance to drought and cold stress.

AFTER TABLE sugar was discredited, people addicted to sweets were relieved to see the appearance of artificial sweeteners, which they believed were a safe alternative.

However, myriad studies in recent years have presented evidence of harmful side effects associated with the use of these sweeteners – especially aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin, which are all still marketed widely in Israel and around the world.

Erythritol sweetener linked to serious health risks

Among the health problems blamed on artificial sweeteners are gastrointestinal symptoms, insulin and metabolic effects, neurological changes, cardiovascular effects, allergies, headaches, weight gain, depression, and more.

Stevia, which comes from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni), a plant native to South America that for centuries has been consumed with foods and even used as medicine. Hundreds of times sweeter than sugar – commonly known as candyleaf, sweetleaf or sugarleaf – it is available in plant nurseries. Some people complain that its leaves are bitter, so pure stevia sweeteners – most of which are not unadulterated – are made by removing steviol glycosides from the leaves and purifying them. So far, no health damage from the pure plant has been found by scientists.

Although the Health Ministry in Jerusalem is now urging Israelis to stop consuming artificial sweeteners and to drink water instead of beverages sweetened with them, it has not issued an official statement that people should completely stay away from them because they can cause a variety of diseases, and that they have been shown to cause harm to health.

The ministry statement added in response to a query from The Jerusalem Post that, “in general, the Health Ministry recommends avoiding excess sugar and artificial sweeteners. It should be preferred to consume natural food as much as possible over ultra-processed food rich in sugar, saturated fat, salt, and artificial sweeteners.”

Although many countries have placed a tax on these products, the ministry – ruled by the ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Shas Party – canceled such a tax when it came under pressure from this sector because they consume such cheap, sweet drinks in large amounts – as long shelves full of them seen on a visit to any haredi supermarket demonstrate.

NOW, the focus is on erythritol – a type of sweetening carbohydrate that has been synthetically produced since 1990 and is a sugar alcohol popular in food products. Its calorie level is low, and it feels and tastes almost like table sugar. The sweetener has also been claimed by manufacturers and importers to “cut the risk of diabetes and to promote weight loss.” Today, it’s one of the most popular artificial sweeteners sold.

But a growing number of scientific studies now suggest that erythritol could present serious health risks including heart disease, stroke, and even death, and may even be worse for you than table sugar. It can also cause mild-to-severe digestive problems including bloating, cramps, excess gas, and diarrhea if eaten or drunk in large amounts.

A new study at the Cleveland Clinic adds to increasing evidence that erythritol raises cardiovascular risk. At the forefront of modern medicine when it first opened in 1921, the clinic has more than 65,000 doctors, nurses, and other personnel with six million patient visits annually at more than 200 locations.

The study, led by renowned physician/scientist Dr. Stanley Hazen, was done on humans to more directly observe the effects on platelets following erythritol ingestion at a dose typically contained in a “sugarless” soda or muffin. In 20 healthy volunteers, researchers found that the average erythritol level after eating increased over 1,000 times in the group that consumed it compared to their initial levels. Results also revealed that participants showed a significant increase in blood clot formation after consuming the sweet carbohydrate, but no change was observed after consuming glucose.

JUST PUBLISHED in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology under the title “Ingestion of the Non-Nutritive Sweetener Erythritol, but Not Glucose, Enhances Platelet Reactivity and Thrombosis Potential in Healthy Volunteers,” the research adds to increasing evidence that the chemical  may not be as safe as currently classified by food regulatory agencies and should be reevaluated as an ingredient.

“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,” Hazen declared. “These findings underscore the importance of further long-term clinical studies to assess the cardiovascular safety of erythritol and other sugar substitutes.”

The health authorities have been slow to urge caution: Erythritol is on the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) list of foods “Generally Recognized as Safe,” so long-term safety studies of the chemical aren’t required at present.

The new study, whose authors urge that further clinical studies assessing the long-term cardiovascular safety of erythritol are warranted, adds to the team’s previous research published in 2023 in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine showing that heart patients with high levels of the substance  were twice as likely to suffer a major cardiac event in the following three years compared to those with low levels. The study also discovered that adding erythritol to patients’ blood or platelets increased clot formation.

“Cardiovascular disease builds over time, and heart disease is the leading cause of death globally,” Hazen said. “We need to make sure the foods we eat aren’t hidden contributors.”

So let’s limit our consumption of table sugar and artificial sweeteners, and satisfy our craving for sweets with natural alternatives like stevia – for health’s sake.