Erythritol, a widely used sugar substitute found in many low-carb and sugar-free products, may not be as harmless as once believed. New research from the University of Colorado Boulder reveals that even small amounts of erythritol can harm brain blood vessel cells, promoting constriction, clotting, and inflammation—all of which may raise the risk of stroke.
Meh…. It’s a research from the US. Let’s wait till more reputable sources confirm the studies.
fair, but more reputable countries may not have exposed their populations to this poison to begin with
UC Boulder sends like a reputable source to me.
As long as they don’t find a problem with maltitol. I just discovered “low-sugar” ice creams made using the stuff and they’re amazing
It’s not zero sugar like erythritol, and it’s not as sweet, but I like it
Why not just say, “Popular sugar substitute, erythritol…” in the title?
I mean we both know the answer is for clicks
I always told my buddy who was dieting in college that getting fake sugar sodas isn’t the solution, it’s to stop drinking soda…
Not even that, find something healthy that scratches the itch. Your body indicates it wants energy (unless your addicted in which case its the microbiome or something), get it some berries or throw them in some water with lemon juice
I’ve found that a lot of times when I’m craving something sweet, what I actually want is water. It seems my brain associates sweetness (such as from fruit) with hydration. When I can, I’ll have some fruit. But when fruit’s unavailable, I know I just have to drink more water.
Maybe the ultimate answer will turn out to be JUST EAT LESS FUCKING SUGAR.
What even uses this stuff? I only see Acesulfam-k, Sucralose, Stevia.
Edit: i’m european.
It’s commonly sold mixed with stevia or monk fruit
Brand names in the US are Swerve and Truvía. I don’t think it gets added to much in junk food factories, but it is available in packets for tea and such.
Here in Denmark I’ve seen that substance used in gum and sugar free ice-cream.
God damn it, I’ve been using this a lot. It’s almost flavorless except sweet and doesn’t take much to sweeten a large amount of water. I’ve been using the Truvia packets one in a large bottle of water with 1/8 of a teaspoon of crystalized lime or orange ( from a brewer supply co). All the other ones seem to have a chemical aftertaste to me.
Oh well, the second best time to stop is now I suppose.
You probably weren’t taking in enough to do any real damage, but even so - good idea to stop now.
I’m eyeing my waterbottle full of it right now
gonna have to dump it out, super sad, I’m almost out of crystalized lime :(
erythritol was always a not so favored ingredient for me due to the weird cooling mouthfeel and GI effects
now if it turns out that allulose is bad for you, I’m going to be SO UPSET.
Just another thing to check labels for, none of the drinks I have contain it which is good
Damn it it’s in Celsius. Glad I don’t drink it often.
Interesting thing about most sugar substitutes is they actually kill mouth & gut microbiome.
That seems like an impressively blanket statement when there’s literally dozens of sugar substitutes that are all wildly chemically different. Insane that all of them would kill your mouth and gut microbiome even when they often work in fundamentally different ways.
Any evidence for this in Stevia or Monk Fruit?
here’s a pretty good meta-analysis I found of various studies of stevia affecting bacteria in vitro and in vivo
the conclusion this paper comes to seems to be “depends on the species and strain of bacteria”
so just like pretty much anything you eat then.
yes, but I think it warrants further study. some GI issues are related to one or just a few bacterial strains being unbalanced, so it could be extremely useful in treating gut microbiome imbalances to know which strains are negatively impacted by specific sweeteners
conversely if we found any specific sweetener to have a bacteriostatic or bactericidal effect on a strain that is pathological when overly populated (e.g. H. pylori), that could be a super easy way for some people to prevent chronic flare-ups
I also don’t have any studies, but I am aware of xylitol being used in toothpaste, chewing gum, etc., usually with the “assists in the prevention of tooth decay” type of tagline.
Xylitol is different from erythritol, but both are “sugar alcohols” so further study would be needed
I believe that is just because chewing gum increases salivation which helps keep bacteria in check
Erithrol is the sweetener derived from monkfruit.
Comes from corn usually
I did a couple searches and I didn’t see that mentioned. In my searches I read that monk fruit so like 250x sweeter than sugar, so erythritol is used as a “bulking agent” for monk fruit. So I guess they use it to dilute monk fruit and make it more manageable? Idk, I’ve been consuming both for quite a while and this is news to me, going to have to learn more about both.
That makes sense.
I thought xylitol was good for gut biome
We have mouth/gut biome that eats sugar? Seems weird.
Best used as ETN then.
Except for those who are diabetic, why would you even choose to eat/drink “sugar-free” food with sugar substitute?That doesn’t even make any sense… Are people that stupid?
stop industrial sugar based drinks/food completely ! And I know this takes probably away more than 80% of the things you find in stores, but do people still didn’t realized that sugar is add as addictive ingredient? Some claim sugar can be as addictive as cocain…
I have seen kids drinking coke at a very young age and I can assure you, those substances are not going easy on your brain !!
https://www.mlb.com/cut4/young-fan-has-the-absolute-best-time-with-her-cotton-candy-c200177238
And peeps are just laughing and having fun while the drug kicks in… People are just dumb…
Issue is, the same people who push the narrative of “sweetener bad” are either pushing carnivore diet because “humans have canine teeth”, or think diabetic people can still eat cane sugar and/or honey.
Oh you’re one of those “sugar is a drug” type nonsense spewers.
Might as well go all the way and say oxygen and water are drugs too.
