Erythritol, a sweetener often added to diet products such as Truvia, may contribute to clogged arteries and strokes, a new study suggests.
High blood levels of erythritol seemed to lower the threshold for triggering a clot. It is too early to definitively say that erythritol causes problems for people who consume it regularly. Initial safety studies on erythritol looked only at short-term exposure and found the body cleared it quickly. Erythritol is also an ingredient [ in the sweetener Truvia](https://www.truvia.com/why-truvia#:~:text=Three%20Ingredients.&text=Truvia%20Calorie%2Dfree%20Stevia%20Sweetener,and%20extract%20its%20natural%20sweetness.). But there's no question eating food with the sweetener in it will dramatically boost blood levels. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input. They looked for chemical signatures in the blood and tracked who had a heart attack, stroke or died over the next three years. Hiller said the U.S. "It predicts your risk for developing disease," Field said. Animal and lab studies reinforced the idea that erythritol might cause clots, said Dr. Roughly half of treated people have this so-called residual cardiovascular risk. People with the highest level of the sugar substitute erythritol in their blood were shown to have twice the risk for stroke, blood clot or death compared with those with the lowest level.
The no-calorie sweetener erythritol, popular for the keto diet and known as Truvia, may increase the risk of blood clots, heart attack, and stroke.
Hazen adds that additional trials are needed on the long-term effects of artificial sweeteners in general, and erythritol specifically. But now that we know, we think some cautionary alarms need to go up, and we need to study it to evaluate its safety,” he says. “From a public health standpoint, we should require labeling so that people can be informed and choose,” he says. “One way to do this is by cutting out sugary drinks such as carbonated beverages and replacing them with water or unsweetened tea. While studying different compounds that naturally occur in the blood to see if any predicted later heart attack or stroke, the scientists discovered that people with naturally high levels of erythritol — which our bodies produce naturally as a byproduct of metabolism — appeared to be at higher risk. The study had several limitations, including that observation studies demonstrate association and not causation. A lot of people with underlying cardiac risk factors have been consuming products sweetened with erythritol because they believed it would somehow reduce those risks, he says. That puts this on par with the same risk of the strongest of the cardiac risk factors, such as having diabetes. Researchers then turned their focus on erythritol and measured it in nearly 3,000 participants in the United States and Europe. They found that erythritol made platelets easier to activate and form a clot. After being consumed, erythritol is poorly metabolized by the body. [Mandeep Kainth, MD](https://doctors.stonybrookmedicine.edu/provider/Mandeep+S+Kainth/2304320), associate director of preventive cardiology at the Stony Brook Heart Institute in Stony Brook, New York.
The study first published in Nature Medicine found that higher levels of erythritol were found among patients who experienced a major adverse cardiovascular ...
“That’s true whether it’s in soda, sweet tea, fruit drinks, packs of sugar or sugar substitute for coffee or tea, or artificially sweetened flavor packets for water,” Taylor said to the Cleveland Clinic. Taylor also suggests looking for other sugar substitutes like Stevia-based sweeteners that are herbal as opposed to artificial. The American Heart Association Food and Drug Administration (FDA.) Researchers caution that more research is needed. [naturally](https://www.fda.gov/media/132946/download) found in fruits such as watermelons, pears and grapes, but has since been processed as a [food](https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/food) additive used to sweeten and enhance the flavor of foods, [according](https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/high-intensity-sweeteners) to the U.S.
A sugar replacement used in many stevia, monk-fruit, keto and other reduced-sugar products marketed for weight loss and diabetes has been linked to stroke, ...
“Thirty grams was enough to make blood levels of erythritol go up a thousandfold,” Hazen said. “He found a ‘confectionery’ marketed to people with diabetes that had about 75 grams of erythritol.” About three-quarters of the participants in all three populations had coronary disease or high blood pressure, and about a fifth had diabetes, Hazen said. For example, if the trigger is only 10%, then you only get 10% of a clot. To do so, the team began analyzing 1,157 blood samples in people at risk for heart disease collected between 2004 and 2011. “Some of the diabetes-labeled foods we looked at had more erythritol than any other item by weight.” The bulk of the product is erythritol, which adds the sugar-like crystalline appearance and texture consumers expect. It has about 70% of the sweetness of sugar and is considered zero-calorie, “There appears to be a clotting risk from using erythritol,” Freeman said. Additional lab and animal research presented in the paper revealed that erythritol appeared to be causing blood platelets to clot more readily. It’s on par with the strongest of cardiac risk factors, like diabetes,” Hazen said. “The degree of risk was not modest,” said lead study author Dr.
The sweetener, called erythritol, caused blood clots in mice and and is linked with higher numbers of deaths in people.
When eight volunteers considered at low risk of heart attack or stroke consumed food and drinks containing 30 grams of erythritol – such as half a litre of low-carb ice cream – their blood levels of the sweetener jumped from about 4 micromoles (a measure of concentration) to about 6000 micromoles, and remained high for several hours. Hazen and his colleagues discovered that those in the quarter with the highest levels of erythritol had a higher risk of heart attack or stroke than those in the lowest quarter, over three years. “Everything suggests this is not just an innocent bystander, it’s directly causing an enhancement in the reactivity of blood platelets,” says Hazen. As what is termed “observational research”, the studies didn’t prove that erythritol was causing the higher risk – something else could explain the correlation. The claim comes after researchers spotted a correlation between cardiovascular problems and the concentration of erythritol in the blood. The two studies looked at people who were at risk of these events because of health factors such as being overweight or having diabetes.
Though marketed as a healthy artificial sweetener, erythritol was still associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in various observational studies.
Treated as a continuous variable, plasma erythritol level was independently associated with MACE across the discovery (n=1,157) and the U.S. [adverse cardiometabolic phenotypes,opens in a new tab or window](https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/endo/71882) such as weight gain, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and CVD, including atherothrombotic complications and cardiovascular mortality. Hazen and colleagues acknowledged that erythritol was assessed just once as an overnight fasting level at the time of enrollment, with no serial measurements available. Targeted metabolomics analyses showed an approximate doubling of risk for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) among people with the highest plasma levels of erythritol in two independent validation cohorts, one in the U.S. "Upon ingestion, erythritol is poorly metabolized and mostly excreted in the urine. Randomized clinical trials examining their long-term safety have not been performed, even for earlier adopted forms such as aspartame and sucralose, the authors said.
New Cleveland Clinic research showed that erythritol, a popular artificial sweetener, is associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
“It is important that further safety studies are conducted to examine the long-term effects of artificial sweeteners in general, and erythritol specifically, on risks for heart attack and stroke, particularly in people at higher risk for cardiovascular disease.” The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. “Our study shows that when participants consumed an artificially sweetened beverage with an amount of erythritol found in many processed foods, markedly elevated levels in the blood are observed for days – levels well above those observed to enhance clotting risks,” said Dr. [Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D.](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/staff/2509-stanley-hazen), chairman for the Department of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Sciences in Lerner Research Institute and co-section head of Preventive Cardiology at Cleveland Clinic. and Europe and found those with higher blood erythritol levels were at elevated risk of experiencing a major adverse cardiac event such as heart attack, stroke or death. [Cleveland Clinic](https://my.clevelandclinic.org) research showed that erythritol, a popular artificial sweetener, is associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
Doctors are issuing a warning about a certain artificial sweetener that a Cleveland Clinic study reveals could increase the risk of a heart attack or ...
[Learn more about our streaming options here.](https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/the-news-5-user-guide-how-to-use-news-5-every-day-to-stay-informed) [Download the News 5 Cleveland app](https://www.news5cleveland.com/about-us/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-news-5-app) now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. [Roku,](https://www.rokuguide.com/channels/newschannel5) [Apple TV,](https://www.apple.com/tv/) [Amazon Fire TV,](https://www.amazon.com/Scripps-Media-Inc-News-Cleveland/dp/B07796DV1D) YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. Download now on your [Apple device here](https://go.skimresources.com/?id=88890X1542025&xs=1&isjs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fid487296004%3Fign-mpt%3Duo%253D8&xguid=01D7J65X5EXAXEF3QBFB8R1TP6&xuuid=ddb689af5189547a572a5c32945be0ab&xsessid=&xcreo=0&xed=0&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.news5cleveland.com%2Fabout-us%2Feverything-you-need-to-know-about-the-news-5-app&xtz=240&jv=13.18.0-stackpath&bv=2.5.1), and your [Android device here.](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mylocaltv.wews&hl=en) It is currently “Generally Recognized as Safe” by the FDA, meaning there is no requirement for long-term safety studies. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic looked studied over 4,000 people in U.S.
The popular artificial sweetener erythritol, which is used as a sugar substitute in many low-calorie, low-carb and keto products, has been linked to ...
The incidence of conditions such as obesity and diabetes is rising at a rate “much faster than they would if this was just genetic,” Neely said. Still, some maintain that such associations are a product of the lifestyle of people who consume these sweeteners, not the sweeteners themselves. “Cardiovascular disease builds over time, and heart disease is the leading cause of death globally,” he said. “We need to make sure the foods we eat aren’t hidden contributors.” One 2019 study suggested that drinking artificially sweetened soft drinks was associated with [ increased deaths from circulatory disease](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/10/common-artificial-sweetener-might-be-making-you-fatter-sicker-new-study-says/?itid=lk_inline_manual_20). But when it is artificially added to processed foods, it is seen at levels “1,000 fold higher than endogenous levels,” the researchers wrote. “Sugar-free” products with erythritol are often recommended to individuals with obesity, diabetes or metabolic syndrome — who are already at risk for such cardiovascular health problems, the paper’s authors note. Many foods that claim to be naturally flavored, such as keto cookies and granola, contain erythritol. Still, the results offer a significant challenge to product marketing that pitches erythritol as a healthy, natural sugar alternative. “So we know our environment is driving these diseases somehow, and the industrialization of our food is one critical component we need to consider.” [43 percent over two years](https://nielseniq.com/global/en/insights/analysis/2022/sweeteners-are-about-much-more-than-taste/), and products that claim to contain “natural sweeteners” [grew by 91 percent](https://nielseniq.com/global/en/insights/analysis/2022/room-for-dessert-the-relationship-between-the-wellness-movement-and-sugar-alternatives/). Researchers caution that more study is necessary and that participants independently had a high prevalence of cardiovascular disease, so the “translatability” of the findings to the general population needs to be determined.
The sweetener erythritol is used in low-calorie, low-carbohydrate and "keto" products as a replacement for sugar. See what the Cleveland Clinic discovered ...
“It is important that further safety studies are conducted to examine the long-term effects of artificial sweeteners in general, and erythritol specifically, on risks for heart attack and stroke, particularly in people at higher risk for cardiovascular disease.” They found that erythritol made platelets easier to activate and form a clot, the Clinic said. The Clinic researchers examined the effects of adding erythritol to either whole blood or isolated platelets, which are cell fragments that clump together to stop bleeding and contribute to blood clots. Labeling requirements for sweeteners are minimal and often do not list individual compounds, the Clinic said. [cleveland.com](http://cleveland.com/) [Elon Musk rips ‘racist’ media on Twitter over response to ‘Dilbert’ creator’s remarks](https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2023/02/elon-musk-rips-racist-media-on-twitter-over-response-to-dilbert-creators-remarks.html) [Chick-fil-A location bans children under 16 from dining room in response to bad behavior](https://www.cleveland.com/business/2023/02/chick-fil-a-location-bans-children-under-16-from-dining-room-in-response-to-bad-behavior.html) [‘Sedition Panda’ nabbed by FBI, charged for role in Jan. “Cardiovascular disease builds over time, and heart disease is the leading cause of death globally,” Hazen said. Erythritol is about 70% as sweet as sugar and is produced through fermenting corn. While the Clinic’s observation studies demonstrated association, they did not determine causation. The human body creates low amounts of erythritol naturally, so any additional consumption can accumulate. Stanley Hazen,](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/staff/2509-stanley-hazen) said in [a statement from the Clinic](https://newsroom.clevelandclinic.org/2023/02/27/cleveland-clinic-study-finds-common-artificial-sweetener-linked-to-higher-rates-of-heart-attack-and-stroke/). Hazen is chair of the Department of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Sciences in the Lerner Research Institute and co-section head of Preventive Cardiology at Cleveland Clinic. The erythritol goes into the bloodstream and leaves the body mainly through urine.
Cleveland Clinic researcher, other experts will stay away from it after he found that people with the highest level in their blood had twice the risk of ...
High blood levels of erythritol seemed to lower the threshold for triggering a clot. It’s too early to definitively say erythritol causes problems for people who consume it regularly. Initial safety studies on erythritol looked only at short-term exposure and found the body cleared it quickly. For the study, published in Nature Medicine, his team collected blood from 1,157 volunteers undergoing cardiac risk assessment. Erythritol is also an ingredient in the sweetener Truvia. Animal and lab studies reinforced the idea that erythritol might cause clots, said Dr.
The findings come from a preliminary study and health experts offered varying opinions to Stat News about how consumers should react to the potential risk.
Some of the biggest makers of cereals, frozen and packaged food have submitted dozens of claims to the Food and Drug Administration objecting to new rules that would exclude food with high amounts of added sugar and salt from being labeled as "healthy" on packaging. People with the highest level of the sugar substitute erythritol in their blood were shown to have twice the risk for stroke, blood clot or death compared with those with the lowest level. Some said people at heart attack risk should avoid the sugar substitute outright, while others worry about the dangers of other sugar-heavy products.
Erythritol, a zero-calorie sugar substitute, is linked to higher risk of heart attack, stroke and death, according to a new study.
"Cardiovascular disease builds over time, and heart disease is the leading cause of death globally. "Our study shows that when participants consumed an artificially sweetened beverage with an amount of erythritol found in many processed foods, markedly elevated levels in the blood are observed for days — levels well above those observed to enhance clotting risks," said Dr. The research, published Monday in the journal Sweeteners like erythritol have "rapidly increased in popularity in recent years," Hazen noted, and the researchers say more in-depth study is needed to understand their long-term health effects. In response to the study, Robert Rankin, executive director of the Calorie Control Council, an international association representing the low- and reduced-calorie food and beverage industry, told CBS News the results are "contrary to decades of scientific research showing low- and no-calorie sweeteners like erythritol are safe, as evidenced by global regulatory permissions for their use in foods and beverages, and should not be extrapolated to the general population, as the participants in the intervention were already at increased risk for cardiovascular events." Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic studied over 4,000 people in the U.S.
A popular artificial sweetener, erythritol, could raise the risk of heart attack and stroke, a new study from Cleveland Clinic revealed.
[CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP](https://www.foxnews.com/apps-products?pid=AppArticleLink) [overweight or have diabetes](https://www.foxnews.com/category/health/diabetes), this puts them at a greater risk for heart problems to begin with," she told Fox News Digital in an email. [HEART-HEALTHY FOODS: 15 ITEMS TO ADD TO YOUR GROCERY LIST TO PREVENT HEART DISEASE, OTHER HEALTH CONCERNS](https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/list-foods-help-heart-health) Department of Health and Human Services) to limit added sugars to less than 10% of total daily calories — and to use all sweeteners, both caloric and non-calorie, in moderation. "Cardiovascular disease builds over time, and heart disease is the leading cause of death globally. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved erythritol for safe consumption in 2001. [improving long-term health](https://www.foxnews.com/health)," she said. [CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER](https://www.foxnews.com/newsletters?cmpid=fnfirstnl) [BE WELL: ADD AN EGG (OR 3) TO YOUR DAILY DIET FOR HEART HEALTH](https://www.foxnews.com/health/be-well-add-egg-3-daily-diet-heart-health) The World Health Organization (WHO) approved it in 1999. [could include stroke](https://www.foxnews.com/category/health/nervous-system-health/stroke), heart attack or death. [heart attack and stroke](https://www.foxnews.com/category/health/heart-health), a new study from the Cleveland Clinic revealed.
A recent study suggests that the sweetener erythritol, found in many foods, may put us more at risk for blood clots, and thus for heart attack and stroke.
One concerning fact is that the foods that contain erythritol and other polyols are often marketed to people who are already at risk of thrombosis. Erythritol (and other polyols) are also found in foods that are sweetened but where the manufacturers want to keep the calorie count or the sugar content low. Small amounts of erythritol are also found naturally in fruits, and are even made by our own bodies. Polyols can have a laxative effect, by the way, which is why you don’t want to eat too much of foods that are sweetened with them. Otherwise you’d have to find a way to get just a few tiny specks of the stuff into your coffee. So what is erythritol, and what are the chances you ate something containing it today?