United Kingdom: A new study has found that a sugar replacement called erythritol, used to add bulk or sweeten stevia, monkfruit, and keto-reduced-sugar products, may increase the risks of blood clotting, stroke, heart attack, and death.
“The degree of risk was not modest,” the lead study author, Dr. Stanley Hazen, director of the Centre for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, commented.
According to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, people with existing risk factors for heart disease, such as diabetes, were twice as likely to experience a heart attack or stroke if they had the highest levels of erythritol in their blood.
“If your blood level of erythritol was in the top 25 percent compared to the bottom 25 percent, there was about a two-fold higher risk for heart attack and stroke. It’s on par with the strongest of cardiac risk factors, like diabetes,” Mr. Hazen remarked.
The research analysis presented in the paper revealed that erythritol appeared to be causing blood platelets to clot more readily. Clots can break off and travel to the heart, leading to a heart attack, or to the brain, triggering a stroke.
“This certainly sounds an alarm,” Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health, a hospital in Denver, commented on the research.
“There appears to be a clotting risk from using erythritol. Obviously, more research is needed, but in an abundance of caution, it might make sense to limit erythritol in your diet for now,” Mr. Freeman added.
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