Is Your Sugar Substitute Increasing Your Heart Attack Risk?

Erythritol, a low-calorie sweetener, makes blood more likely to clot. This could explain why it has been related to a higher risk of heart attack and stroke in prior human studies.

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Erythritol: Sugar Alternative Used to Sweeten Chewing Gums and Bakes Goods

Erythritol is a sugar alcohol found in low concentrations in fruits and vegetables that is approximately 70% sweeter than sugar. Our bodies also manufacture the chemical in modest quantities. According to Stanley Hazen of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, it contains nearly no calories. It is a popular sugar alternative, particularly in the United States and Europe. For decades, erythritol has been used to sweeten chewing gum, beverages, and baked goods.

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Does Erythritol- the Low-Calorie Sweetener - Affect Heart Health?

While regulatory organizations such as the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Food Safety Authority have long deemed erythritol safe, a growing body of evidence suggests it may impair heart health. A recent study by Hazen and colleagues found that patients with high amounts of the chemical in their blood had twice the chance of having a heart attack or stroke than those with lower concentrations. Animal studies have also shown that erythritol can promote blood coagulation.

To investigate if the same was true for people, Hazen and his colleagues took blood samples from 10 volunteers before and 30 minutes after they drank water containing 30 grams of erythritol, which is roughly the usual amount consumed daily in the United States. They repeated the procedure in a separate group of ten persons, replacing the erythritol with 30 grams of sugar. The individuals had no underlying medical problems.

The researchers tested two chemicals at varied amounts to prime blood for clotting. This allowed them to compare their sensitivity to clotting before and after consuming sugar and erythritol.

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Erythritol Linked with Higher Blood Clotting Risk

They discovered that in all studies, those who consumed erythritol had much higher blood clotting risk than before. The samples of those who consumed erythritol also had larger quantities of chemicals that blood cells produce during clotting. Meanwhile, sugar had no noticeable effect on blood coagulation.

These data suggest that erythritol, but not sugar, increases the risk of blood clots, adds Hazen. This is concerning, given that medical advice frequently suggests that individuals replace sugar with low-calorie sweeteners such as erythritol, he says. "I would argue it is a safer to drink a [sugar]-sweetened drink than an erythritol-sweetened drink in a patient at risk for clotting and having a heart attack or stroke," according to Hazen.

However, Alice H. Lichtenstein of Tufts University in Massachusetts believes that more research is needed to assess the risk vs benefit of low-calorie sweeteners against sugar, as the latter contributes to additional health issues such as obesity and dental cavities.

Reference:

1. Ingestion of the Non-Nutritive Sweetener Erythritol, but Not Glucose, Enhances Platelet Reactivity and Thrombosis Potential in Healthy Volunteers - (https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/ATVBAHA.124.321019)

Source-Medindia