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Artificial sweeteners, including those advertised as natural, are under new scrutiny after a report from the Cleveland Clinic linking one such substance, erythritol, with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that’s 70% as sweet as sugar, with few calories and little impact on blood sugar. Due to this, it has gained purchase as a sweetener in low-carb, sugar-free and ketogenic diet products, although it is not required to be listed on a product’s ingredient label.
The Cleveland Clinic report released Monday in the journal Nature Medicine studied over 4,000 Americans and Europeans and found that higher blood erythritol levels corresponded to the higher heart risks.
The research team was initially looking to see which, if any, chemicals in the blood could be tied to a future risk of a patient heart attack.
