If you’re trying to avoid sugar in your diet, you’ll want to be careful about how you choose and use your artificial sweeteners. A study led by physiologists from the University of Colorado Boulder shows that a popular sugar substitute called erythritol could increase your risk of suffering a stroke.
That’s a bummer because erythritol has practically zero calories, works well as an ingredient for keto baking recipes, and is relatively affordable and easily available. It was approved by the FDA as a food additive back in 2001, so it’s been around for over a couple of decades now.
So what’s this about an increased risk of stroke? The researchers wanted to closely examine how erythritol affects the functioning of blood vessels at the cellular level – specifically, brain microvascular endothelial cells, found in small blood vessels in the brain that regulate blood flow and prevent clots.
The team’s in vitro model involved growing these cells and exposing them for three hours to a dose of erythritol equivalent to 30 g – the amount you’d find in a typical sweetened beverage. The results were concerning, to say the least.
Erythritol caused four key effects in the endothelial cells:
- An increase in oxidative stress, which signals damage to the cells.
- Reduced production of nitric oxide, which enables normal blood flow.
- Greater production of a blood vessel-constricting peptide.
- Impairment in the release of an enzyme responsible for dissolving blood clots.
These changes all point to a higher chance of ischemic stroke, and potentially greater severity of the condition too.
This is the latest in a growing body of evidence that erythritol may not be the best option for replacing sugar in your pantry. A major 2023 study linked the sweetener to a greater risk of heart attack and stroke; another from 2024 found it may “acutely stimulate a direct clot-forming effect,” with participants exhibiting more proteins responsible for platelet clumping in their bloodstream.
So, yeah, things are looking bad for erythritol. It’s also often added to monk fruit sweetener, which means even if you’re making a better choice, you could still be putting yourself at risk.
It’s worth noting that this study was conducted in a single instance in vitro, so it may not accurately depict how the sweetener might affect the blood vessel cells in living persons with different health factors and consumption habits. The results were published last week in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
Lead researcher Auburn Berry echoed the conclusions from previous studies. “While erythritol is widely used in sugar-free products marketed as healthier alternatives, more research is needed to fully understand its impact on vascular health,” he said. “In general, people should be conscious of the amount of erythritol they are consuming on a daily basis.”
Source: American Physiological Society via PsyPost
