Erythritol, a widely used sugar substitute found in many low-carb and sugar-free products, may not be as harmless as once believed. New research from the University of Colorado Boulder reveals that even small amounts of erythritol can harm brain blood vessel cells, promoting constriction, clotting, and inflammation—all of which may raise the risk of stroke.

  • Bubbey@lemmy.worldBanned
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    I always told my buddy who was dieting in college that getting fake sugar sodas isn’t the solution, it’s to stop drinking soda…

    • cheese_greater@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      Not even that, find something healthy that scratches the itch. Your body indicates it wants energy (unless your addicted in which case its the microbiome or something), get it some berries or throw them in some water with lemon juice

      • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        I’ve found that a lot of times when I’m craving something sweet, what I actually want is water. It seems my brain associates sweetness (such as from fruit) with hydration. When I can, I’ll have some fruit. But when fruit’s unavailable, I know I just have to drink more water.

  • Nightsoul@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 month ago

    Just another thing to check labels for, none of the drinks I have contain it which is good

  • daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    This seems interesting because they did some research in the actual mechanism that could create a cause-effect relation. Still need to be repeated to justify legal changes but that’s a good start.

    Much better than these “correlation” studies that say nothing. Like the ones saying “people who doesn’t drink any alcohol die sooner that people who drink a cup of wine each day”, that’s totally faulty for a lot of evident reasons. And until now most artificial sweeteners studies were like that “people who use artificial sweeteners tend to have more health issues”, like with the drink is reasonable to assume and consider that people who do such dietary changes is more likely to already have an underlying health issue that they are trying to cope with and it’s obviously more in risk that healthy people that doesn’t feel the need to control their diet.

    As I said this study seems a little more promising as they did research on the actual mechanisms on which the health issues may happen. I hope it gets repeated enough times and, if needed, the product would be banned or properly labeled.

  • John Richard@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 month ago

    Interesting thing about most sugar substitutes is they actually kill mouth & gut microbiome.

    • testfactor@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      1 month ago

      That seems like an impressively blanket statement when there’s literally dozens of sugar substitutes that are all wildly chemically different. Insane that all of them would kill your mouth and gut microbiome even when they often work in fundamentally different ways.

      • Fetus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        I also don’t have any studies, but I am aware of xylitol being used in toothpaste, chewing gum, etc., usually with the “assists in the prevention of tooth decay” type of tagline.

        • LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 month ago

          I believe that is just because chewing gum increases salivation which helps keep bacteria in check

  • 2910000@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    As long as they don’t find a problem with maltitol. I just discovered “low-sugar” ice creams made using the stuff and they’re amazing

    It’s not zero sugar like erythritol, and it’s not as sweet, but I like it

  • N0x0n@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    Except for those who are diabetic, why would you even choose to eat/drink “sugar-free” food with sugar substitute?That doesn’t even make any sense… Are people that stupid?

    stop industrial sugar based drinks/food completely ! And I know this takes probably away more than 80% of the things you find in stores, but do people still didn’t realized that sugar is add as addictive ingredient? Some claim sugar can be as addictive as cocain…

    I have seen kids drinking coke at a very young age and I can assure you, those substances are not going easy on your brain !!

    https://www.mlb.com/cut4/young-fan-has-the-absolute-best-time-with-her-cotton-candy-c200177238

    And peeps are just laughing and having fun while the drug kicks in… People are just dumb…

    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      Issue is, the same people who push the narrative of “sweetener bad” are either pushing carnivore diet because “humans have canine teeth”, or think diabetic people can still eat cane sugar and/or honey.

    • Tattorack@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      Oh you’re one of those “sugar is a drug” type nonsense spewers.

      Might as well go all the way and say oxygen and water are drugs too.