Major sugar substitute found to impair brain blood vessel cell function
Major sugar substitute found to impair brain blood vessel cell function, posing potential stroke risk
Erythritol may impair cellular functions essential to maintaining brain blood vessel health, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder. Findings suggest that erythritol increases oxidative stress, disrupts nitric oxide signaling, raises vasoconstrictive peptide production, and diminishes clot-dissolving capacity in human brain microvascular endothelial cells.
Erythritol has become a fixture in the ingredient lists of protein bars, low-calorie beverages, and diabetic-friendly baked goods.
Asshole clickbait headline.
Actual article https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/japplphysiol.00276.2025
Just from the abstract caveats:
The study was in vitro (cultured cells).
The study treated it as if ingested erythritol (in a "beverage") was 100% transported to the blood and not diluted by being in a larger volume.
ELI5: What products, specifically, does this impact? Not generic "low-calorie beverages/diabetic friendly baked goods, etc., but is there anything specifically that I should be on alert for?
