2d ago

Popular sugar substitute linked to brain cell damage and stroke risk

www.sciencedaily.com

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.

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7d ago

Erythritol linked to brain cell damage and stroke risk

www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2025/07/250718035156.htm

90 comments

The authors caution that their study was a laboratory study, conducted on cells, and larger studies in people are needed.
Ok, nice to know, moving on.
- There are other studies using humans, see https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/erythritol-cardiovascular-events
  This sugar substitute is going to be the asbestos of sweeteners in the next few decades. And I find it remarkable it is in so many foods.
  
  Awesome. Drink sugar free energy drink, have stroke.
  
  I took a look at the two most famous colas and two fake colas, and the only sweeteners I was able to find were aspartame, acesulfame K, and sucralose. No sign of erythritol. I wonder if I've ever even seen a beverage with that stuff in it. However, I have seen bags of it sold in supermarkets, so apparently it isn't restricted in that sense.

Why not just say, “Popular sugar substitute, erythritol…” in the title?
- I mean we both know the answer is for clicks

Add the fucking shit to the headline: Spoiler: it's Erythritol

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...
- 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
  
  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.

So what brand is this stuff sold under so that I can speedrun that stroke?
- Truvia in the US.
  
  Cool, I hope they sell it by the pound.
- In America, it's usually branded as "sugar alcohol", and is found in many sweeteners as an additive.
  
  Don't the food labels go into any more detail than that?

Maybe the ultimate answer will turn out to be JUST EAT LESS FUCKING SUGAR.

What even uses this stuff? I only see Acesulfam-k, Sucralose, Stevia.
Edit: i'm european.
- Brand names in the US are Swerve and Truvía. I don't think it gets added to much in junk food factories, but it is available in packets for tea and such.
- Lot of things. Here in Spain I have a big box of sweetener little packages that have "STEVIA" la el big but it's 96% eritriol and only 3% stevia.
- It's commonly sold mixed with stevia or monk fruit

I fucking knew it, this shit made me feel weird all the time.
- If you can, avoid any fake sugar. I love science, but science sugar tricking your brain that something is sweet feels wrong.
  Or not. I'm not a nutritionist I don't know anything about anything.
  
  Actually you could be a nutritionist if you call yourself one since it's not a legally protected term. Dietitian is the actual one that is a protected term.
  
  Thats because it is wrong, youve hit the nail on the head. Anything that is sweet activates certain receptors on your tongue, and that stimulates the production of insulin. That insulin is then going to travel your body looking for sugars to break down. Thing is, insulin only breaks down sugars, not artificial sweeteners. So its going to break down sugars elsewhere in your body or leave free insulin in your blood. That fucks you up good and leads to diabetes.
  ALL ARTIFICAL SWEETENERS ARE BAD, unless you already have diabetes.
  
  Oh I definitely do the best I can, but it's difficult to avoid sometimes, for instance finding a protein bar without any of that stuff and with good other macros is quite a chore. But I opt for real sugar whenever I possibly can.
- Erythritol makes my entire mouth feel like it's on fire as soon as it touches my tongue. My body did me a favor on this one.
  
  you seem sensitive, ive taken stevia subistitute with erythiol, it never caused it. some people have gi problems with it, but it doesnt really bother me for tha tone. there are products with pure stevia in it(but warning pure is not as sweet as the substitutes though, so you might have to use more.

God damn it, I've been using this a lot. It's almost flavorless except sweet and doesn't take much to sweeten a large amount of water. I've been using the Truvia packets one in a large bottle of water with 1/8 of a teaspoon of crystalized lime or orange ( from a brewer supply co). All the other ones seem to have a chemical aftertaste to me.
Oh well, the second best time to stop is now I suppose.
- You probably weren't taking in enough to do any real damage, but even so - good idea to stop now.
  
  I'm eyeing my waterbottle full of it right now
  gonna have to dump it out, super sad, I'm almost out of crystalized lime :(

erythritol was always a not so favored ingredient for me due to the weird cooling mouthfeel and GI effects
now if it turns out that allulose is bad for you, I'm going to be SO UPSET.

Damn it it's in Celsius. Glad I don't drink it often.

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

Meh…. It’s a research from the US. Let’s wait till more reputable sources confirm the studies.
- fair, but more reputable countries may not have exposed their populations to this poison to begin with
- UC Boulder sends like a reputable source to me.

Well shit I use it daily for my coffee and home-made milk tea. Reading all this stuff coming to light about sugar substitutes is gonna make me just go back to regular sugar or maybe coconut sugar, and I’ll just control my intake.
- Honestly, I've had better luck just getting higher quality tea and cutting sugar from morning beverages entirely. (I don't drink coffee, but low quality teas tend to become bitter, which required sugar. Higher quality teas never become bitter)
  These days, I'm cutting sugar across the board. Shredded wheat with frozen raspberries tastes better than honey bunches of oats anyways. And the sugar I'm eating is pretty much just for fun, like pie or ice cream. No reason to accidentally ingest 28g of sugar in a breakfast bar that doesn't even taste that good.
  
  Never got why coffee needs sugar. Its supposed to be bitter. If its too bitter then you may add milk. But sugar? That doesn't belong in coffee.
- You can use Stevia. It's a natural product, zero calories. There is a more expensive option in monk fruit as well. I live on Stevia. It's easily available in groceries and stores, and reasonably priced too.
  
  I do use Stevia. The thing is, all the stevia products I see at the grocery store are laced with erythritol. Does the product you consume exclusively use stevia only?
  
  stevia is not a natural product. there is indeed a plant named stevia and it can be used as a sweetener. Stevia that you buy at the store is chemically produced and is derived through a complex process that uses petroleum based chemistry to extract the chemicals from the plant.
  raw sugar has far less environmental impact than buying stevia. if you truly want a sugar alternative grow your own sugar beets. it's literally raw sugar(sucrose).

Interesting thing about most sugar substitutes is they actually kill mouth & gut microbiome.
- 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.
- Any evidence for this in Stevia or Monk Fruit?
  
  here's a pretty good meta-analysis I found of various studies of stevia affecting bacteria in vitro and in vivo
  the conclusion this paper comes to seems to be "depends on the species and strain of bacteria"
  
  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.
  
  Erithrol is the sweetener derived from monkfruit.
  
  ethrythiol is often mixed with these two, but there are product with solely stevia in it if your interested.
  
  No. I don't have any studies on hand, but the data that I'm aware of says that stevia is one of the small few that actually helps your gut biome. However, too high of a quantity can lead to other issues (I think related to the heart).
  
  Stevia is often blended with it but only lists in the ingredients.
- I thought xylitol was good for gut biome
- We have mouth/gut biome that eats sugar? Seems weird.

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.

Best used as ETN then.

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

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...
- 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.
  
  Meth is bad, Methadone is better then meth - but is not good. People who are not trying to kick a Meth habit shouldn't be taking Methadone.
  Artificial sweeteners are a tool, but they are not without their downsides.

90 comments