New Cleveland Clinic research indicates that erythritol, a widely used artificial sweetener, may increase the risk of cardiovascular events by enhancing blood clot formation, calling into question its safety and necessitating further long-term studies. Recent research from the Cleveland Clinic indicates that consuming foods containing erythritol, a widely used artificial sweetener, may elevate the risk of cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes. The study, conducted with healthy volunteers, found that erythritol made platelets—blood cells involved in clotting—more active, thereby increasing the likelihood of blood clots.
This effect was not observed with sugar (glucose). Published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology , the research adds to increasing evidence that erythritol may not be as safe as currently classified by food regulatory agencies and should be reevaluated as an ingredient. The study was conducted by a team of Cleveland Clinic researchers as part of a series of investigations on the physiological effects of common sugar substitutes.
“Many professional societies and clinicians routinely recommend that people at high cardiovascular risk – those with obesity, diabetes or metabolic syndrome – consume foods that contain sugar substitutes rather than sugar,” said senior and corresponding author Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.
D., chair of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences in Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute and co-se.