A popular artificial sweetener found in keto diet products is increasing heart attack and stroke risk, a new study claimed.
Erythritol is a common substitute for sugar in low-calorie, low-carb and keto diet products, but consumers are more likely to suffer heart attack and strokes.
A keto diet, short for ketogenic, is low in carbohydrates and high in protein. It’s popular among celebrities like Halle Berry, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim Kardashian.
The study published in Nature Medicine found that when scientists added the sweetener to blood platelets – the cell fragments that clump together to stop bleeding – erythritol made platelets clots faster.
Pre-clinical studies supported the American Cleveland Clinic’s revelation that eating the substance causes clots to build faster.
The sweetener is often recommended to manage calorie and sugar consumption in people with obesity, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome, where the former two are combined with high blood pressure.
Labelling requirements are minimal for all artificial sweeteners, and they do not list individual compounds.
Moreover, erythritol is categorised as Generally Recognised As Safe (GRAS) by the US Food and Drug Administration meaning no long-term safety studies are required.
Fermenting corn creates the product which is 70 percent as sweet as sugar, but it is poorly metabolised by the body. Instead it enters the bloodstream and leaves mainly through urine.
Erythritol is produced in the human body naturally and any additional consumption can accumulate.
Likewise, the causes of cardiovascular disease build over time. It is currently the leading cause of death across the globe.
‘Sweeteners like erythritol, have rapidly increased in popularity in recent years but there needs to be more in-depth research into their long-term effects,’ said Dr Stanley Hazen, Department of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Sciences in Lerner Research Institute.
‘Our study shows that when participants consumed an artificially sweetened beverage with an amount of erythritol found in many processed foods, markedly elevated levels in the blood are observed for days – levels well above those observed to enhance clotting risks,’
Researchers recommended further studies to examine the long-term effects of artificial sweeteners in general, and erythritol specifically, on risks for heart attack and stroke, particularly in people at higher risk for cardiovascular disease.
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