Zero calorie sweetener linked to blood clots and risk of heart disease, study finds

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN
5 minute read
Updated 8:09 AM EDT, Thu August 8, 2024

(CNN) — Consuming a drink with erythritol — an artificial sweetener used to add bulk to stevia and monk fruit and to sweeten low-carb keto products — more than doubled the risk of blood clotting in 10 healthy people, according to a new pilot study.

Clots can break off blood vessels and travel to the heart, triggering a heart attack, or to the brain, triggering a stroke. Previous research has linked erythritol to a higher risk of stroke, heart attack and death.

“What is remarkable is that in every single subject, every measure of platelet responsiveness (clotting) went up following the erythritol ingestion,” said lead study author Dr. Stanley Hazen, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute.

Consuming a drink with an equal amount of glucose, or sugar, did not affect blood platelet activity in another group of 10 people, said Hazen, who is also the Jan Bleeksma chair in vascular cell biology and atherosclerosis at the Cleveland Clinic. ... “This is the first direct head-to-head comparison of the effects of ingesting glucose versus ingesting erythritol on multiple different measures of platelet function,” Hazen said. “Glucose doesn’t impact clotting, but erythritol does.”

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