Popular Artificial Sweetener Linked to Higher Risk of Strokes (www.newsweek.com)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

From low-carb ice cream and keto protein bars to "sugar-free" soda, the artificial sweetener erythritol has become a staple for anyone trying to cut calories or carbs.

However, new research suggests the popular sugar substitute may come with serious downsides—including changes in brain blood vessels that could increase the risk of stroke.

all 28 comments

sorted by: hot top new old

[-] [email protected] 89 points 1 week ago

"...linked to higher risk of strokes."

No. To link it to a higher risk of strokes, you would need to find more strokes than expected in people consuming it vs those who don't, after accounting for confounding factors.

What this study found was that human cerebral microvascular endothelial cells in culture change gene expression when exposed to the sweetener.

Prior studies suggest an epidemiological link to strokes, but the way this is reported is trash.

[-] [email protected] 60 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Erythritol.

Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40459966/

[-] [email protected] 37 points 1 week ago

It's a fucking clickbait to not include the name of the sweetener

[-] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago

It is included though?

[-] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago

Newsweek isn't great. It's a sugar alcohol, Erythritol

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Damn, I used it in my cider. Gotta read up on this

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Read the study abstract in one of the other comments here, it's based on a single serving of soda. Seems kinda bad, which is interesting because the sugar alcohols are generally benign. They're non nutritive but most don't cause any problems except stomach upset in some people. I find they have an off taste, many people do not though.

Edit: can brewing yeasts feed on it? Or are you using it to adjust sweetness level? My brewing experience is limited, I have only used wild yeasts and a few of the Safale strains

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

It's not actually a conclusive study. It was cells in a petri dish.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Yes, it was in vitro. Still interesting, and I would imagine will lead to further study.

As I said in the other comment the sugar alcohols are generally benign, I had not read anything to the contrary before.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I know for cider making, that the yeast are not eating it.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

You're using it as a non-fermentable sweetener, like lactose? I never thought of that. How are you finding it for dissolving in cider, I've found erithrytol to be really hard to dissolve and it precipitates back out.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

I`m kind of a noob, and I just did a couple small batches, then divided to have sweetened and unsweetened versions (I like semi-dry - semi-sweet, but I keep some dry stuff to know how it tastes naturally), and everything seemed fine. What is your choice then?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I'm just used to seeing lactose as the only backsweetener, but I imagine erythritol should work. Might have to give it a try. I was just making sure you didn't make any bottle bombs because it unexpectedly fermented or something.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Personal gripe but I've never agreed with the term artificial sweetener, they are genuinely sweet, is it because they aren't sucrose/fructose/glucose?

Either way I remember reading about Erythritol from a study on nature.com a while ago. It's one of the unfortunate low-caloric sweeteners that are still linked to obesity and all the problems related to that condition. Best avoided to be on the safe side.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Non-nutritive sweetener is the more correct name for it, since some are somewhat natural, like stevia.

Sorbitol (the one that’s famous for releasing hellspawn from your anus when you eat to many sugar free gummy bears) is actually naturally occurring in small quantities in most fruits and larger quantities in prunes (why they make you poop).

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

Thank you for that colourfully described nugget of information. Username checks out...

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

☺️💨✨✨

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

My personal experience is that eating sweets makes me crave more sweets, artificial sweetener or not.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

They aren't artificially sweet, they are a sweetener that is artificial (man-made). As opposed to natural sweeteners that you can just grab from nature.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

At some point it would turn out that the original sin, aspartame, is the least bad of them all.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Wouldn't the original sin be sugar?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Hm, I guess. 😄

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

astpartame is one of the most intensely studied additives and the worst they can come up with is "it might slightly raise the risk of cancer", which also applies to being on an airplane.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yeah, which is why I prefer it to any of the much less studied alternatives, if I have to use artificial sweetener. It's funny how that works.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Erythritol, like other sugar alcohols, is also bad for folks with IBS. And it seems like they're in everything.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

This has been known for a little bit. The good news is I’ve seen several products drop the ingredient already.

this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025

85 points (100.0% liked)

science

20487 readers

323 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]