Two chemicals that help regulate blood clots are affected by a common sugar alcohol found in protein bars and zero-sugar energy drinks, researchers have found.

It’s sugar alcohol, erythritol.

  • illusionist@lemmy.zip
    5·
    2 days ago

    DeSouza noted that, although deeper clinical research would be needed, his lab’s findings could be deemed conservative given that only a single serving amount of erythritol was tested in their study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Someone who routinely guzzles zero-sugar energy drinks or pounds multiple low-calorie protein bars in a single day, in other words, could possibly experience a more extreme version of these effects.

    They tested a single dose?

    If they prove erytrol to be toxic, why is it still legal? Maybe it’s not so deadly as they write.

    • Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world
      10·
      2 days ago

      There are several caveats/nuances:

      1. They applied the dose (6mM, or 0.7g/L, which they say is equivalent to a one time 30 gram dose) directly to a monoculture of cells present in the brain vasculature and exposed them for 24 hours. I don’t have time to look this up in detail but I imagine not all erythritol ends up in the brain and it should not last for 24 hours in the blood due to your metabolism. Other cells might also play a role in buffering the effect.
      2. Your body makes erythritol itself in response to stressors such as obesity. I did not see comparison of normal blood levels versus blood levels after consumption.
      3. Monocultures in the lab are always more stressed out and responsive to stressors than the cells in your body, so while they give indications of effect and pathways, they are really bad for estimating dose-response
        • Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world
          1·
          2 days ago

          To add to this, in the eu the recommended daily dose is max 0.5g/kilo bodyweight, so around 35 grams for adult male, and this is only based on short term adverse effects on intestines.

        • Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world
          1·
          2 days ago

          They are making bold claims, but looking at other literature too (linked by savethetuahawk) I would still advice against eating a lot of it. Many of these artificial sweeteners have not been in use for long enough for us to know the long-term effects of consumption and this paper is just one piece of the puzzle for figuring it out.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caEnglish
        23·
        2 days ago

        But this corroborates with 2023 actual clinical data that shows erythritol consumption increases stroke risk.

        https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36849732/

        These sugar alcohols affect blood clotting at very low levels naturally.

        Everytime people publish data about additives, the Internet rushes to ignore because it doesn’t want to hear what it doesn’t want to hear because they want to eat candy bars with no consequences.

        • Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world
          1·
          2 days ago

          I’m not trying to ignore anything. I was just saying the conclusions of the linked article could not be made based solely on the paper they quote. Critical review of these types of articles are needed so we don’t make any exaggerated positive or negative claims. Thanks for linking the other paper!