this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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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.

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[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 88 points 4 days 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.

[–] SheeEttin@lemmy.zip 60 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)
[–] toofpic@lemmy.world 34 points 4 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] toofpic@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

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

[–] onslaught545@lemmy.zip 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days 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.

[–] toofpic@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

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

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] toofpic@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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?

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days 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.

[–] MrQuallzin@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That section didn't appear for me, I think you might be using some client that fetches the summary from the target site?

[–] protist@mander.xyz 7 points 4 days ago

Didn't appear for me on Connect either

[–] xep@fedia.io 7 points 4 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

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).

[–] xep@fedia.io 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

☺️💨✨✨

[–] stankmut@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days 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.

[–] PlantJam@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

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

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Wouldn't the original sin be sugar?

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

Hm, I guess. 😄

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days 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.

[–] TomMasz@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

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

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub -4 points 4 days ago

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