this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2026
51 points (98.1% liked)

Fitness

4797 readers
22 users here now

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
odin@lemmy.world
sacbuntchris@lemmy.world
51
Popular Sweetener Found in Protein Bars Tied to Stroke, Blood Clot Risk (gizmodo.com)
submitted 5 days ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/fitness@lemmy.world
10 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

It's sugar alcohol, erythritol.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

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
[–] illusionist@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Thank you a lot for elaborating on it. Sounds like they are just spreading FUD.

[–] Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world 1 points 4 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 points 4 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.ca -1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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 2 points 4 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!