Artificial sweeteners exploded in the 1980s and now 13 are approved by the FDA.
In the quest for a healthier lifestyle, many of us have turned to these zero-calorie, sugar-free, fat-free choices as a guilt-free alternative to sugar. But are they really all that good for us?
Recent research is shedding light on the potential dangers of these sugar stand-ins.
“The World Health Organization says that aspartame is a possible carcinogen,” said Dr. Dale Shepard, an oncologist at Cleveland Clinic.
But Shepard also says it would take more than 20 diet sodas a day to have an impact. However, we may be consuming more than we know.
“You’re allowed to put it in food, and you also don’t have to actually indicate the total amounts that you’re putting in the food,” explained Dr. Stanley Hazen, a preventative cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic.
Hazen is part of a new study in the Journal Nature Medicine detailing the risks of the sugar substitute erythritol.
“We show that erythritol provokes heightened clotting risk, things like heart attack and stroke,” Hazen said.
When healthy volunteers drank a soda with erythritol for four consecutive days, their plasma and blood levels went up over a thousand-fold.
So where do you find erythritol? It’s really popular in keto diets.
“If you reach for that keto ice cream, that pint of keto ice cream can have, literally, 30 to 50 grams of erythritol in it,” Hazen said. “And after you eat that for the next two days or more, you’ll be at least double the risk for a heart attack or stroke.”
Erythritol has been granted a status called Gras by the FDA.
“What that means is it really didn’t have to have a lot of safety studies. Frankly, I would argue that erythritol is more dangerous than drugs that we take,” Hazen said.
The American Heart Association recommends that people limit their intake of artificial sweeteners.
Hazen is calling for more studies and a change in regulations and labeling so everyone can know what they’re eating. Previous studies have linked aspartame to an increased risk of cancer, while erythritol has been shown to cause digestive issues in some people.
So, if you need to sweeten something, stick with a little bit of sugar or honey until more is known.