United States: Xylitol, a type of low-calorie sugar that is commonly used in foods and consumer items such as toothpaste and gums, has been found by a new research study to have a relationship with nearly double the risk of heart attacks, stroke, and death for people who use it in large quantities.
More about the research
According to the senior study author, Dr. Stanley Hazen, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, “We gave healthy volunteers a typical drink with xylitol to see how high the levels would get, and they went up 1,000-fold,” as CNN reported.
Moreover, Hazen, who also directs the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Microbiome and Human Health, stated, “When you eat sugar, your glucose level may go up 10% or 20%, but it doesn’t go up a 1,000-fold.”
And “Humankind has not experienced levels of xylitol this high except within the last couple of decades when we began ingesting completely contrived and sugar-substituted processed foods,” he continued.
Blood clot formation triggers heart attack
According to the same researchers, in 2023, they also found similar results associated with another low-calorie sweetener called erythritol, which is added as a bulking sugar in stevia, monkfruit, and keto reduced-sugar products.
Further lab and animal research discussed in both papers indicated that erythritol and Xylitol could affect the blood platelets and make them clot more easily. It is capable of breaking off and moving to the heart and causing a heart attack or to the brain and leading to a stroke.
Based on a new study output conducted on Xylitol, Dr. Matthew Tomey, a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in New York City, who was not involved in the study, cited, “differences in platelet behavior were seen even after a person consumed a modest quantity of xylitol in a drink typical of a portion consumed in real life,” as CNN reported.
Moreover, according to Tomey, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai said, “These experiments are interesting but alone do not prove that platelet abnormalities are to account for a linkage between xylitol and clinical events.”
Rising heart disease problems in Americans
Recent reports by the American Heart Association indicated cardiovascular diseases are likely to affect 61 percent of American adults by the year 2050.
One of the common interventions that cardiologists utilize is lowering clotting activity, so any added clotting in platelets is unwelcome, according to Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver.
Freeman, who was not part of the research, said, “When someone has a heart attack, we give them aspirin or drugs like clopidogrel, or Plavix, to counter platelet activity. These sugar alcohols appear to be enhancing platelet activity, which is concerning.”
“This is another warning we ought to switch to water, with a close second being unsweetened tea or coffee,” he continued.
Know more about Xylitol
A sugar substitute that is actually sweeter than sugar and has slightly more than half the calories as sugar, Xylitol is used in sugarless gum, breath mints, toothpaste, mouthwash, cough syrup and chewable vitamins.
It is usually used in higher concentrations in sweets, bread, pastries, cake mixes, barbecue sauces, tomato sauce, peanut butter, milk puddings, maple syrup, etc.
Moreover, Xylitol is a sugar alcohol—a carbohydrate that is a naturally occurring compound present in plant materials, which includes cauliflower, eggplant, lettuce, mushrooms, spinach, plums, raspberries, and strawberries, among others.
But, Hazen added, there is just a tiny speck of Xylitol in such natural resources as fruits.
He said, “If you actually do the calculation, it literally takes a tonnage of fruit to be equivalent to one diabetic cookie that can have like nine grams of xylitol, which is a typical label amount,” and, “It would be like eating salt at the level of a salt lick.”
Commercially, Xylitol is produced with the help of corncobs, birch trees, or genetically engineered bacteria.
Hazen said, “It’s sold as a so-called natural sweetener, and because xylitol doesn’t spike blood sugar levels, it’s also marketed as low carb and keto friendly.”