Probably Should Ease Up on the Erythritol

[Recusant]

Artificial sweeteners are a boon to many. Prominently, diabetics and dieters. I remember a brief period when Kool-Aid came in pre-sweetened packets using cyclamate--it (cyclamate) was banned in the US shortly after but silly youngster that I was, I enjoyed the extreme flavor of the stuff right out of the packet. My dalliance with artificial sweeteners ended there--didn't like the taste of saccharine and pretty much all of the subsequent varieties but as noted above, they can be useful for some people.

There's been a proliferation of artificial sweeteners in the past few decades. Xylitol ("birch sugar") has become fairly common but don't let your dog have anything containing it--poisonous to canines. I suppose all of them have their advantages and disadvantages but it seems like erythritol is one people should be careful of. This article came out last summer but I just encountered it.

"A popular sweetener could be damaging your brain's defences, says recent study" | The Conversation

Found in everything from protein bars to energy drinks, erythritol has long been considered a safe alternative to sugar. But new research suggests this widely used sweetener may be quietly undermining one of the body's most crucial protective barriers – with potentially serious consequences for heart health and stroke risk.

A recent study from the University of Colorado suggests erythritol may damage cells in the blood-brain barrier, the brain's security system that keeps out harmful substances while letting in nutrients. The findings add troubling new detail to previous observational studies that have linked erythritol consumption to increased rates of heart attack and stroke.

In the new study, researchers exposed blood-brain barrier cells to levels of erythritol typically found after drinking a soft drink sweetened with the compound. They saw a chain reaction of cell damage that could make the brain more vulnerable to blood clots – a leading cause of stroke.

[Continues . . .]

The paper is open access:

"The non-nutritive sweetener erythritol adversely affects brain microvascular endothelial cell function" | Journal of Applied Physiology

The abstract is dense with specialized terminology and notation, but has a brief "New and Noteworthy" description appended.

Erythritol, a common non-nutritive sweetener, is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. This study provides novel data, demonstrating that erythritol (at a concentration typically contained in a standard-size commercially available artificially sweetened beverage) adversely affects brain microvascular endothelial cell oxidative stress, eNOS [endothelial nitric oxide synthase] activation and NO [nitric oxide] production, ET-1 [endothelin] expression, and t-PA [tissue-type plasminogen activator] release in vitro.

[Dark Lightning]

To my knowledge, I don't consume any artificial sweeteners. I'll have to look at some packages. I don't use sugar, either, except what may be in a muffin or something. I don't eat many of them, either. No energy drinks, no Gatorade, etc. I'm going to have to switch away from prepared foods, I guess. But I despise cooking.

It's all the man-made stuff that's doing us in.

[Icarus]

Sodium may be one of the gradually damaging ingredients in foods.  Look  at the nutrition labels on canned soups. Yikes, they are loaded with sodium (salt). Innocent foods like bread have salt.  Crackers, French fries, hamburgers, ham sandwiches, butter, cheeses, and damned near any prepared food has too much salt.   

[Dark Lightning]

I don't add salt to anything, not even eggs when I cook them. I eat soup and other prepared things for lunch, and manage to not get too much salt by not salting anything. My blood work comes back at mid-range for sodium. Having (controlled) high blood pressure is why I try to limit sodium. To get even less, I'm going to have to shift away (as I mentioned) from prepared foods. If I reduce sodium too much though, I've found that I wake up at night when my blood pressure drops and my adrenal glands kick in to raise it again. Damned if you do...