Last year, the same team of scientists from the research institute in Cleveland found a similar connection between the popular sugar substitute erythritol and health risk, this in light of the high use of sugar substitutes in the last decade, with the increase in obesity rates.
In the new study, the level of xylitol was measured in the blood of more than 3,000 participants after an overnight fast. They found that people whose xylitol level was in the top 25% of the study group had twice the risk of heart attack, stroke or death over the next three years, compared to people whose blood xylitol level was in the bottom quarter.
At the same time, the researchers also wanted to understand the mechanism at work, therefore they fed mice with xylitol, added it to blood and plasma in the laboratory and gave a drink containing xylitol to ten healthy volunteers. In all of these studies, xylitol appeared to activate platelets, which are a significant component of blood clotting and the blockage of blood vessels typical of heart attacks and strokes.
The researchers emphasized that their study had several limitations: the participants were already at increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, and also reassured that the levels of xylitol usually found in the food products are relatively low. However, they emphasized in light of the emerging findings in recent years of the dangers of artificial sweeteners, to expand the research, and to prefer as much as possible to sweeten the food with modest amounts of honey or fruit sugar.
“Xylitol is not a sweetener with no caloric value but has half the calories of sugar and is not found in diet products but in sugar-free products such as sugar-free chewing gum and chocolate,” explains Dr. Siegel Frishman, director of the dietetics unit at Billinson Hospital and the chief dietitian of the General Hospital, “these products are often consumed on by diabetics, but in recent years there is a tendency to prefer sucralose which is not absorbed into the blood. The recommendation is to strive as much as possible to avoid ultra-processed foods, including xylitol, and to strive as much as possible to eat foods close to how they were created in nature.’