Reacción a "Reactions to study linking sweetener consumption with increased cardiovascular risk"

This is a thought-provoking study based on good science.  There were a high number of study participants and the data has been well analysed.

The authors not only found a potentially important association between levels of the artificial sweetener erythritol in the blood and health impacts, but they also took the trouble to show a viable way by which the effect they found could occur.  Although this study can’t itself show whether or not this is the case, the authors suggest that higher erythritol levels may increase the risk of blood clots forming and this in turn may increase the risk of disease.

We should be mindful that correlation is not causation.  As the authors themselves note, they found an association between erythritol and clotting risk, not definitive proof such a link exists.

Because the people in the study already had a lot of cardiovascular risk factors it can’t be shown that it wasn’t one of these other factors that caused the increased clotting risk rather than the erythritol.  While some effects were seen in a test with healthy volunteers, this study only had 8 people in it and only lasted a few days.  This is not enough to draw firm conclusions from, and the authors don’t try to do so.

While I think the finding certainly warrants further investigation don’t throw out your sweeteners just yet.  This study only looks at erythritol and artificial sweeteners are generally considered safe.  Any possible (and, as yet unproven) risks of excess erythritol would also need to be balanced against the very real health risks of excess glucose consumption.