Xylitol, a common sugar substitue, found to be associate with “cardiovascular risk,” per new study

According to a new study published in the European Heart Journal, researchers found that xylitol, an incredibly popular and commonly used sugar substitute, is “associated with incident MACE (major adverse cardiovascular event) risk.”

The study found “xylitol both enhanced platelet reactivity and thrombosis potential in vivo,” and noted that in interventional studies, “consumption of a xylitol-sweetened drink markedly raised plasma levels and enhanced multiple functional measures of platelet responsiveness in all subjects.”

Xylitol, a sugar alcohol which is used in everything from drinks and candies to toothpaste, “may be linked to nearly twice the risk of heart attacks, stroke and death in people who consume the highest levels of the sweetener,” according to Sandee LaMotte with CNN. Dr. Stanley Hazan, the senior study author and director of the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, told CNN that the researchers “gave healthy volunteers a typical drink with xylitol to see how high the [glucose] levels would get and they went up 1,000-fold.” He contrasted this with “real” sugar itself, which raises glucose levels about “10 or 20%.”

 “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,” Hazan added. 

LaMotte notes that in the past, erythritol was also found to cause blood clots. Both erythritol and xylitol are commonly found in keto, paleo and reduced-sugar products, often along with stevia, monkfruit extract, and other non-sugar derivatives and alternatives.