More than half a century ago, Professor John Yudkin, a British nutritionist and physiologist at Queen Elizabeth College, London, shocked the world when he warned that sugar intake was extremely dangerous to health because it promoted obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high blood lipids and tooth decay.
To prove his point, Yudkin, who was raised in New York's East End by a family who fled the Russian pogroms of 1905, published a groundbreaking book on glucose in 1972 called “Pure, White and Deadly.”
In 2016, the prestigious medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine published hidden internal documents proving that in the 1960s, the Sugar Research Foundation, a lobbyist for the sugar industry, funded studies that downplayed the risks of the popular and profitable sugar, and instead paid scientists to blame fat for the risks to human health.
Unfortunately, sugar lobbyists ridiculed his findings and tried to discredit Yudkin, but years later his book was republished and praised by objective researchers. A lover of Israel from the early days of the Jewish state, he was asked by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to advise its researchers on the harm caused by sugar, which consists of sucrose and fructose (the latter in the form of corn syrup, a harmless-sounding but harmful and widespread sweetener still widely used around the world). He also served as a trustee of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and donated most of his collection of ancient books to the National Library of Israel.
And China has been featured in the journal Tropical Plants as a major booster of sugarcane, which is vital to its economy, developing new varieties with higher yields, higher sugar content and greater tolerance to drought and cold. Artificial sugar substitutes. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? (Credit: INGIMAGE)
After sugar became discredited, people with a sweet tooth found solace in the arrival of artificial sweeteners, believing them to be a safe alternative.
However, numerous studies in recent years have provided evidence of harmful side effects associated with the use of these sweeteners, particularly aspartame, sucralose and saccharin, all of which are still widely sold in Israel and around the world.
Erythritol sweetener poses serious health risks
Health problems attributed to artificial sweeteners include gastrointestinal symptoms, effects on insulin and metabolism, nervous system changes, cardiovascular effects, allergies, headaches, weight gain, and depression.
Stevia is made from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni), a plant native to South America. The plant has been consumed as food and used as medicine for centuries. Hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, the plant is commonly known as candyleaf, sweetleaf, or sugarleaf, and is available in nurseries. Some people complain that the leaves are bitter, so pure stevia sweeteners (most of which are not pure) are made by purifying the leaves to remove the steviol glycosides. So far, scientists have not found any health hazards from the pure plant.
The Ministry of Health in Jerusalem is currently calling on Israelis to stop consuming artificial sweeteners and to drink water instead of artificially sweetened drinks, but has not made an official statement saying people should avoid artificial sweeteners completely because they have been shown to be harmful to health and can cause a variety of diseases.
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“In general, the Ministry of Health recommends avoiding excess sugar and artificial sweeteners. Whenever possible, it is preferable to consume natural foods rather than ultra-processed foods high in sugar, saturated fat, salt and artificial sweeteners,” the ministry statement added in response to questions from The Jerusalem Post.
Many countries tax these products, but the ministry, led by the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Shas party, has rolled back those taxes under pressure from an industry that churns out cheap, sugary drinks, as evidenced by the long shelves full of them in any Haredi supermarket.
The one that is currently attracting attention is erythritol. Erythritol is a type of sweetener carbohydrate that has been synthesized since 1990 and is a sugar alcohol that is often used in foods. It is low in calories and has almost the same texture and taste as table sugar. In addition, manufacturers and importers claim that this sweetener “reduces the risk of diabetes and promotes weight loss.” Currently, erythritol is the most popular artificial sweetener on the market.
However, a growing body of scientific research now suggests that erythritol may pose serious health risks, including heart disease, stroke and even death, and may even be more harmful than sugar. It can also cause mild to severe digestive problems, including bloating, cramps, excess gas and diarrhea, when consumed or drunk in large amounts.
A new study from the Cleveland Clinic adds to the evidence that erythritol increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. The clinic, which was at the forefront of modern medicine when it opened in 1921, employs more than 65,000 doctors, nurses and other staff and sees six million patients a year at more than 200 locations.
The study, led by renowned physician/scientist Dr. Stanley Hazen, was conducted in humans to more directly observe the effects on platelets after consuming erythritol in amounts typically found in “sugar-free” sodas and muffins. In a study of 20 healthy volunteers, researchers found that the average erythritol concentration after a meal increased by more than 1,000-fold compared to initial levels in the erythritol-consuming group. Results also revealed that participants experienced a significant increase in blood clot formation after consuming sweet carbohydrates, but no change after consuming glucose.
A study just published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, titled “Ingestion of the Nonnutritive Sweetener Erythritol, but Not Glucose, Increases Platelet Reactivity and Likelihood of Thrombosis in Healthy Volunteers,” adds to the growing body of evidence that the chemical may not be as safe as it is currently classified by food regulators and should be reevaluated as an ingredient.
“Many professional societies and clinicians routinely recommend that people at high risk for cardiovascular disease, such as those with obesity, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome, consume foods containing sugar substitutes rather than sugar,” Hazen asserted. “These findings highlight the importance of further long-term clinical studies to evaluate the cardiovascular safety of erythritol and other sugar substitutes.”
Health officials have been slow to sound the alarm: Erythritol is on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) list of foods “generally recognized as safe,” meaning that long-term safety studies of the chemical are not currently required.
The new study, which the authors argue calls for further clinical studies to evaluate the long-term cardiovascular safety of erythritol, adds to a previous study the team published in the prestigious medical journal Nature Medicine in 2023. That study showed that cardiac patients with high levels of erythritol were twice as likely to suffer a major heart attack over the next three years compared to those with lower levels. The study also found that adding erythritol to patients' blood and platelets increased the formation of blood clots.
“Cardiovascular disease progresses over time, and heart disease is the number one cause of death worldwide,” Hazen said. “We need to make sure the foods we eat aren't hidden causes.”
For your health, limit your intake of sugar and artificial sweeteners and satisfy your sweet cravings with natural alternatives like stevia.
