It has been used for years in food as a "non-nutritive sweetener." Erythritol is used in many processed foods, replacing the calories from sugar. The Food and Drug Administration considers erythritol a food additive (GRAS). As a food additive, erythritol has never been tested for its toxicity or long-term use.

The case for artificial sweeteners

While artificial sweeteners decrease calories, do they decrease obesity? They have been shown to decrease obesity among teenagers (ref here). By reducing calories, it seems obvious that obesity would decrease. And yet, this has not been a consistent result

A study showed that increased erythritol led to increased obesity. And that was just the erythritol your body makes.

But your body makes erythritol

Since your body makes erythritol. Does that mean it must be safe?

The human body produces many toxic substances. For example, formaldehyde. Humans produce about 1.5 ounces of formaldehyde a day.

Acetaldehyde is a breakdown product of ethanol. Drink too much alcohol, and you will produce enough acetaldehyde to kill you.

The case against artificial sweeteners

There have been a number of peer-reviewed journal articles showing that artificial sweeteners have adverse consequences:

Weight gain and obesity (ref)
Insulin resistance (ref)
Type 2 Diabetes (ref)
Stroke, heart disease, and all-cause mortality (ref)
Increased heart deaths in women (ref)

How much we make

We have about ten micromoles per liter of blood. That would be the baseline level. Blood levels with 1000 times as much erythritol are found in people who consume it as a sweetener.

One study showed that erythritol led to improved blood vessel function after drinking erythritol for a month (ref). But this was in healthy young adults. What about people with underlying heart disease?

It's not hype - the study

The Erythritol study was done by the highly regarded Cleveland Clinic and published in the journal Nature Medicine. It was peer-reviewed, meaning many other scientists looked at that data and concluded the study was worthy of being included in this prestigious journal.

What this study examined was the correlation of erythritol with people prone to heart disease. They studied people at risk for heart disease. Such as those with high blood cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, or hypertension. They looked at the blood levels of erythritol. Data divided the patients according to how much erythritol was in their blood. What they found was that those with the highest levels of erythritol had the highest incidence of heart disease, strokes, and cardiac...

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