I would be very interested in a broader study of a human population. It is my understanding that sugar alcohols have been popular in Japan far longer than in the USA and EU, and Japan is the longest living population to my knowledge.
I do not doubt that there is some connection, but might the risks be elevated with some other aspect of diet, habits, and so on? What would explain the discrepancy between populations?
> “We had healthy volunteers drink a xylitol-sweetened drink, and we examined blood from before versus after ingestion of the drink. For the next four to six hours xylitol levels remained elevated enough to enhance platelet responses and clotting risk in every person studied,” Dr. Hazen explains. Platelet function returned to normal levels by the next day.
I am surprised to see headlines warning of xylitol, because it is a key component in birch water and other traditional health drinks made from birch trees (Scandanavia, Russia, and other places with birch).
The clotting goes away after a few hours, but perhaps that was viewed as beneficial against injuries for those who drank it?
Maybe only within our society it is viewed as harmful, because people are rarely injured (and when they are, they have access to bandages, stitches, antibiotics, etc) and more commonly have chronic health problems that might be exacerbated by the temporary increase in clotting?
It’s important to note that sugar replacements only proven positive effect is in preventing cavities when they replace sugar. They do not help in reducing weight.
Xylitol in the quantities found in a single piece of gum that uses it as. Sweetener, will kill your cat or dog in like 30 minutes. So I keep xylitol out of my house. ESP since my little dog likes mint!
Unfortunately none of these news articles or papers discuss whether consuming ~2--3g of xylitol/day in the form of gum (e.g., Pur) is OK. I'm guessing it's fine, given that the warning is for products that are artificially sweetned with xylitol with a lot more xylitol, and they say that toothpaste/mouthwash with xylitol should be OK.
I have gone keto (no sugar / starch) for a couple of weeks, so I'm looking out for a safe sugar-free chewing gum, with no success finding one so far! I don't care if it's not sweet, as long as it does not taste / feel terrible.
Michael Pollan: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
The SAD (standard American diet) is both a modern marvel of how to feed people cheaply at scale, but its downsides are significant in terms of negative health outcomes: metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes and the list goes on.
"Xylitol in processed food can increase risk of heart attack and stroke — but there’s no danger in xylitol in oral care products"
I'm glad what I was looking for was in the first piece of text.
Another one linked with stroke is Monk fruit sugar, which you find in so damn many "healthy" alternatives.
These sugar alternatives are terrifying. I rather just have regular sugar.
Ditched Xylitol for Monk Fruit Sugar. No more upset stomach, and it tastes better. Same benefits as Xylitol but none of the risks.
i suspect that a lot of the novel food additives that have become popular in the last 50 years will turn out to be dangerous, though probably not in the sense that they raise your immediate risk of heart attack and stroke, which seems to be what this study is claiming
a previous HN post about this : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40790214
Reference to Peter Attia's comment about this: https://peterattiamd.com/xylitol-and-cvd/
...and the HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40790358
The relevant section from the article:
> [C]onsuming foods and beverages sweetened with xylitol can make the platelets in your blood more likely to clot — a recipe for serious heart events.
> In studies performed by Dr Hazen’s team, healthy volunteers were given a drink sweetened with 30 grams of xylitol. That’s similar to the amount found in a single scoop of keto-friendly ice cream or several cookies marketed for people with diabetes.
> In every volunteer studied, platelets were significantly more prone to clot after consuming xylitol.
> “In the presence of xylitol, platelets become much more angry and ready to clot,” Dr. Hazen reports. “It’s as if our platelets have a kind of tastebud receptor for xylitol that makes them go into overdrive. And that’s very significant because enhanced clotting can stop blood flow.”