Unsweetening the Diet
Channel: NutritionFacts.org
Date: 2012-12-07

IMPORTANT NOTE: Though the observational data does appear rife (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFOOzHKXCxw) with reverse causation, a new study (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02223-9.epdf) published interventional data in mice and in vitro on 2/27/23 that suggests erythritol may indeed be harmful, and so I urge everyone to stop consuming it until we know more.
 
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DESCRIPTION: All sweeteners--natural and artificial, caloric and non-caloric—help maintain cravings for intensely sweet foods. The other two mechanisms by which low calorie sweeteners could counterintuitively lead to weight gain were explored in Wednesday's (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-diet-soda-could-make-us-gain-weight/) and yesterday's (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/neurobiology-of-artificial-sweeteners/) NutritionFacts.org video-of-the-day. If one is able to maintain a healthy diet at home and away, though, then there may be no dietary downside to moderate erythritol consumption. See Erythritol May Be a Sweet Antioxidant (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/erythritol-may-be-a-sweet-antioxidant/). Just remember that most erythritol is absorbed before it reaches the large colon, so if you eat sufficiently large amounts you can indeed trigger the osmotic diarrhea seen more commonly with the non-absorbed sugar alcohols such as sorbitol and xylitol.

Have a question for Dr. Greger about this video? Leave it in the comment section at http://nutritionfacts.org/video/unsweetening-the-diet/ and he'll try to answer it!

Image Credit: Amy Loves Yah via Flickr.

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