Your favorite sugar-free treats may be damaging your heart health. Higher amounts of the low-calorie sweetener xylitol, often marketed as a healthy sugar substitute , is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular events such as stroke and heart attack , according to a new Cleveland Clinic study. A team of researchers including Dr.
Stanley Hazen , chair of cardiovascular and metabolic sciences at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute , identified an association between high levels of circulating xylitol and an elevated three-year risk of cardiovascular events in an analysis of more than 3,300 patients. The findings were published last week in the European Heart Journal . “People whose levels of xylitol were in the top 25% of our population—the top quarter—they were at double the risk for a heart attack, stroke, and death than people whose levels were in the bottom quartile,” Hazen tells Fortune .
“Our data is entirely consistent with xylitol being a prothrombotic compound (prone to causing blood clots), and it enhances cardiovascular risk—the very compound that we are often recommending to patients to use as a sugar substitute, particularly if they’re diabetic.” In another part of the study, subjects were asked to drink xylitol-sweetened water. The amount of xylitol in each drink was comparable to that found in a serving of keto ice cream or diabetic cookies, Hazen says.
Researchers then examined subjects’ blood platelets, or thrombocytes , the ce.