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From the actual study[0]
Human cerebral microvascular endothelial cells (hCMECs) were cultured and treated with 6 mM erythritol, equivalent to a typical amount of erythritol (30 g) in an artificially sweetened beverage, for 3 h.
Am I reading this right? They basically soaked brain cells in diet soda for three hours?
[0] https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00276.2025
I was expecting yet another aspartame-bashing article, but it's an erythritol-bashing one this time.
Look, it's really simple: all those sweeteners have been in widespread use for a long time. Wanna know if they're harmful? Do some stats correlating release dates in several countries and occurrence of this-or-that disease and death records. If you can't find a statistically-significant correlation, well... it doesn't prove the stuff is harmless, but chances are it is.
That's assuming there aren't already a kajillion inconclusive studies on the particular molecule you're interested in, as with aspartame.
Compare it to sugar while at it. It doesn’t need to be harmless, it needs to be less harmful than sugar.
And that’s a fairly low bar to cross.
Sugar is like water and air: it's fine in reasonable quantities 🙂
As the saying goes, the dose makes the poison.
And the same goes for all sweeteners too. In fact, I know for a fact that consuming aspartame in large quantities is harmful, because I used to consume entirely too much of it every day by mistake, and I very much felt the effects when I quit.
Regardless of the methodology used for this study, I’ve switched to pure stevia now. I hate that a lot of stevia products actually use erythritol and just list it in small font.
I've been swapping half of my sugar in my morning coffee with a few drops pure liquid monk fruit. No idea if that's better or worse than erythritol.
I’m not sure either, but I figured if it comes naturally from a plant, it might be safer.
Agreed, but then again, so does arsenic.....
“…The researchers did not yet test this in people. They went straight to the cells that line your brain’s blood vessels…”
I don't remember giving them consent.
Is this not your signature on a magazine subscription from 1998? Always read the fine print.
Whatever it does, it makes me feel like shit, so I avoid it.