After the debate over the sweetener aspartame, which can cause cancer in humans (see video above), Herbert Tilg, Director of Internal Medicine I at the Innsbruck University Clinic, warns against two other artificial sweeteners: sucralose and erythritol. Research shows that these ‘big players’ in one case accelerate a certain growth of cancer and in the other case promote heart attacks and strokes.
In the case of sucralose – ‘six hundred times sweeter than sugar’ and widely used in the food industry – purely preclinical studies currently exist, but with ‘convincing data’. Experiments on mice have shown that the sweetener increases the growth of certain tumors, such as pancreatic cancer. Researchers are said to have been concerned about whether the sweetener can manipulate the immune system. “The answer is yes,” says Tilg.
In the case of erythritol, a sugar alcohol that is also widely used as a sweetener and is well absorbed by the body, there is a clinical study and two large follow-up studies. “Based on 1157 patients, the number of heart attacks and strokes was shown to correlate directly with blood levels of erythritol over a three-year period. That means: there is clearly a clear connection here,” explains the doctor.
In addition, it has been proven in the laboratory that erythritol can reach a concentration in humans that causes platelets to clump together. “And that, in turn, is the prerequisite for heart attacks or strokes.”
Sweeteners not “harmless”
In both cases, ‘more studies and even more data’ are needed, but: ‘We have to end the concept that all these sweeteners are completely harmless.’ From now on, science must deal with the fact that also other additives in addition to the aspartame is anything but harmless and, on the contrary, can cause diseases.
“Now there is a big question mark”
The original goal – ‘that people don’t get fatter’ – was ‘not achieved at all, on the contrary’. All of this could eventually lead to such sweeteners being banned altogether because, “Now there’s a big question mark.” Not least because obesity, that is, obesity, is on the rise worldwide.
Source: Krone
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