Erythritol: It's success was it's downfall, like Saccharine & Splenda

 

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Erythritol, a common sugar substitute used to sweeten low-calorie food and drinks, has been linked to higher rates of heart attacks and strokes, according to a study by Cleveland Clinic doctors. The study, published in Nature Medicine, suggests that the substance puts people at risk by activating blood platelets to readily form potentially deadly clots. “Our study shows that when participants consumed an artificially sweetened beverage with an amount of Erythritol found in many processed foods, markedly elevated levels in the blood are observed for days — levels well above those observed to enhance clotting risks,” said Dr. Stanley Hazen, chairman of the clinic’s Department of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Sciences. The DAMAGE is now DONE! Even if later this proves not to be a concern, people will move away from "tainted Erythritol", forgetting what  massive harm SUGAR does in their blood!

COMMENT: After more than a century of fighting against any (and all, even natural sweeteners) would be competitors, it seems that now the Sugar industry has switched from it's long-time strategy of claiming they all cause cancer, which used to be enough to scare people back to using Sugar (that's always been their goal) to this new strategy of "It's going to cause a heart-attack or stroke!" And of course, the damage is done! Sadly people will now drop Erythritol like a Hot Potato, like they once did with Saccharine, then Sugar's largest competitor (used to sweeten the first diet sodas) when the story was spread that it causes cancer in the late 1960's and early 1970's. That turned out to be totally unwarranted, but the damage was done! Ironically, university of Florida research shows that Saccharine fights cancer! Now the next sweetener/challenger, probably Allulose, will grow in popularity, but it will also, one day, suffer the same fate. Meanwhile the attention is off of SUGAR - the single worst sweetener in popular use, for our health! Sugar does cause Obesity, Diabetes (for decades known as Sugar Diabetes) Heart attacks, Strokes and it feeds Cancers! Zero Calorie sweeteners do not feed cancer, do not cause obesity, do not cause Diabetes and as a result it's really doubtful that they can cause heart disease and strokes. There's is no health benefit (none) that can be attributed to SUGAR! In fact if we could wave a wand removing SUGAR from the world, all that would happen is that people will be healthier, live longer, far fewer will be obese, cancer patients will survive longer, Heart disease and stroke risks will diminish, plus we'll all have far fewer dental cavities. It's my suspicion that just maybe we'll find the smoking gun used to kill Erythritol in the possession of the powerful Sugar industry, which is very influential in the USA! Time will tell. At the very least they're using this latest bombshell news about a very popular competing product to smear ALL sweeteners! Case in point: Major NEWS organizations (eg. ABC national news) are using misleading pictures of Stevia and Splenda in their "bombshell report about Erythritol", implying basically all of SUGAR's competitors (golly gee, how convenient!) have this problem with Blood clotting. Watch the video here, see what I mean (Watch closely from 1:30 onwards) It's dishonest + misleading as neither Stevia nor Splenda are implicated, but hey, why not try and kill them all? It's Diabolical and it's been done before!

SWEETENERS + HELPFUL INFORMATION

This information or a variation thereof appears in my low-carb cookbooks to help people.  I thought I would make a blog post with the same information and yet some, as some people don't understand when I say something like "Liquid sweetener to equal 1 cup sugar."  They think sometimes that that must be an awful lot of liquid sweetener, when, in fact, depending on the size of bottle/sweetener strength I use from EZ-Sweetz, it is either 24 or 48 drops!  Hope this information is helpful. We've had over 30y of sweetener experience 

The newest sweetener on the market that low-carb and keto bloggers love these days is allulose and this is the product that has some fabulous blends for us to use.  I cannot use erythritol. I have not used it for 7+ years.  It affects my sensitive bladder adversely.  Instead, I like to use allulose or monk fruit/allulose blend.  So, wherever I mention erythritol in a recipe, feel free to substitute an allulose blend of your choosing.  Only reason I ever mentioned it as it is the darling of the low-carb world.  However, it is horrible for me and I don't ever use it. 90% is excreted over a few days via the Bladder, and it's in there with it's infamous "cooling effect" that it can really irritate sensitive bladders, so IC, PBS and Menopausal women BEWARE!

You may use your own preferred sweetener in most of the recipes.  Using a zero-carb sweetener such as liquid sucralose or stevia, allulose and allulose/Monk fruit combinations, helps lower the carbs per serving of a recipe.  Erythritol is problematic for a sensitive bladder. The little packets for sweetening coffee can be used instead of erythritol for a sweetener synergy, however, they do have carbs. Do be careful with xylitol as it can have a slight laxative effect and, more importantly, it is lethal for dogs.  What is interesting is that the safety of sucralose has now been proven by scientists.  They discovered sucralose in surface and ground waters and tried all their usual methods of trying to break down wastes in aerobic and anaerobic reactors for 48 hours and put sucralose through all the other methods to break down wastes as well – to no avail.  Sucralose remained unchanged and the molecule does not break apart into chlorine compounds.  Therefore, it is logical to say that sucralose passes safely through the body, unchanged, and that it is inert at high baking temperatures. 

Liquid Sucralose (EZ-Sweetz^® available from Netrition.com): Conversion table for 0.5 oz LHS / 2 oz RHS bottles (concentration varies) respectively.

 

SPLENDA® Granular equivalent	SPLENDA®  Packets	EZ-Sweetz® Liquid Sucralose
1 cup SPLENDA®	24 packets	24/48 drops
3/4 cup SPLENDA®	18 packets	18/36 drops
2/3 cup SPLENDA®	16 packets	16/32 drops
1/2 cup SPLENDA®	12 packets	12/24 drops
1/3 cup SPLENDA®	8 packets	8/16 drops
1/4 cup SPLENDA®	6 packets	6/12 drops
2 tbsp SPLENDA®	3 packets	3/  6 drops
2 tsp SPLENDA®	1 packet	1/  2 drops

 

 

Sugar equivalent	Packets	EZ-Sweetz®  Liquid Stevia
1 cup sugar	24 packets	96 drops (4/5 tsp)
3/4  cup sugar	18 packets	72 drops (3/5 tsp)
2/3  cup sugar	16 packets	64 drops (1/2 tsp)
1/2  cup sugar	12 packets	48 drops (2/5 tsp)
1/3  cup sugar	8 packets	32 drops (1/4 tsp)
1/4  cup sugar	6 packets	24 drops (1/5 tsp)
2 tbsp sugar	3 packets	12 drops
2 tsp sugar	1 packet	4 drops

 

Sugar equivalent	Packets	Natural Mate® Erthritol/Sucralose &  Natural Mate® Erthritol/Stevia
1 cup sugar	24 packets	24 scoops
3/4  cup sugar	18 packets	18 scoops
2/3  cup sugar	16 packets	15 scoops
1/2 cup sugar	12 packets	12 scoops
1/3  cup sugar	8 packets	7 1/2 scoops
1/4 cup sugar	6 packets	6 scoops
2 tbsp sugar	3 packets	3 scoops
2 tsp sugar	1 packet	1 scoop

You can find liquid sucralose (called EZ-Sweetz^®) at Netrition, as well as a liquid Stevia/Monk Fruit blend and shortly several more EZ-Sweetz^® products will be available on Amazon under the name, Natural Mate.^®   EZ-Sweetz has a pure liquid stevia product and are now launching Erythritol blended products on Amazon (under the brand of Natural Mate^®) for baking: Powdered Sucralose/Erythritol blend and Powdered Stevia/Erythritol blend. Both products have 2x the sweetness power of sugar.  The samples I have come in small bottles with a long-handled mini scoop for scooping the fine white powder.  One mini scoop equals 2 tsp (10 mL) sugar, and the whole container is equivalent to 12.4 lbs of sugar (see table above).  In addition, they have the granular form of erythritol/sucralose or erythritol/stevia combination which is so good in baking.  1 cup (250 mL) granular combination equals 2 cups (500 mL) sugar equivalent.

Erythritol - Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that seems to be innocuous as far as causing digestive upset unless it is in a combination product, when sometimes there can be a problem.  It does have a slight cooling effect on the taste buds; however, this is minimized by using smaller amounts. Erythritol has a glycemic index of zero and has no effect on blood sugar. Erythritol often crystallizes out of solution when cooled, but can be recombined when reheated.  Granular or powdered versions are available everywhere.  Erythritol is mostly excreted through the bladder and is problematic for people with a sensitive bladder. Recent studies have shown erythritol to be problematic, "possibly dangerous" for people with CVD.

Just Like Sugar^® is made from chicory root and contains calcium and vitamin C.  It has none of the strong aftertastes of stevia or other artificial sweeteners.  It keeps ice cream soft, makes perfect caramel sauce, makes cookies soft on the inside and chewy on the outside.  It tastes great, has zero calories and can be used cup-for-cup instead of table sugar.

Monk Fruit is made using the pulp of the fruit which is fermented and that removes the sugars but leaves the sweet taste.  It is 200 times sweeter than table sugar, so you need use only very tiny amounts or it could taste bitter.

Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that does not require insulin to be metabolized by the body, however, it can increase flatulence and it can have a laxative effect.  Xylitol is DEADLY for dogs. It causes prolonged hypoglycemia.  Don’t use it if you have dogs in your home.

Steviva Blend^® and Truvia^® are blends of erythritol and stevia.  There may be a laxative effect for some people but if you can tolerate them, they are wonderful.  Again, erythritol is now being flagged as a health hazard.

Oven temperatures can vary and that means baking and cooking times are only a guide. An oven thermometer is a good investment.  It's a good idea to set the timer for 5 to 10 minutes less than a recipe suggests. Eggs used are the large size.

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