We were in the supermarket last week doing one of our favorite things — buying chocolate! As my family is trying to get rid of added sugar in our foods, we’ve been on the hunt for yummy sugar-free chocolates. And we found one that we liked: Lily’s Chocolates. It’s a delicious mixture of good flavor and zero added sugars. They use erythritol as their sugar substitute. We thought, this is great! We’ve got our new favorite chocolate. Guilt-free chocolate, right? And erythritol is considered safe by the FDA, so what’s not to love here?

So… unfortunately there is some concerning new evidence that erythritol might not be as safe as we thought. There was a study from the Cleveland Clinic last August comparing erythritol with regular sugar; the data showed that erythritol — and not sugar — increased the risk of platelet aggregation. This blood clotting effect could cause heart attacks and strokes.

“This research raises some concerns that a standard serving of an erythritol-sweetened food or beverage may acutely stimulate a direct clot-forming effect,” said study co-author W. H. Wilson Tang, M.D., research director for Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation Medicine at Cleveland Clinic. “Erythritol and other sugar alcohols that are commonly used as sugar substitutes should be evaluated for potential long-term health effects especially when such effects are not seen with glucose itself.”

And it’s actually a follow-up study from one they did a couple years ago following 4,000 people at risk for heart disease, for three years. The people that had more erythritol had a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes. It’s also consistent with other metabolic studies showing this potential risk.

Please note that this is not super 100% proof of cause and effect here. But artificial sweeteners as a class have very poor proof that they even work at all to help with weight loss or diabetes. So the benefits are not clear at all; and now these risks may be very real.

I’m all about the risk-to-benefit ratio as a family doctor, and as a father keeping my kids safe and healthy. Right now, with this new information, we’re not going to be doing erythritol products anymore.

I agree with the study’s doctor here as to what’s more ideal:

“I feel that choosing sugar-sweetened treats occasionally and in small amounts would be preferable to consuming drinks and foods sweetened with these sugar alcohols, especially for people at elevated risk of thrombosis such as those with heart disease, diabetes or metabolic syndrome,” Dr. Hazen advises. “Cardiovascular disease builds over time, and heart disease is the leading cause of death globally. We need to make sure the foods we eat aren’t hidden contributors.”

What do you think? Which artificial sweeteners are your favorites? Please leave comments below. You can also read my new article, 8 Diet Changes To Cure Heartburn Better Than Pills.