Free Republic

A sugar replacement called erythritol — used to add bulk or sweeten stevia, monkfruit and keto reduced-sugar products — has been linked to blood clotting, stroke, heart attack and death, according to a study. "The degree of risk was not modest," said lead study author Dr. Stanley Hazen, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute. People with existing risk factors for heart disease, such as diabetes, were twice as likely to experience a heart attack or stroke if they had the highest levels of erythritol in their blood, according to the...

A short article in a medical journal about two German patients who mysteriously lost significant amounts of weight is spurring a diet craze. But more worrisome to doctors who work with people with eating disorders is that the cause of the mysterious weight loss -- chewing large amounts of gum containing sorbitol -- is attracting attention among eating disorder patients to prompt bouts of diarrhea. The article was published Saturday in the British Medical Journal in a section usually reserved for unusual cases. It was written by gastroenterologists at Berlin's Charite hospital about two patients with perplexing cases of diarrhea...