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[–] 106 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It is important to note that this was an observational study, meaning it can only show an association between higher xylitol levels and cardiovascular events, rather than proving that xylitol directly caused them, and further research is needed. But it is not a green light to have more sugar instead, as we still need to reduce our free sugar intake

Correlation vs Causation caveat is strongly needed here

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  • [–] 162 points 2 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago

    I didn't know it was in jam as well. It's potent dog poison. Not sure about cats. Should be outlawed, it's not like we don't have other sweeteners that aren't dog poison.

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  • [–] 86 points 2 months ago (9 children)

    “In this observational work, however, it appears that xylitol has a negative long-term effect on cardiovascular events in the general population. As with all observational studies, causalities are difficult to infer, but this work shows that further studies are mandated into this societally important topic.”

    This is important, because the outcome of the study is: we need more studies. It is not that xylitol has been shown to be dangerous, a jump so many comments have made.

    There was an observed effect in people who had "high blood levels of xylitol". But there were few if any other controls:

    The researchers also highlighted that the association was independent of underlying factors such as body mass index, hypertension, diabetes and lipid levels, which might predispose people to low-calorie products.

    It's been known for a while that extremely high levels of xylitol can act as a diuretic, but that's true of a lot of other things, too. That's also not relevant here. It's important to not jump to unwarranted conclusions until more proper studies are conducted.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago

    How can you ignore diabetes and the other risk factors that lead to using sugar-free products and are huge risk factors in themselves?

    At least exclude certain ones.

    Plenty of people use xyitol products for other reasons. For instance, I just bought a pack of xylitol gum to carry because I won't be able to brush my teeth during the day. Gum with sugar makes my teeth feel worse.

    Exclude smokers and people with uncontrolled diabetes and cholesterol at least.

    Study the gym goers that want to eat their sugar as treats and use xylitol drinks or breath mints daily.

    How much caffeine was in everyone's system? Alcohol? Were the other blood level markers in range?

    With no controls, it could be anything. Maybe they were all covering cigarette and beer breath with mints when they had a cardiac event.

    I hate studies like this.

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  • [+] -44 points 2 months ago* (8 children)
  • [–] 56 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    If you deny the scientific method because you fear everyone is a shill, you're probably gonna have a bad time.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    ok Big Xylitol, you’ll never get me!

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    [–] 17 points 2 months ago* (3 children)

    They're referring to Xylitol. Xylitol.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    Heard this about Erithrytol as well. Not sure if that one is as confirmed. Cove Soda uses it, and I'm reluctant even though it's tasty and Canadian.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    That one gives me crazy digestive issues, I'm always checking if it's in the ingredients now.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    If I'm blocked up I drink two sips of a diet coke.....while sitting on the can. Aspartame clears everything out...right...fucking...now.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago

    Xylitol also kills dogs, so, whatever this study says, at least keep it away from your dogs.

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  • [–] 47 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    This clickbait bullshit should not be tolerated. The ingredient name in question is only one word, instead of the stupid sentence they used.

    It’s xylitol. Shame on every shitbag sellout that decided to not just say that in the headline.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I don't know, I think it's appropriate. If they just said Xylitol hardly anyone is actually going to know what that is or if it affects them. The title gives people an idea of how common it is and what foods it's used in, which is more useful information to most people.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Fr. Clickbait is bullshit. I worked at whole foods when Xylitol was first making its way onto the market as a "natural" 0 cal sweetener and I was always skeptical of it and never intentionally bought anything with it in it. I can't say I'm surprised to see this.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago*

    Where I live, xylitol has been a staple for decades and decades. It’s good for mouth hygiene, too. A correlation like in the article would probably show as a perceivable difference in overall strokes of our country’s populace as a whole, comparing to others, if it really was a thing that mattered. Might be, haven’t checked, but pretty sure we aren’t any more prone for that than any others. And here we eat xylitol from child up, usually several a day, after meals as gum (not the sugary candy-like gum, but the one intended to stop the acid attack) or pastilles. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t honestly. I don’t even know if you can get sugar gum anywhere, it’s so ubiquitous to xylitol and mouth hygiene.

    So I mean, be suspicious, sure, but I’m pretty sure it’s highly tested and kept tracked here, because it’s a daily thing for everyone basically.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    It’s good to be skeptical, but please don’t give this particular article toooo much weight. It’s not a real experiment, it’s just just an observation of correlation which doesn’t prove anything at all.

    This website can show you plenty of other things that are extremely highly correlated. It really doesn’t prove anything.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 months ago (21 children)

    Dammit. I chew a lot of gum and there is no good option. I have to start looking for sugared gum.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Avoid sugared gum. I also used to chew a lot of gum and was trying to stick with sorbitol because xylitol gave me stomach pains. That limited me to Wrigley's. Anyway, due to my confusion after it went out of stock, I was buying sugared gum instead, and finally ended up having to fill 6 cavities before I checked the label and made the connection. All that sugar sitting on my teeth all day was not good, to say the least. I quit cold turkey after that (and also gum).

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Reminds me of that one actress from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory who got 13 cavities from being required to constantly chew gum on set.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    Search for chewing gum that uses sorbitol as sweetener instead. Luckily for me my favorite brand, Airwaves, uses that and not xylitol.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Isn't it just another sugar alcohol? I'm sure it's up next on the list, just not as popular.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    It is a sugar alcohol, but also naturally occurring in apples and pears, so it at least seems safer.

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  • [+] -14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (8 children)
  • [–] 21 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    If you had one single job to do before posting a comment, what do you think that job would be? 🤡🤦

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  • [–] 14 points 2 months ago* (2 children)
    1. Read headline
    2. Read comments to see if link is worth opening.
    3. Respond to interesting comments
    4. Maaaybe open the link.

    This is what everyone does, right?

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    [–] 7 points 2 months ago (7 children)

    I was thinking a while ago that I missed chewing gum all the time and now I realize I may want to not pick up that habit again.

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  • [+] 11 points 2 months ago (6 children)
  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (3 children)

    At least some of that seems to be taken into account already:

    The researchers also highlighted that the association was independent of underlying factors such as body mass index, hypertension, diabetes and lipid levels, which might predispose people to low-calorie products.

    Still agree more research is needed.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    I read that to mean they did not take any of that into account. Since the data was independent of underlying factors, they ignored those underlying factors. Which were probably the actual factors.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    I read it the other way around. For people with the same BMI for instance, h8gher blood xyliyol was linked to higher cardiovascular accidents.

    In order to confirm, it would be better to check the article itself instead of this summary. It seems it is not published yet.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    What sort of diet leads to high blood levels? My guess is the xylitol in my mouthwash or toothpaste that I spit out isn't causing a high level in the blood and still benefits my oral health. Any studies on that?

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    Sugar alcohols are in a huge number of processed foods and might be responsible for a non negligible number of people feeling like shit. Fairly sure a local family owned bakery reduced some amount of sugar in their baked goods with sugar alcohols and it is not advertised and no ingredient list required unlike supermarkets. It is getting hard to escape stuff like this.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago

    So glad we let companies sell us whatever poison hasn't had enough research yet to show it's unsafe...

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/erythritol

    Often mixed with sugar substitutes, like cheap stevia leaf extract (or at least was, not sure, now).

    Can't wait to find out about maltodextrin, which is added to a lot:

    https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/is-maltodextrin-bad-for-me

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    JFK Jr to demand it be added to more US products in 3….2…1…

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    More like ban it outright. Anything that is generally seen as safe, but with some caveats, gets RFK jr. to foam at the mouth about how dangerous it is.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Isn’t this the ingredient In a lot of foods that are said to be diabetic friendly?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (8 children)

    I complain to my wife all the time that sugar alcohols shoild be banned from food products.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    I swear I've seen companies advertise "no artificial sweeteners" while using things like stevia or monk fruit. Maybe I'm misremembering, but it's so irritating that you just have to know an increasingly long list of sweeteners to check for.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    Well yeah because stevia and monk fruit aren't artificial, they're natural alternatives to sweeteners.

    I'm not making health claims but they do grow in the ground hence non artificial.

    But yeah I don't really like them, so I would wish it would say low sugar, and also no added sweetener alternatives or something, since that's what I like and I will see low sugar and then buy it and it's sickly sweet with the fake ones...

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Whole leaf stevia is a little bitter, but I haven't seen any studies on any of it. I haven't looked, either, since I've cut out all of it, unless I'm out somewhere and can't avoid it (questionable water sources, for example).

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    When they started using it in yogurt it almost made me vomit every time I bought it without checking. Didn't take many times to learn, but too damn long. Everyone I've asked never had the same problem though. Turns out stevia just tastes heinous to me so... hooray?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    That's probably the extract + ethyriol or maltodextrine., in the US. Outside, I don't know. I've never seen a marketed product with whole leaf.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Ahh, probably then. I honestly forgot about the "whole leaf" vs extract thing, even though that was made as a clear point. I must be at the point I instinctually, typically process no difference. Even though it was clearly stated. Oooof.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    erythritol was also correlated with heart disease.

    https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/erythritol-cardiovascular-events

    They're not really so close that i'd expect them to both trigger. I wonder if the tests excluded other sweeteners.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    OK now this could explain the issues I've been having, like unexpected dying.

    (using xylitol for a few years now and the root cause has not been found)

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Fuck, I just started chewing dental gum with Xylitol for help with my teeth.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago
    [–] 1 point 2 months ago
    [–] -4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Xylitol? The sweetener that kills pets? I'm shocked, Shocked I say!

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