Sweetener used in chewing gum and jam linked to strokes and heart attacks
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/aug/28/sweetener-xylitol-used-in-chewing-gum-and-jam-linked-to-strokes-and-heart-attacks-study
356 points · 114 comments · view on lemmy.world
114 Comments
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · 165 pts · 1d
Xylitol
comrade_twisty@feddit.org · 40 pts · 1d
That shit is killing dogs too. Should've been banned long time ago.
Taldan@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 1d
It's basically anti-freeze to dogs. Kills them quickly and painfully from even relatively small amounts
dadarobot@lemmy.sdf.org · 16 pts · 1d
chocolate kills dogs too
FauxPseudo@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 1d
They don't sneak chocolate into peanut butter and people use peanut butter as a dog treat it as a way to hide medication from dogs.
Xylitol shouldn't be used in any product a dog might be tempted to eat. And dogs love peanut butter.
Thor_Whale@lemmus.org · 9 pts · 21h
It's amazing that you can actually buy peanut butter that is just strictly peanut butter, no additives. 🤷
FauxPseudo@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 21h
There is a bit of a price difference, isn't there? And the all peanuts stuff isn't as good at hiding pills in, is it? Because it is so oily it doesn't form around the pill like the cheap stuff, right?
So it's amazing and you have to pay more for something absolutely useless for the task at hand. But maybe you didn't know that. Maybe you were being clever but lacking the experience to be helpful.
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 21h
Dogs eat shit, therefore my shit should be illegal? Think about that, if we banned it because dogs might eat it there's alot of things we would ban because a pet might eat it.
FauxPseudo@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 21h
Your shit isn't immediately toxic to dogs. But you really should learn to use a toilet and stop leaving shit everywhere.
DaveyRocket@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 20h
What are you? The police chasing me around downtown L.A. while I’m naked from the waste down leaving a Hershey squirt obstacle for the cops to slip in? Because if you are, that was some other guy...
FauxPseudo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 20h
I am from the internet. I'm here to help.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 16h
It’s so common now that it’s a meme trope, but right before a location legalizes THC usage, there is always a maaaaaaaaaassive scare campaign about how literally every single pet is going to eat a thousand weed gummies and die as soon as legalization happens.
…and then for years after legalization that just never fucking happens because it turns out people love their pets and don’t just casually leave out poison for them.
VibeSurgeon@piefed.social · 1 pts · 4h
Be that as it may, you shouldn't feed dogs non-dog food.
Dogs are tempted to eat practically speaking everything that humans eat, we've been using them as cleanup crew for millenia
ratofkryll@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 1d
The fatal dose is significantly lower for xylitol. If my 90 lb dog ate a few pieces of chocolate, he might be miserable for a few days and need a vet visit, but it would take a lot to be fatal. If he ate a few pieces of gum, it could make him much, much sicker or kill him.
kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 1d
are we dogs?
Saber_is_dead@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4h
or are we dancer 🎶
frongt@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 4h
No! We are DEVO!
VibeSurgeon@piefed.social · 2 pts · 4h
The one does clearly not follow the other here
Nomad@infosec.pub · 23 pts · 1d
Xylotol in small amounts tastes sweet and kills the bacteria breaking you teeth. In large quantities it makes you shit hit liquid.
Edit: hit should have been hot as in burning, 37C not erotic. ;)
W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 12 pts · 1d
I guess I’ve never had a large quantity as I don’t know what it’s like to shit hit liquid.
usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 1d
I ate too many gummy bears and my toilet afterward went triple platinum
W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 10 pts · 23h
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 16h
You need more fiber in your diet. Eat a vegetable or a bean for once in your life.
_stranger_@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 16h
0x0@infosec.pub · 9 pts · 1d
Fortunately for you, you can read about the experience instead of living it.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/sugarless-gummy-bears-are-not-safe-for-humans/
https://www.boredpanda.com/hilarious-comments-sugarfree-haribo-gummies/
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 19h
Fun (?) fact, the reason why those sugarless Haribo Bears are so infamous isn’t because of Xylitol - but rather Maltitol.
I’m pretty good with most artificial sweeteners, but anything more than ~10g of Maltitol over the course of a day creates the sort of farts that clears rooms - and anything approaching 20g causes such horrendous diarrhoea that I wouldn’t even wish it upon my most constipated enemies.
Not to mention that Maltitol is also a bit of a bastard in that it still partially raises blood sugar levels - so most strict keto diets either abstain or count it as ~50% carbs.
W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 23h
Yes, but what is “hit liquid”?
m7718f@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 23h
I think they meant "hot liquid"
Nomad@infosec.pub · 1 pts · 18h
Indeed.
Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 1d
and flat out kills your dog
Nomad@infosec.pub · 0 pts · 18h
So does chocolate. Let's ban that too?
bedwyr@piefed.ca · 11 pts · 1d
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.
brackled@lemmy.world · 108 pts · 1d
Correlation vs Causation caveat is strongly needed here
fireweed@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 1d
Nearly all dietary studies are correlation studies, unfortunately.
BillyClark@piefed.social · 13 pts · 19h
Another note is that this is a sweetener, so it replaces sugar, and sugar is also linked to strokes and heart attacks through diabetes and obesity.
Seimhe@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1d
It would make a great tag for such posts, if tags existed.
bigbangdangler@reddthat.com · 82 pts · 1d
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:
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.
ericatty@infosec.pub · 7 pts · 12h
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.
Delascas@feddit.uk · -54 pts · 23h
bigbangdangler@reddthat.com · 55 pts · 23h
If you deny the scientific method because you fear everyone is a shill, you're probably gonna have a bad time.
Voixe2@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 21h
ok Big Xylitol, you’ll never get me!
SippyCup@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 19h
That's added to the end of literally every study. It's an acknowledgement that not every single conceivable question has been answered by this study. Further research is always required.
Voixe2@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 12h
Bro did NOT get the joke lmao
svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 16 pts · 19h
Pretty much every study ends with "more study is needed". It's rare for a study of this type to be conclusive.
frongt@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 4h
Anyone saying "all the science is done, no more study is needed" is not to be trusted.
SupraMario@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 21h
The same shit is the reason everyone dropped using msg...which surprise turned out to be Bullshit.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 16h
Okay, what would consider the threshold for “maybe we shouldn’t do that?”
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 38 pts · 16h
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.
davetortoise@reddthat.com · 10 pts · 13h
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.
frongt@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 4h
There, best of both worlds.
Raiderkev@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 16h
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.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 16h
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.
orgrinrt@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 12h
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.
NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml · 17 pts · 17h
They're referring to Xylitol. Xylitol.
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 11h
In jam? D:
ohulancutash@feddit.uk · -3 pts · 12h
Oh that makes it much clearer than the headline. Is it some sort of floor cleaner?
HumanOnEarth@lemmy.ca · 14 pts · 1d
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.
MangoPenguin@piefed.social · 4 pts · 1d
That one gives me crazy digestive issues, I'm always checking if it's in the ingredients now.
Sturgist@piefed.ca · 1 pts · 1d
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.
Maeve@kbin.earth · 3 pts · 22h
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/aspartame-risks
Sturgist@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 22h
Yeah, I actually avoid aspartame as much as I can. The whole drinking it to clear the pipes thing was a joke. Well, the drinking it with intent bit, it does in fact destroy my guts.
realitista@lemmus.org · 14 pts · 1d
Dammit. I chew a lot of gum and there is no good option. I have to start looking for sugared gum.
folekaule@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 1d
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).
grue@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 1d
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.
folekaule@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
I had not heard that one. That's horrible.
ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 1d
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMlZJlw9Cck&t=81s
Doesn't seem like it was all that bad for her.
fireweed@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1d
FYI chewing gum is made of plastic. So there's that.
realitista@lemmus.org · 4 pts · 1d
I've been using TrueGum which is made from natural gums. But it has Xylitol.
Pringles@sopuli.xyz · 8 pts · 1d
Search for chewing gum that uses sorbitol as sweetener instead. Luckily for me my favorite brand, Airwaves, uses that and not xylitol.
realitista@lemmus.org · 4 pts · 1d
Isn't it just another sugar alcohol? I'm sure it's up next on the list, just not as popular.
Pringles@sopuli.xyz · -1 pts · 1d
It is a sugar alcohol, but also naturally occurring in apples and pears, so it at least seems safer.
bramkaandorp@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 1d
Not necessarily. The naturolistic fallacy exists for a reason.
realitista@lemmus.org · 6 pts · 1d
Xylitol also occurs naturally in plums, strawberries, raspberries, rowanberries, and bananas among others. And our livers even produce small amounts when breaking down sugars.
queermunist@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 19h
Just start smoking.
realitista@lemmus.org · 1 pts · 11h
Tried that for 25 years
Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca · -18 pts · 1d
sbbq@lemmy.zip · 23 pts · 1d
Xylitol is what they're talking about in this article
Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca · 21 pts · 1d
If you had one single job to do before posting a comment, what do you think that job would be? 🤡🤦
albbi@piefed.ca · 14 pts · 1d
This is what everyone does, right?
frongt@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 4h
They didn't even get as far as step 2
daychilde@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 22h
FIRST of all, that's more than "one single job"............... :P :)
SarahValentine@pawb.social · 11 pts · 1d
Read the article please.
bedwyr@piefed.ca · 4 pts · 1d
xylitol is not good for your dog. Eating your left over chewed gum could be enough to kill a dog. It's a potent poison. And a nasty death I hear.
Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 22h
marduk@lemmy.today · -1 pts · 1d
Thank you.
YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 1d
JFK Jr to demand it be added to more US products in 3….2…1…
bramkaandorp@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
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.
fonix232@fedia.io · 8 pts · 1d
Wasn't foaming at the mouth his default mode for the past few years anyway?
bramkaandorp@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 11h
Absolutely. He applies his professional framework (lawyering) onto areas where it doesn't fit (science), and the result is obvious.
minorkeys@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 20h
So glad we let companies sell us whatever poison hasn't had enough research yet to show it's unsafe...
Varesti@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 11h
Xylitol also kills dogs, so, whatever this study says, at least keep it away from your dogs.
shirro@aussie.zone · 7 pts · 16h
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.
nul42@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 1d
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?
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 21h
Diet colas, snack foods, anything really it's just another artificial sweetener. It most likely will not be any worse than aspartame with more studies.
Stolas@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 21h
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.
Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 17h
Xylitol is fantastic for dental health.
Im assuming theres some confounding factor like "people who chew a lot of gum and eat a lot of artificial sweeteners are also people who just eat a lot in general or have history of obesity/type 2 diabetes" or something until a dedicated study proves otherwise.
dbdr@nord.pub · 1 pts · 13h
At least some of that seems to be taken into account already:
Still agree more research is needed.
ericatty@infosec.pub · 3 pts · 12h
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.
dbdr@nord.pub · 1 pts · 4h
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.
frongt@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 4h
The association was independent, not the data.
emeralddawn45@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 13h
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 16h
Seriously, being fat is also highly correlated with heart disease.
bw42@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
I complain to my wife all the time that sugar alcohols shoild be banned from food products.
PlantJam@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
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.
Biffsbraincell@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 1d
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...
PlantJam@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
"No added sugar" but then the ingredients list extra juice concentrate is another pet peeve.
Maeve@kbin.earth · 2 pts · 23h
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).
JollyBrancher@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 18h
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?
Maeve@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 12h
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.
mjr@infosec.pub · 2 pts · 13h
And which food manufacturer does your wife run ?
Maeve@kbin.earth · 5 pts · 23h
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
anon_8675309@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 9h
Isn’t this the ingredient In a lot of foods that are said to be diabetic friendly?
rumba@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 11h
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.
HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 4h
Hmm
https://justcatcafe.com/what-fruits-contain-xylitol/
tacosanonymous@mander.xyz · 0 pts · 1d
Uh oh.
Doom@lemmy.world · -4 pts · 1d
Xylitol? The sweetener that kills pets? I'm shocked, Shocked I say!
bigbangdangler@reddthat.com · 20 pts · 1d
Chocolate also kills pets.
If you read the article, you'll see the authors of the study literally saying that not many conclusions should be drawn from it.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 16h
So do fucking grapes.