Erythritol - further remarks

Following are several items that I left out of my first blog on the topic: firstly, this sugar alcohol occurs naturally - albeit in very low concentrations - in fruit, so it is not an artificial product. That said, erythritol is produced commercially by engineered yeast fermentation of glucose. As erythritol is metabolised neither by humans nor by gut flora, it is of course good news for diabetics. Quoting one of those National Library of Medicine articles, Evidence shows erythritol has potential as a beneficial replacement for sugar in healthy and diabetic subjects as it exerts no effects on glucose or insulin and induces gut hormone secretions that modulate satiety to promote weight loss. That final statement modulate satiety to promote weight loss is very interesting to me.

A question: why is it that bacteria haven't incorporated a mutation that allows them to metabolise erythritol? I am always reading about how versatile bacteria are and how they mutate, adapting themselves to new environments. So why don't they have this mutation? And if nothing can metabolise erythritol, what happens to the erythritol that we excrete?

I have found an Israeli supplier that is cheaper than iHerb: 1 kg costs only 54 NIS, whereas I bought 454 g (1 pound) for 37 NIS. That said, I wonder whether this supplier will deliver a 1kg bag. [I ordered 3 kg with home delivery - there are also erythritol tablets at 52 NIS/800g instead of powder.]

A scientific paper on the action of xylitol and erythritol on oral Streptococci shows that these sugar alcohols not only inhibit bacterial growth but also have some positive effect on the biofilm matrix (aka dental plaque).

Here is a general article on the pros and cons of erythritol. I don't like how the article discusses the problems with large doses of sugar alcohols - that they are generally metabolised by gut flora leading to gas and bloating - without mentioning until much later on that this is not the case with erythritol. As I wrote earlier, gut flora too do not metabolise erythritol.

Where's the downside? Apparently, erythritol, in both in vitro and in vivo assays, enhances platelet aggregation. This means that the risk of stroke and cardiac events by blocking blood vessels is increased. I take aspirin daily: this reduces the ability of blood to clot. So what happens with the concomittant usage of erythritol and aspirin? I've only read the abstract of that paper, so I don't know what were the levels of erythritol in the blood of the people being tested.

Looking through the Molecule of the Month website, I found a reference to erythritol, right at the very end.

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This day in history:

Blog #	Date	Title	Tags
34	25/04/2006	Creaking bones and aching muscles (Slouching towards Jerusalem, part 2)	Israel, Bar mitzva, Jerusalem
168	25/04/2009	Positive changes	ERP, Psychology
473	25/04/2012	Debt of Honour	MBA, Tom Clancy, Negotiation
578	25/04/2013	New TV series	TV series
1311	25/04/2020	VideoPad	Home movies, Covid-19
1388	25/04/2021	Has the culprit been found (hypertension)?	Health, Blood pressure