A new study on a popular artificial sweetener may show a link between it and health risks.
The sweetener is xylitol, which is found in foods, drinks, chewing gum and even oral care products, USA Today reported.
You may have heard about xylitol and the dangers it presents to dogs.
Researchers found that people with high blood levels of xylitol also had an increased risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attacks, stroke, or death, compared with people with low levels of the sweetener.
The study was presented at the ESC Congress cardiological conference last week.
The study followed 17,710 patients over six years and showed a 57% higher risk for those with high amounts of xylitol than those with low levels after correcting for other risk factors, including age, gender, smoking status, diabetes, lipid levels, and hypertension. After 30 years, the risk was 18% higher, USA Today reported.
The study has not been published, but it is considered observational, which does not prove cause and effect.
Harvard Medical School warned of an observational study published in 2024 concerning xylitol, and published by Dr. Marco Witkowski, that, “While more research is needed (the study was small, and observational versus experimental), it’s best to keep your consumption of xylitol in check.
The Food and Drug Administration says, “sweeteners must be safe for consumption.”
The agency includes xylitol, which is a sugar alcohol, under the sugar substitutes category. They can be between 25% and 100% as sweet as sugar. They’re lower in calories and do not promote tooth decay or increase blood glucose.
“Our long-term findings in the general population highlight how little we know about the cardiovascular safety of xylitol and indicate that further studies are warranted, especially as the amount of xylitol in products continues to increase,” Witkowski said in a news release published last week.
“Artificial sweeteners are widely embraced by modern society, and the safety ratings had been good and granted by regulatory authorities. In this observational work, however, it appears that xylitol has a negative long-term effect on cardiovascular events in the general population,” Professor Dan Atar said in the release. “As with all observational studies, causalities are difficult to infer, but this work shows that further studies are mandated into this societally important topic.”
The research will be presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2026.
©2026 Cox Media Group
