Build Up Catch Up - 3/3/2023
Panic about Erythritol, Podcast Pick, Positions and Pay, Potential Build Up Meet Up, and Pediatric Group
Panic About Erythritol
BIG news this week: a study on erythritol in Nature Medicine claiming a possible link to cardiovascular disease. The headline for the study (link to study) read:
“The artificial sweetener erythritol and cardiovascular event risk”
Media and social media had a field day and headlines quickly proclaimed:
“Artificial sweetener erythritol linked to heart attack and stroke, study finds” - CBS News
“Popular zero-calorie sweetener linked to heart attack and stroke, study finds” -CNN
“Sugar substitute, common in keto foods, linked to stroke” - USA Today
Immediately there were a number of tweets and posts from people in a panic claiming that erythritol was “toxic” and dramatically stating they were throwing it out and going back to eating “real sugar”. Some have even tried to link erythritol to unexplained deaths or that it was a plot by “Big Sugar”.
Let’s take a pause and look at a few things:
FIRST - a refresher on erythritol:
From Center for Science in the Public Interest and IFIC - Food Insight
Erythritol is a sugar alcohol first used commercially in the U.S in 2001 and it is often combined with stevia and monk fruit to disguise their aftertaste. Erythritol can be found naturally in small amounts in pears, grapes and melons. “…most adults can safely consume up to about 50 grams of erythritol per day...Erythritol's relative safety is due to its being mostly absorbed into the bloodstream and excreted unchanged in urine.”
NOW: Be sure and read the actual Cleveland Clinic study (linked above). In the “Discussion” section these were some of the limitations that the study authors themselves noted:
the study participants...already showed a "...high prevalence of CVD and traditional risk factors so translatability to general population cannot be determined..."
this an ASSOCIATION...and NOT a CAUSATION
and they concluded that more research is needed.
AND: Many notable and respected voices put out balanced comments on social media like:
Dr. Duane Mellor (RD, PhD, researcher, educator) - “Erythritol is also a metabolite in the Pentose Phosphate pathway, which is produced in larger amounts when there is excess energy and oxidative stress...”
Dr. Nicola Guess (RD, PhD and T2 diabetes researcher) - “This is a bunch of association data …repeated a few times, then an “interventional trial”, which doesn’t even attempt to answer the all important hypothesis...because that trial (it’s n=40 folks, not n=4,000) is “ongoing”.”
Dr. Kevin Klatt (RD, PhD and metabolism researcher) - “Love how you can turn an endogenously produced metabolite into a sexy Nature paper by noting it's also used as an 'artificial sweetener'“ (for a really deep dive into the research see his blog post )
Layne Norton (PhD, nutritional science) - “…They were looking at blood levels of erythritol and NOT erythritol intake…”
Bottom Line: Look at the actual study and don’t just react to/retweet or share click-bait headlines. Here’s (image below) a handy resource from @ProfLaurenBall if you don’t feel confident about reading research. If the study is behind a paywall and you don’t have access to the study, be sure and seek out experts (not fitness trainers or influencers) in the field who stick with science and are evidence-based and see if they are commenting.
Podcast Pick - GOUT
In the nutrition space we may be used to getting consults for gout and giving someone instruction on a low purine diet. But what if this type of dietary intervention is of little benefit? Have a listen to this interesting podcast about the history of gout, genetic component, medications and treatment and why women may be overlooked if they have gout.
Ep 108 Gout: Toetally fascinating
Positions/Job Openings Parameters
Our policy in the Build Up JOBS group is to only allow positions that show the hourly or salary range. We get about 2-4 new job postings each day in the group. If you are an agency, headhunter or recruiter the cost to post a job is $25/post and can be paid to Build Up Dietitians via VENMO. If you are an individual and you are posting a position you saw on-line or at your place of employment, there is NO cost to post a job.
Potential Build Up Meet Up
Guess what? We are starting to work on a FNCE 2023 meet up in Denver! It would be a sponsored 2-3 hour casual drop-in/drop-by meet up. Let us know what you think of the idea of attending and what you’d like it to look like by taking this SURVEY: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/S6HB9H6.
The last “Build Up Meet Up'“ we did was in 2019 in Philadelphia which seems like a lifetime ago!
SPOTLIGHT: Pediatric Group
We have 23 closed and private groups through the Build Up Dietitians Facebook page and one of them is the Build Up Dietitians PEDIATRICS group . This group has 2.2K members and discussions are often about infant formula (shortages), breast feeding, feeding issues like AFRID, complicated pediatric patient cases and resources for dietitians who work in pediatrics. The group has several volunteer moderators and group experts with years of experience in pediatric nutrition.