Xylitol vs Erythritol – Which is Healthier?

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Our Verdict

When comparing xylitol to erythritol, we picked the xylitol.

Why?

They’re both sugar alcohols, which so far as the body is concerned are neither sugars nor alcohols in the way those words are commonly understood; it’s just a chemical term. The sugars aren’t processed as such by the body and are passed as dietary fiber, and nor is there any intoxicating effect as one might expect from an alcohol.

In terms of macronutrients, while technically they both have carbs, for all functional purposes they don’t and just have a little fiber.

In terms of micronutrients, they don’t have any.

The one thing that sets them apart is their respective safety profiles. Xylitol is prothrombotic and associated with major adverse cardiac events (CI=95, adjusted hazard ratio=1.57, range=1.12-2.21), while erythritol is also prothrombotic and more strongly associated with major adverse cardiac events (CI=95, adjusted hazard ratio=2.21, range=1.20-4.07).

So, xylitol is bad and erythritol is worse, which means the relatively “healthier” is xylitol. We don’t recommend either, though.

Studies for both:

Links for the specific products we compared, in case our assessment hasn’t put you off them:

Xylitol | Erythritol

Want to learn more?

You might like to read:

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  • Wouldn’t It Be Nice To Have Regenerative Superpowers?

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    The Best-Laid Schemes of Mice and Medical Researchers…

    This is Dr. Ellen Heber-Katz. She’s an internationally-renowned immunologist and regeneration biologist, but her perhaps greatest discovery was accidental.

    Unlike in Robert Burns’ famous poem, this one has a happy ending!

    But it did involve the best-laid schemes of mice and medical researchers, and how they did indeed “gang gagly“ (or in the English translation, “go awry”).

    How it started…

    Back in 1995, she was conducting autoimmune research, and doing a mouse study. Her post-doc assistant was assigned to punch holes in the ears of mice that had received an experimental treatment, to distinguish them from the control group.

    However, when the mice were later checked, none of them had holes (nor even any indication there ever had been holes punched)—the experiment was ruined, though the post-doc swore she did her job correctly.

    So, they had to start from scratch in the new year, but again, a second batch of mice repeated the trick. No holes, no wounds, no scarring, not disruption to their fur, no damage to the cartilage that had been punched through.

    In a turn of events worthy of a superhero origin story, they discovered that their laboratory-made autoimmune disease had accidentally given the mice super-healing powers of regeneration.

    In the animal kingdom, this is akin to a salamander growing a new tail, but it’s not something usually found in mammals.

    Read: A New Murine Model for Mammalian Wound Repair and Regeneration

    How it’s going…

    Dr. Heber-Katz and colleagues took another 20 years of work to isolate hypoxia-inducible factor-1a (HIF-1a) as a critical molecule that, if blocked, would eliminate the regenerative response.

    Further, a drug (which they went on to patent), 1,4-dihydrophenonthrolin-4-one-3-carboxylic acid (1,4-DPCA), chemically induced this regenerative power:

    See: Drug-induced regeneration in adult mice

    Another 5 years later, they found that this same drug can be used to stimulate the regrowth of bones, too:

    An injectable hydrogel-formulated inhibitor of prolyl-4-hydroxylase promotes T regulatory cell recruitment and enhances alveolar bone regeneration during resolution of experimental periodontitis

    And now…

    The research is continuing. Here’s the latest, a little over a month ago:

    Epithelial–mesenchymal transition: an organizing principle of mammalian regeneration

    Regrowing nerves has also been added into the list of things the drug can do.

    What about humans?

    Superpowered mice are all very well and good, but when can we expect this in humans?

    The next step is testing the drug in larger animals, which she hopes to do next year, followed eventually by studies in humans.

    Read the latest:

    Regrowing nerves and healing without scars? A scientist’s career-long quest comes closer to fruition

    Very promising!

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  • What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?

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    We speak often about the importance of dietary diversity, and of that, especially diversity of plants in one’s diet, but we’ve never really focused on it as a main feature, so that’s what we’re going to do today.

    Specifically, you may have heard the advice to “eat 30 different kinds of plants per week”. But where does that come from, and is it just a number out of a hat?

    The magic number?

    It is not, in fact, a number out of a hat. It’s from a big (n=11,336) study into what things affect the gut microbiome for better or for worse. It was an observational population study, championing “citizen science” in which volunteers tracked various things and collected and sent in various samples for analysis.

    The most significant finding of this study was that those who consumed more than 30 different kinds of plants per week, had a much better gut microbiome than those who consumed fewer than 10 different kinds of plants per week (there is a bell curve at play, and it gets steep around 10 and 30):

    American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research

    Why do I care about having a good gut microbiome?

    Gut health affects almost every other kind of health; it’s been called “the second brain” for the various neurotransmitters and other hormones it directly makes or indirectly regulates (which in turn affect every part of your body), and of course there is the vagus nerve connecting it directly to the brain, impacting everything from food cravings to mood swings to sleep habits.

    See also:

    Any other benefits?

    Yes there are! Let’s not forget: as we see often in our “This or That” section, different foods can be strong or weak in different areas of nutrition, so unless we want to whip out a calculator and database every time we make food choices, a good way to cover everything is to simply eat a diverse diet.

    And that goes not just for vitamins and minerals (which would be true of animal products also), but in the case of plants, a wide range of health-giving phytochemicals too:

    Measuring Dietary Botanical Diversity as a Proxy for Phytochemical Exposure

    Ok, I’m sold, but 30 is a lot!

    It is, but you don’t have to do all 30 in your first week of focusing on this, if you’re not already accustomed to such diversity. You can add in one or two new ones each time you go shopping, and build it up.

    As for “what counts”: we’re counting unprocessed or minimally-processed plants. So for example, an apple is an apple, as are dried apple slices, as is apple sauce. Any or all of those would count as 1 plant type.

    Note also that we’re counting types, not totals. If you’re having apple slices with apple sauce, for some reason? That still only counts as 1.

    However, while apple sauce still counts as apples (minimally processed), you cannot eat a cake and say “that’s 2 because there was wheat and sugar cane somewhere in its dim and distant history”.

    Nor is your morning espresso a fruit (by virtue of coffee beans being the fruit of the plant, botanically speaking). However, it would count as 1 plant type if you eat actual coffee beans—this writer has been known to snack on such; they’re only healthy in very small portions though, because their saturated fat content is a little high.

    You, however, count grains in general, as well as nuts and seeds, not just fruits and vegetables. As for herbs and spices, they count for ¼ each, except for salt, which might get lumped in with spices but is of course not a plant.

    How to do it

    There’s a reason we’re doing this in our Saturday Life Hacks edition. Here are some tips for getting in far more plants than you might think, a lot more easily than you might think:

    • Buy things ready-mixed. This means buying the frozen mixed veg, the frozen mixed chopped fruit, the mixed nuts, the mixed salad greens etc. This way, when you’re reaching for one pack of something, you’re getting 3–5 different plants instead of one.
    • Buy things individually, and mix them for storage. This is a more customized version of the above, but in the case of things that keep for at least a while, it can make lazy options a lot more plentiful. Suddenly, instead of rice with your salad you’re having sorghum, millet, buckwheat, and quinoa. This trick also works great for dried berries that can just be tipped into one’s morning oatmeal. Or, you know, millet, oats, rye, and barley. Suddenly, instead of 1 or 2 plants for breakfast you have maybe 7 or 8.
    • Keep a well-stocked pantry of shelf-stable items. This is good practice anyway, in case of another supply-lines shutdown like at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But for plant diversity, it means that if you’re making enchiladas, then instead using kidney beans because that’s what’s in the cupboard, you can raid your pantry for kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, fava beans, etc etc. Yes, all of them; that’s a list, not a menu.
    • Shop in the discount section of the supermarket. You don’t have shop exclusively there, but swing by that area, see what plants are available for next to nothing, and buy at least one of each. Figure out what to do with it later, but the point here is that it’s a good way to get suggestions of plants that you weren’t actively looking for—and novelty is invariably a step into diversity.
    • Shop in a different store. You won’t be able to beeline the products you want on autopilot, so you’ll see other things on the way. Also, they may have things your usual store doesn’t.
    • Shop in person, not online—at least as often as is practical. This is because when shopping for groceries online, the store will tend to prioritize showing you items you’ve bought before, or similar items to those (i.e. actually the same item, just a different brand). Not good for trying new things!
    • Consider a meal kit delivery service. Because unlike online grocery shopping, this kind of delivery service will (usually) provide you with things you wouldn’t normally buy. Our sometimes-sponsor Purple Carrot is a fine option for this, but there are plenty of others too.
    • Try new recipes, especially if they have plants you don’t normally use. Make a note of the recipe, and go out of your way to get the ingredients; if it seems like a chore, reframe it as a little adventure instead. Honestly, it’s things like this that keep us young in more ways than just what polyphenols can do!
    • Hide the plants. Whether or not you like them; hide them just because it works in culinary terms. By this we mean; blend beans into that meaty sauce; thicken the soup with red lentils, blend cauliflower into the gravy. And so on.

    One more “magic 30”, while we’re at it…

    30g fiber per day makes a big (positive) difference to many aspects of health. Obviously, plants are where that comes from, so there’s a big degree of overlap here, but most of the tips we gave are different, so for double the effectiveness, check out:

    Level-Up Your Fiber Intake! (Without Difficulty Or Discomfort)

    Enjoy!

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  • Do CBD Gummies Work?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small

    ❝I take CBD gummies. I don’t know if they are worth buying. Can you find a study on the effectiveness of gummies❞

    If you take them, and you’re not sure whether they’re worth it, then it sounds like you’re not getting any observable benefit from them?

    If so, that would seem to answer your question, since presumably the reason that you are taking them is for relaxation and/or pain relief, so if you’re not getting the results you want, then no, they are not worth it.

    However! CBD gummies are an incredibly diverse and not-well-studied product, so far, given the relative novelty of their legality. By diverse we mean, they’re not well-standardized.

    In other words: the CBD gummies you get could be completely unlike CBD gummies from a different source.

    CBD itself (i.e. in forms other than just gummies, and mostly as oil) has been studied somewhat better, and we did a main feature on it here:

    CBD Oil’s Many Benefits

    And while we’re at it:

    Cannabis Myths vs Reality ← This one is about cannabis products in general, and includes discussion of THC content and effects, which might not be so relevant to you, but may to some readers.

    Companies selling CBD and CBD gummies may make bold claims that are not yet backed by science, so if you are buying them for those reasons, you might want to be aware:

    Selling cannabidiol products in Canada: a framing analysis of advertising claims by online retailers

    One thing that we would add is that even though CBD is generally recognized as safe, it is possible to overdose on CBD gummies, so do watch your limits:

    A Case of Toxicity from Cannabidiol Gummy Ingestion

    Take care!

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Related Posts

  • Oats vs Pearl Barley – Which is Healthier?
  • Holding Back The Clock on Aging

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    Holding Back The Clock on Aging

    Dr. Eric Verdin specializes in Holding Back The Clock, with a focus on Aging.

    This is Dr. Eric Verdin, President and CEO of the Buck Institute of Research on Aging. He’s also held faculty positions at the University of Brussels, the NIH, and the Picower Institute for Medical Research. Dr. Verdin is also a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco.

    Dr. Verdin’s laboratory focuses on the role of epigenetic regulators (especially the behaviors of certain enzymes) in the aging process. He studies how metabolism, diet, and chemical factors regulate the aging process and its associated diseases, including Alzheimer’s.

    He has published more than 210 scientific papers and holds more than 15 patents. He is a highly cited scientist and has been recognized for his research with a Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging.

    And that’s just what we could fit here! Basically, he knows his stuff.

    What we can do

    Dr. Verdin’s position is bold, but rooted in evidence:

    ❝Lifestyle is responsible for about 93% of our longevity—only about 7% is genetics. Based on the data, if implementing health lifestyle choices, most people could live to 95 in good health. So there’s 15 to 17 extra years of healthy life that is up for grabs❞

    ~ Dr. Eric Verdin

    See for example:

    How we can do it

    Well, we all know “the big five”:

    • Good diet (Mediterranean Diet as usual is recommended)
    • Good exercise (more on this in a moment)
    • Good sleep (more on this in a moment)
    • Avoid alcohol (not controversial)
    • Don’t smoke (need we say more)

    When it comes to exercise, generally recognized as good is at least 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity exercise (for example, a brisk walk, or doing the gardening), and at least three small sessions a week of high intensity exercise, unless contraindicated by some medical condition.

    As for Dr. Verdin’s take on this…

    What Dr. Verdin recommends is:

    • make it personalized
    • make it pre-emptive
    • make it better

    The perfect exercise plan is only perfect if you actually do it. And if you actually can do it, for that matter.

    Prevention is so much better (and easier) than cure for a whole array of maladies. So while there may be merit in thinking “what needs fixing”, Dr. Verdin encourages us to take extra care to not neglect factors of our health that seem “good enough”. Because, give them time and neglect, and they won’t be!

    Wherever we’re at in life and health, there’s always at least some little way we could make it a bit better. Dr. Verdin advises us to seek out those little improvements, even if it’s just a nudge better here, a nudge better there, all those nudges add up!

    About sleep…

    It’s perhaps the easiest one to neglect (writer’s note: as a writer, I certainly feel that way!), but his biggest take-away tip for this is:

    Worry less about what time you set an alarm for in the morning. Instead, set an alarm for the evening—to remind you when to go to bed.

    Want to hear directly from the man himself?

    Here he is speaking on progress we can expect for the next decade in the field of aging research, as part of the 100 Minutes of Longevity session at The Longevity Forum, a few months ago:

    !

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  • Tis To Season To Be SAD-Savvy

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    Seasonal Affective Disorder & SAD Lamps

    For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s that time of the year; especially after the clocks recently went back and the nights themselves are getting longer. So, what to do in the season of 3pm darkness?

    First: the problem

    The problem is twofold:

    1. Our circadian rhythm gets confused
    2. We don’t make enough serotonin

    The latter is because serotonin production is largely regulated by sunlight.

    People tend to focus on item 2, but item 1 is important too—both as problem, and as means of remedy.

    Circadian rhythm is about more than just light

    We did a main feature on this a little while back, talking about:

    • What light/dark does for us, and how it’s important, but not completely necessary
    • How our body knows what time it is even in perpetual darkness
    • The many peaks and troughs of many physiological functions over the course of a day/night
    • What that means for us in terms of such things as diet and exercise
    • Practical take-aways from the above

    Read: The Circadian Rhythm: Far More Than Most People Know

    With that in mind, the same methodology can be applied as part of treating Seasonal Affective Disorder.

    Serotonin is also about more than just light

    Our brain is a) an unbelievably powerful organ, and the greatest of any animal on the planet b) a wobbly wet mass that gets easily confused.

    In the case of serotonin, we can have problems:

    • knowing when to synthesize it or not
    • synthesizing it
    • using it
    • knowing when to scrub it or not
    • scrubbing it
    • etc

    Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of antidepressants that, as the name suggests, inhibit the re-uptake (scrubbing) of serotonin. So, they won’t add more serotonin to your brain, but they’ll cause your brain to get more mileage out of the serotonin that’s there, using it for longer.

    So, whether or not they help will depend on you and your brain:

    Read: Antidepressants: Personalization Is Key!

    How useful are artificial sunlight lamps?

    Artificial sunlight lamps (also called SAD lamps), or blue light lamps, are used in an effort to “replace” daylight.

    Does it work? According to the science, generally yes, though everyone would like more and better studies:

    Interestingly, it does still work in cases of visual impairment and blindness:

    How much artificial sunlight is needed?

    According to Wirz-Justice and Terman (2022), the best parameters are:

    • 10,000 lux
    • full spectrum (white light)
    • 30–60 minutes exposure
    • in the morning

    Source: Light Therapy: Why, What, for Whom, How, and When (And a Postscript about Darkness)

    That one’s a fascinating read, by the way, if you have time.

    Can you recommend one?

    For your convenience, here’s an example product on Amazon that meets the above specifications, and is also very similar to the one this writer has

    Enjoy!

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  • Asparagus vs Edamame – Which is Healthier?

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    Our Verdict

    When comparing asparagus to edamame, we picked the edamame.

    Why?

    Perhaps it’s a little unfair comparing a legume to a vegetable that’s not leguminous (given legumes’ high protein content), but these two vegetables often serve a similar culinary role, and there is more to nutrition than protein. That said…

    In terms of macros, edamame has a lot more protein and fiber; it also has more carbs, but the ratio is such that edamame still has the lower glycemic index. Thus, the macros category is a win for edamame in all relevant aspects.

    When it comes to vitamins, things are a little closer; asparagus has more of vitamins A, B3, and C, while edamame has more of vitamins B1, B2, B5, B6, and B9. All in all, a moderate win for edamame, unless we want to consider the much higher vitamin C content of asparagus as particularly more relevant.

    In the category of minerals, asparagus boasts only more selenium (and more sodium, not that that’s a good thing for most people in industrialized countries), while edamame has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. An easy win for edamame.

    In short, enjoy both (unless you have a soy allergy, because edamame is young soy beans), but edamame is the more nutritionally dense by far.

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Take care!

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