Category: Supplements

In this blog, I want to feature a product that we recommend to our clients.  I don’t often write blogs about products that we don’t produce ourselves.  So you know, when I do, it is a product that I really believe in and trust.  In this week’s blog, I want to talk about Stur Liquid Water Enhancers, what they are used for, and why I love them.

So first, what are Stur Liquid Water Enhancers?  Basically, these are products that can be added to plain water to give it some flavor.  They come in a variety of flavors, so everyone should be able to find one that they enjoy.  They are very similar to Mio water flavoring in their use.  I bring up Mio only because it is the most popular and well-known water flavoring product out there.  When a client does a weight loss program with us, in either Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky weight loss offices, we will often have them consume water on a regular basis.  Regular water consumption helps keep the metabolism going.  It also keeps clients fully hydrated so they don’t have aggressive swings in their weight (either losses or gains) on a daily basis.  The issue is that drinking plain water all day can be boring.  This is where Stur can help!  Adding Stur Liquid Water Enhancer to water every once in a while is a great way to break up the monotony and minimize frustrations.

So the second question is, “Why do I love Stur products specifically?”  All Stur Liquid Water Enhancer products are 0 calories.  When a client is aggressively trying to lose weight, and they want that weight to be body fat, it is of utmost importance to limit the junk calories coming into the diet.  You wouldn’t, for instance, want to have a Coke a couple of times per day when you are thirsty to satisfy that craving because of the high sugar (and calorie) content (Diet Coke is a completely different animal that I have written extensively on).  So, Stur products will help solve the problem of plain water getting boring without adding any junk calories.  But there are many 0-calorie water flavoring products (Mio included), so why do I love Stur?  The reason Stur is my go-to recommendation comes down to its ingredients.  While most water flavorings contain artificial sweeteners, Stur is sweetened with natural Stevia, a MUCH better choice in my opinion. 

Again, I have written a number of articles on artificial sweeteners (namely aspartame and sucralose) and why I am not the biggest fan of these products during a weight loss journey.  The bottom line is that they are linked in many research studies to weight gain.  Stevia, on the other hand, has been shown to actually have health benefits (maybe a topic for the future).

Stur Liquid Water Enhancer products will continue to be our go-to recommendation for clients on a weight loss journey.  You can find Stur products by clicking on this link.

Recently the non-nutritive natural sweetener erythritol has been getting a lot of buzz in the media.  Unfortunately, this has been the type of attention that makers of products containing erythritol never want to see.  This unwanted attention dates back several weeks when a study was published linking erythritol to heart attack and stroke in people with pre-existing cardiovascular conditions like heart disease or diabetes.  The study further showed that in lab studies erythritol lead to increased clotting.

So let’s dissect this study to determine if erythritol is actually dangerous, in my opinion.  First, let me state that I do not feel that the study is flawed or the research team did anything wrong.  We cannot, however jump to the conclusion that erythritol caused cardiovascular problems based on correlation in an observational study.  The research team goes as far as making the statement that this causal relationship cannot be established.  There has also been plenty of research that counters this study, where erythritol has been shown to actually be beneficial to the cardiovascular system.  But this is the shocking/sexy study with a grandiose headline, so, like a spoiled child in Walmart, it is getting the attention for now.

Here are the basics on what the study looked at.  First, the researchers were looking, in my opinion, at super-users of erythritol.  These were people who were consuming 30g of erythritol per day.  For reference the FDA considers a normal intake of erythritol to be around 13g per day.  The FDA also states that a consumption of 30g per day would put a user into the 90^th percentile of all users.  The participants in the study also had pre-existing heart problems.  These were not “healthy” individuals starting out in the study.  But, it does need to be stated that given these factors, as erythritol use increased so did these cardiovascular events.

The second part of the study dealt with clotting.  It was found that in lab studies (not human studies) clotting was increased in the presence of erythritol.  An inappropriate increase in clotting can be detrimental to those already at risk for cardiovascular events.  This seems to be the researchers “smoking gun”.  Unfortunately, the research team went looking for a mechanism only after they found a result that they didn’t fully understand (the link between erythritol and heart attacks).  The problem here, in my opinion, is researcher bias.  When you are actively looking for something it becomes much easier to find.

So how much erythritol is actually in foods that contain it?  Remember, we need to get to 30g per day. Here are just a couple of examples;

Truvia Packet 2g – You would need 15 Truvia sweetened coffees/day

              Hershey’s 0 Sugar – 2g/serving – You would need to turn the bottle upside down and drink it.

              Vitamin Water Zero – 5g per bottle – how active are you to need 6 of these per day?

It should be clear that getting to this 30g/day level is not the norm.

In my opinion, even though the participants already had pre-existing conditions in place and they were using much more erythritol daily than is normal, the erythritol is still not causing cardiovascular problems.  Here are two alternative scenarios that have the same probability of being true.

1.  The participants at the highest risk for cardiovascular events (the most unhealthy) may be the most likely to use erythritol to reduce calories and lose weight to improve their health.  In this scenario, the participants underlying health problems lead to an increased risk for heart attacks and strokes AND an increase in erythritol use.
2. The participants in the study who have really lost control of their ability to control their diets could be the ones consuming inordinate amounts of erythritol.  These individuals would also likely be at a greater risk due to their out-of-control diet.  In this case, the participant’s mindset causes both the increased risk AND the increased erythritol use.

My point is simply that there is no way to know by this study if erythritol is the issue or any number of other factors.

Finally, if you are concerned with erythritol consumption, it is easily avoidable.  You could simply avoid non-nutritive sweeteners.  Do we really HAVE to have sweets… really?  There are also plenty of 0-calorie sweeteners available that don’t contain erythritol.  But are these products actually safer?  In my opinion, that is not a determination that should be made off on one observational study.