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Many people are looking for drinks that have almost no
calories. Usually, synthetic sweeteners are used that do not contain sugar but give them a sweet taste, but a study of one of several sweeteners in the United States showed that it doubled the mortality rate of cardiovascular disease.

How worrisome the situation is and what about other sweeteners, medical reporter Cho Dong-chan covered.

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Sugar is the number one cause of chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

'Zero sugar' drinks with sweeteners to eat less sugar are popular, and there are dozens of them.

[Kim Tae-young/Seodaemun-gu in Seoul: I'm feeling a little bit like zero (sugary drinks) is a little less sticky.]

By the way, erythritol, one of the zero sugars, has been shown to increase cardiovascular mortality.

When the blood levels of erythritol in the blood of elderly people in their 2s with cardiovascular disease were measured and monitored for three years, the top one-quarter group had an average mortality rate twice as high as the bottom one-quarter group.

Erythritol formed blood clots, clogging the brain and heart vessels.

I bought zero-calorie drinks at a convenience store.

Zero Coke, Zero Cider, Zero Regular Drink.

Of these, two products used erythritol, which is said to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Other zero-calorie drinks use different artificial sweeteners, so let's see if that's okay.

Domestic zero-calorie drinks mainly used three types of zero sugar: aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose.

They are among the six types of zero sugars declared safe by the US FDA.

The Korean Food and Drug Administration approved 60 types of zero sugar, and 3 of them were examined and found to be harmless.

The domestic use of six types of erythritol, which was excluded from the survey, was minimal.

Zero sugar itself may not be harmful, but in the long run it can make you accustomed to its sweetness.

[Jiwon Lee/Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Severance Hospital: It is known that eating excessive amounts (of zero sugar) for a long time can lead to obesity or adversely affect blood sugar control, and can also change the intestinal microbial environment.]

Zero sugar is better than sugar, but abuse can be dangerous.

(Video Interview: Shin Dong-hwan, Video Editor: Kim Ho-jin, CG: Park Chun-woong, Kang Kyung-rim, Jang Sung-beom, VJ: Shin So-young)