> I often see this being used as an excuse to say that because we produce it, it isn't bad for you. Thing is that we produce it in tiny tiny amount
There is a reason we say this, if we produce it naturally our body has mechanisms to metabolize the item. For example acetone isn't very toxic because our body produces it naturally and knows how to deal with it.
(Note I am not disagreeing with you regarding amounts, just pointing out it's not such a foolish thing to say.)
Acetone can be found everywhere. You're not going to take a spoonful of it and add it your coffee.
That's what I'm talking about.
Erythritol is cheaper than Stevia or Monk Fruit so they've taken to putting a tiny amount of the natural sweetener and a ton of erythritol in there. You really have to look for the pure stuff and order it specifically.
The reason monk fruit and erythritol are mixed is to make the overall sweetness per volume 1:1 with sugar. Since erythritol is less sweet than sugar and monk fruit is much sweeter, you naturally get more erythritol than you do monk fruit.
I often see this being used as an excuse to say that because we produce it, it isn't bad for you. Thing is that we produce it in tiny tiny amounts... then we take a spoonful of 'monk fruit' and add it to our coffee. There's nothing 'natural' about that.
> If you’re worried about erythritol, it’s pretty easy to avoid.
Not really. Just a random google...
"MONK FRUIT IN THE RAW"
https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Sweetener-Erythritol-Sugar-Fr...
Look at the first item on the list, it is a bag of erythritol, packaged to be 'monk fruit'.
Almost every single 'monk fruit' product out there is a bag of erythritol. Look at the shelf in your local grocery store. Eventually, people just give up and buy the bag since they have been told 'sugar' is bad.
That's the real tragedy here.