Diets high in added sugar raise heart disease risk

A study says daily sugar intake can alter important blood fats. Whether the source is sugar cane or high fructose corn syrup, the ‘sugar effect’ persists.

Feeding a sweet tooth won't just lead to weight gain and a mouthful of cavities. A new study suggests that diets high in added sugars can alter levels of important blood fats and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The study, published in the Wednesday edition of the Journal of the American Medical Assn., found that people who got at least 25% of their daily calories from added sugars of any kind were 3.1 times more likely to have low levels of so-called good cholesterol in their bloodstream than people who got less than 5% of their calories from added sweeteners.

 

Additionally, those who consumed more than 17.5% of their calories from the sugars — be it ordinary table sugar derived from sugar cane or sugar beets, high fructose corn syrup or any other caloric sweetener — were 20% to 30% more likely to have high levels of blood fats called triglycerides than people with the low-sugar diets, the study found.

The association between sugar intake and blood lipids was independent of the harmful effects of other components of sugary processed foods, such as fat and cholesterol. The link also persisted when researchers took into account smoking and drinking habits and levels of physical activity.

"There is a specific added-sugar effect," said Dr. Miriam Vos, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Emory University in Atlanta who led the study.

The findings support guidelines released last year by the American Heart Assn. recommending that men eat no more than 150 calories of added sugars each day and that women limit themselves to 100 calories. That works out to about 5% of daily intake.

That's far less than the 25% limit suggested in 2005 by the Institute of Medicine, which advises the government on health matters. The World Health Organization endorses a limit of 10%, an amount that didn't appear to harm blood lipid levels in the new analysis.

To reach their conclusions, Vos and her colleagues at Emory and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined data from 6,113 American adults who participated in the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2006. Survey workers took measurements of height, weight and blood pressure, drew blood samples and asked participants detailed questions about everything they ate in a 24-hour period.