Sugar is Bad for your Health
April 21, 2010 Diet, Heart Health
We’ve been hearing it for years that sugar is bad for you. Long ago, it was bad for you because it rots your teeth and causes cavities. Then we heard it was bad for you because it made you gain weight. After that, we slowly began to hear rumours that it actually fed cancers. We now know also that consuming too much sugar and junk food will cause diabetes. Now the latest health news updates are showing that sugar increases the risk factors for heart disease. Sugar is the number one enemy and we should start eliminating it from our diets – sugars in all shapes and forms.
Americans who consumed more added sugars than the average adult were more likely to have risk factors for heart disease than those who consumed less than the average, a new study suggests. Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta found that among the people they studied, those who ate the greatest amount of caloric sweeteners in processed or prepared foods and beverages had the lowest high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, known as the good cholesterol, and the highest blood triglyceride levels.
The results appear in Tuesday’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found added sugars have no nutritional value, the researchers said.
“Just like eating a high-fat diet can increase your levels of triglycerides and high [density] cholesterol, eating sugar can also affect those same lipids,” study co-author Dr. Miriam Vos, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Emory School of Medicine, said in a news release. The researchers analyzed U.S. government nutritional data and blood lipid levels of 6,113 adult men and women between 1999 and 2006.
They found that within the sample group, those who ate the least sugar had the highest HDL and lowest triglyceride levels,
Sugar consumption within the group ranged from an average of three teaspoons of added sugars per day (12.6 grams) to 46 teaspoons per day (193 grams).
The average adult in the U.S. consumes the equivalent of 21.4 teaspoons, or 359 calories, of added sugars per day, according to the study.
Spot sugar on the label
The American Heart Association says too much sugar contributes to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.
Last August, the group said Americans need to cut back dramatically on sugar consumption.
It recommended women eat no more than 100 calories per day of added processed sugar, the equivalent of six teaspoons (25 grams), and men no more than 150 calories, or nine teaspoons (37.5 grams).
“If we are concerned about heart disease risk, then we also need to be paying attention to the amount of caloric sweeteners and added sugars in the foods we eat,” said the study’s lead author, Jean Welsh, a registered nurse.
The researchers said Americans are consuming more sugar than 30 years ago. Much of it comes from sweeteners added to increase the desirability of processed foods such as sugar-sweetened beverages, cereals and desserts.
Identifying added sugars on nutrition labels is the first step to reducing sugar intake, the U.S. government site womenshealth.gov suggest.Added sugars can appear under terms such as:
• Corn sweetener.
• Corn syrup.
• High-fructose corn syrup.
• Dextrose.
• Fructose.
• Glucose.
• Lactose.
• Maltose.
• Sucrose.
• Honey.
• Sugar.
• Brown sugar.
• Invert sugar.
• Molasses.
• Malt syrup.
• Syrup.
But the industry group the Sugar Association told the health news website Health Day it “disputes the notion that sugar consumption has increased.” It cited a U.S. Department of Agriculture report that claimed consumption of caloric sweeteners, including sugar, has decreased 9.7 per cent over the past decade.The Sugar Association said the same advice holds for sugar as for all foods and beverages: consume in moderation.