Learn the risks in taking too much sugar. Check out the article we found over at AlphaGalileo.
In an article published in the journal Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute cardiovascular research scientist and James J.. DiNicolantonio, PharmD, and James H. O’Keefe, MD, examined the question of whether that focus may be misplaced and ask does sugar have a greater impact on coronary heart disease than saturated fat?
The theory of dietary saturated fats as the principal promoter of elevated serum cholesterol and heart disease stems from research beginning in the 1950’s by an American scientist Ancel Keys. It was this theory which was embraced by the American Heart Association and the US federal government in the 1960s and 70s. However, at the same time of Keys research, a British physiologist John Yudkin argued that sugar intake was more closely related to incidence of and mortality from CHD.
Both Yudkin and Keys were able to support their theories through observational studies in large part because people eat foods, not isolated food constituents. Dietary sources of saturated fat are also often dietary sources of sugar and people who eat lots of sugar often also eat lots of saturated fat.
Along with co-author, Sean C. Lucan, MD, MPH, MS, from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, DiNicolantonio and O’Keefe evaluated the evidence to date linking saturated fats and sugars to CHD, considering basic science, epidemiology, and clinical trial data related to CHD risk, CHD events, and CHD mortality. The authors concluded that sugar consumption, particularly in the form of refined added sugars, are a greater contributor to CHD than saturated fats.
Consuming a diet high in sugar for just a few weeks has been shown to cause numerous abnormalities found in patients with CHD, such as high total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, oxidized LDL, uric acid, insulin resistance and abnormal glucose tolerance, low HDL, and altered platelet function. The overall effect of consuming a diet high in sugar on these numerous health markers is likely more detrimental to overall health compared to increased consumption of saturated fat, which can increase LDL but at the same time raise HDL.
Sugars occurring naturally in fruits and vegetables pose no increased risk for CHD. The problem is refined sugars — with ultraprocessed foods being of greatest concern. Products with added sugars represent 75% of all packaged foods and beverages in the US and most commonly contain sucrose or HFCS, which seem to raise CHD risk even more than other sugars such as glucose.
A diet high in sugar has also been found to promote prediabetes and diabetes. And patients with both of these conditions have a much greater risk for CHD compared to normal healthy patients, particularly a severe narrowing of the left main coronary artery.
“After a thorough analysis of the evidence it seems appropriate to recommend dietary guidelines shift focus away from recommendations to reduce saturated fat and towards recommendations to avoid added sugars,” said Dr DiNicolantonio. “Most importantly recommendations should support the eating of whole foods whenever possible and the avoidance of ultra-processed food.”
Next Article: The Top Signs You Are Eating Too Much Sugar
Read full article: The Evidence for Saturated Fat and Sugar Related to Coronary Heart Disease
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