Sugar and Its Link to Increased Heart Disease

There is a consensus among experts that the average US diet contains too much added sugar. In other words, added sugar is the kind that does not occur naturally and is introduced during food processing.

A new study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine found that eating added sugar increased a person’s risk of dying as a result of cardiovascular disease. “Compared with those who consumed approximately 8.0 percent of calories from added sugar, participants who consumed approximately 17 percent to 21 percent … of calories from added sugar had a 38 percent higher risk of CVD mortality,” Dr. Quanhe Yang, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and his co-authors wrote in their new study. “This relative risk was more than double for those who consumed 21 percent or more (highest quintile) of calories from added sugar.”

Added sugar can be found in a variety of sources ranging from soda and fruit juices, dairy desserts, and candy. While the sources of added sugar can be obvious, what is unclear is the point at which added sugar can be labeled as too much. For example, the World Health Organization recommends that less than ten percent of calories come from added sugar. In contrast, the Institute of Medicine suggests less than twenty-five percent, while the American Heart Association limits added sugar to less than 100 calories a day for women, and 150 calories for men. Lacking a universal guideline can make it difficult for anyone who is trying to determine what constitutes too much added sugar.

In this current study, researchers from the CDC in Atlanta and Harvard School of Public Health in Boston examined trends of added sugar consumption over time as a percentage of daily calories in the U.S. diet.
For Americans older than 2, added sugar intake increased from 235 calories a day in 1977-1978 to 318 calories a day in 1994-1995. Overall, researchers saw an increasing intake of added sugar, except between 2005-2010 when there was a slight decrease.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among men and women within the United States. Every year, the CDC reports about 600,000 people die. Researchers used national health survey data to investigate possible links between sugar intake and heart disease mortality. Yang and his colleagues that those individuals who had the highest sugar intake per day were 2.43 times more likely to die of heart disease compared to those who ate the least. “These findings were largely consistent across age group, sex, race/ethnicity (except among non-Hispanic blacks), educational attainment, physical activity, health eating index, and body mass index,” the authors concluded in their study. «Our results support current recommendations to limit the intake of calories from added sugars in U.S. diets.»

Many people say that sugar should be avoided because it is made up of empty calories that lead to wight gain and obesity. But now having a link between sugar and heart disease is one more reason to avoid increased sugar in the diet or just try and limit its intake.