Sugar not only makes you fat, it may be killing you. Too much added sugar, from sweetened sodas, cakes, cookies, and candy increases your risk of death from heart disease, according to a new study, the largest of its type.
“The risk of cardiovascular disease death increases exponentially as you increase your consumption of added sugar,” says lead author Quanhe Yang of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On average, U.S. adults in 2010 got about 15% of their daily calories (300 calories a day, in a 2,000 calorie diet) from added sugars. That’s far more than the American Heart Association recommends: fewer than 100 a day for women (six teaspoons) and 150 for men (nine teaspoons.)
The study found that people who got more than 21% of daily calories from added sugar had double the risk of death from heart disease compared with those who got less than 10% of calories from added sugars. Those who have seven or more servings a week of sugary beverages were at a 29% higher risk of death from heart disease than those who had one serving or less.
The paper’s senior author, Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, says excessive added sugar has been linked to high blood pressure, cholesterol and fatty liver problems, as well as making insulin less effective in lowering blood sugar.
Nanci Hellmich works for the Money section of USA Today, covering retirement lifestyle stories and personal finance.
Contributor: Dr. Gregg Baron
The statements made in this article have not been evaluated by Health Canada or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. None of the information presented is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.
