Dietary Sugar: Does It Increase Your Risk for Heart Disease?

For years doctors have advised patients to limit the amount of saturated fat in their diet, especially those at high risk for heart disease. Saturated fat is found mainly in meat and dairy foods, although tropical oils like coconut oil and palm oil are also saturated fats. Why the concern about saturated fat? Research shows it elevated LDL-cholesterol, the kind that clogs your arteries. Sugar and the role it plays in heart disease has received less focus. Is there a link between sugar and an increased risk for heart disease?

Sugar and Heart Disease

The World Health Organization (WHO) now recommends reducing sugar intake to less than 10% of total daily calories. Unfortunately, the average person consumes a whopping 22 teaspoons of sugar a day. According to new research, that could be bad for the health of your heart.

A new study looking at sugar intake and heart disease is a reminder that sugar isn’t just unhealthy for your teeth – it’s bad for your heart too. This study showed a strong link between heart disease and sugar consumption. It showed people getting 17% to 21% of their calories from sugar are at 40% greater risk of dying from heart disease compared to those getting less than 10% of their calories from sweet things.

How are people managing to eat so much sugar? The top sources in this study were sugar-sweetened drinks and desserts. Seems when people have a sweet tooth, they wash their desserts down with soft drinks. Sugars in prepared and processed foods were used to measure sugar consumption in this study – not natural sugars like those in fruit and fruit juice.

Many processed foods are also sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, a form of sugar metabolized differently than table sugar. Some research links high-fructose corn syrup with an increased risk for insulin and leptin resistance. Leptin resistance is a condition where the brain becomes less responsive to leptin, a hormone that turns off appetite. Therefore, you still feel hungry even though your energy needs have been met. Leptin resistance is believed to play a role in obesity.

What’s So Bad about Sugar?

Sugar is an energy source your body can use for fuel yet it has no nutritional value. When you eat foods with added sugar or sip a sugar-sweetened beverage, your insulin level spikes. This puts the brake on the fat breakdown and makes it easier for fat cells called adipocytes to store more fat. There are no vitamins, minerals or anything else of value in sugar to give it redeeming value. It’s simply empty calories.

How might sugar increase heart disease risk? As this study points out, no one knows for sure. One possibility is a high-sugar diet contributes to insulin resistance, a condition that increases heart disease risk. It’s also is a contributor to obesity. In this study, researchers controlled for factors like obesity, physical activity, sex, age, educational level, and race. Despite controlling for these factors that could impact heart disease risk, they still found a link between sugar consumption and heart disease.

It’s also possible that people who eat a high-sugar diet eat fewer fruits and vegetables and have less heart-healthy antioxidants circulating in their bloodstream. A high-sugar diet increases blood triglycerides as well. An elevated triglyceride level is an under-appreciated risk factor for heart disease. There are lots of theories but no one really knows for sure what the link between sugar and heart disease really is.

Reducing Sugar in Your Diet

If you’re focusing only on reducing the amount of saturated fat in your diet, you may be missing out on another way to lower your risk for heart disease – eat less sugar. What are some ways to do that? Here are some tips:

Avoid packaged and processed foods. When you do buy something in a package, check out the grams of sugar. If it has more than 4 grams of sugar put it back. Beware of low-fat packaged products – they’re usually hotbeds for added sugar.

If you need to sweeten coffee or tea, use a natural non-calorie sweetener like Stevia. It has no calories or carbs and little or no effect on blood sugar or insulin levels. Slowly cut back on the amount of sweetener you put in your coffee or tea. As you taper back, you’ll gradually lose your taste for sweet beverages. Avoid soft drinks entirely. There’s nothing good about them.

Nibble on a piece of fruit rather than sipping a cup of fruit juice. Fruit juice lacks fiber to help moderate the rise in blood sugar that comes from the natural fructose in the fruit.

Choose whole grains over foods made with refined flour. Both are broken down to sugar, but whole grains contain fiber that helps minimize the rise in blood sugar.

If you treat yourself to a sugary treat, keep your portion size small and reduce the amount of sugar you eat the rest of the day to compensate. Even better, eat a bowl of berries or a cup of yogurt with no added sugar instead. Flavor it with fruit, cinnamon or vanilla extract instead of sugar. Dress it up with nuts, sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds.

The Bottom Line?

Not only is sugar devoid of nutritional value, but it’s also bad for your heart. Give it a less prominent place in your diet – and enjoy more whole foods instead!

References:

Family Practice News. “Too Much Dietary Sugar May Raise CV Mortality” February 15, 2014.

World Health Organization.

JAMA Intern Med. Published online February 03, 2014. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13563.

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