The American Journal of Medicine (JAMA) recently published the results of a study relating the effect of added sugars in our diet and dyslipidemia. Dyslipidemia is a known risk factor for developing heart disease and is a combination of three lipid measures: triglyceride levels, LDL (bad cholesterol) levels and HDL (good cholesterol) levels. Dyslipidemia occurs when a person has higher than normal levels of triglycerides and LDL and lower HDL levels. This study was the first study to specifically examine the effect that added sugars in our diet have on these lipid levels.
Most foods have a certain amount of naturally occurring sugars. However, as the name implies, added sugars are not naturally occurring. Added sugars are sweeteners which have been added by the food manufacturers and producers of processed or prepared foods.
This practice did not begin until the mid-1800s and consumption of added sugars has been on the rise ever since. In 1977-78, added sugars comprised 10.6 percent of the calories consumed each day. Today, the numbers of added sugars consumed daily has risen to almost 16 percent, or one-sixth of our total daily dietary intake! Added sugars also account for 30.7 percent of the total amount of carbohydrates that you consume daily. These added sugars are low-calorie nutrients and have little nutrient value.
The most common added sugars used today include: refined beet sugar, refined cane sugar and fructose (high-fructose corn syrup). Understanding the role added sugars play in the development of heart disease is important because you can control the amount of added sugar you consume.
In order to examine how added sugars impact limpid levels, researchers worked with study participants who were part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2006. The NHANES is an ongoing survey in the United States which is specifically designed to gather information on dietary habits and impacts on our health. All study participations were over the age of 18 years of age. The NHANES 1999-2006 survey consisted of 8,495 persons.
However, certain groups were excluded from participation in this study, including participants who were pregnant, those with triglyceride levels greater than 400 mg or a body mass index (BMI) greater than 65, persons currently taking drugs designed to lower cholesterol levels and persons with diabetes. In all, 6,113 persons participated in the study consisting of 3,088 women and 3,025 men.
As a part of the study, participants provided researchers with a fasting blood sugar sample. Participants also worked with interviewers to provide a 24-hour (midnight to midnight) list of all foods consumed during the specified time period. Researchers examined the foods consumed to determine the amount of added sugars in the various nutrients consumed. Not surprisingly, researchers found that after controlling for all variables, added sugars were related to increases in dyslipidemia. Although more research is required, researchers believe that fructose may be the culprit which causes the increases in dyslipidemia.
Currently, food manufacturers do not have to include the amount of added sugars on product labeling and consumers must look to other sources to track the amount of added sugars which they are consuming. There is also no hard and fast “official” guideline regarding how much added sugar is too much. The Food Guide Pyramid recommends that added sugars in your diet should be considered discretionary calories and discretionary calories limited, no more than 100 – 300 discretionary calories per day depending on your activity level. The American Heart Association indicates that women should limit added sugars to a maximum of 100 calories per day and men, 150 added sugar calories per day.
Source:
Jean A Welsh, MPH, RN; Andrea Sharma, PhD, MPH; Jerome L. Abramson, PhD, Viola Vaccarino, MD, PhD; Cathleen Gillespie, MS; Miriam B. Vos, MD, MSPH; Caloric Sweetener Consumption and Dyslipidemia Among US Adults, The Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA. 2010;303(15):1490-1497, 21 Apr 2010, http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/303/15/1490