Dietary guidelines from the World Health Organisation has recommended that added sugar should make up for less than 10% of the total calorie intake, which means people should cut down on processed foods and beverages as they are packed with sugar. For example, a single can of fizzy drink may contain up to 35 grams of sugar, which equals to 140 calories.
The study led by Dr Quanhe Yang, from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, used US national health survey data to determine how much added sugar people were consuming.
Results between 2005 and 2010 showed that at least 10% of the calories consumed by more than 70% of the US population were from added sugar. Around a tenth of adults got a quarter or more of their calories from added sugar. The data from the study matched against a heart disease mortality over a typical period of 14.6 years, in which a total of 831 Cardiovascular deaths were recorded.
“Our findings indicate that most US adults consume more added sugar than recommended for a healthy diet. A higher percentage of calories from added sugar is associated with significantly increased risk of CVD mortality,” concluded the authors of JAMA Internal Medicine.
Dr. Laura Schmidt from the University of California at San Francisco commented on the results by saying, “We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in research on the health effects of sugar, one fuelled by extremely high rates of added sugar overconsumption in the American public. In sum, the study by Yang et al contributes a range of new findings to the growing body of research on sugar as an independent risk factor in chronic disease.”
British expert Dr Nita Forouhi, from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge University, called for “clear front of pack labelling of sugar content” to help consumers when buying food products. She continued, “While policy makers deliberate on the pros and cons of a sugary drinks tax, there is a public health action less talked about: a health warning on soft drinks with high sugar content, recommending to limit consumption as part of a healthy diet.”
Professor Naveed Satta, from the British Heart Foundation Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre at the University of Glasgow, said: “We have known for years about the dangers of excess saturated fat intake, an observation which led the food industry to replace unhealthy fats with presumed ‘healthier’ sugars in many food products. However, the present study, perhaps more strongly than previous ones, suggests that those whose diet is high in added sugars may also have an increased risk of a heart attack. Of course, sugar per se is not harmful – we need it for the body’s energy needs – but when consumed in excess it will contribute to weight gain and, in turn, may accelerate heart disease.”
He added, “Helping individuals cut not only their excessive fat intake, but also refined sugar intake, could have major health benefits including lessening obesity and heart attacks. The first target, now taken up by an increasing number of countries, is to tax sugar-rich drinks.”
The study showed that the average proportion of daily calories obtained from added sugar rose from 15.7% in 1988-1994, to 16.8% in 1999-2004. It decreased to 14.9% in 2005-2010.
[Source]
