A sugar study linked to heart problems...

nikkihk

I found this article that suggested there is a link between sugar and fatal heart problems, anyone have thoughts on this:

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/02/03/sugar-tied-to-fatal-heart-woes/20822285/

mjudd1990

High levels of blood glucose eventually cause the sugar to attach to various proteins in the blood and in the vessel walls (non-enzymatic glycosylation) to make products like hemoglobin A1c which is why it is used to assess how well a diabetic has controlled their blood sugar for the last 3 months or so. These glycosylation products can cause damage to blood vessels which promote the accumulation of cholesterol which hardens and can plug up arteries (atherosclerosis). This is a well established and widely accepted pathological finding in patients with diabetes so I guess it would stand to reason that such changes do occur in individuals with pre-diabetes albeit at a slower pace.

nikkihk

I was interested in the idea that it affects even the healthiest of individuals. We get fed so much of this is bad that is bad... etc.

mjudd1990

Im sure it doesn't help if you ingest huge quantities of sugar on a regular basis but remember that your body needs glucose to survive. If you don't have diabetes I'd be way more concerned about cholesterol levels and blood pressure causing heart problems than sugar.

Sadagopan84

Hi,
I found this interesting video about sugar. It is said in that sugar is both carb and fat. Sugar is made of one unit of glucose
joined to one unit of fructose. So when we metabolize sugar it divides it into glucose and fructose. The glucose gets concerted to glycogen and it is used for energy of day to day activity. The fructose will which looks like glucose will not metabolize to LDL and some other materials which is only processed inside in the liver and passed out. So this fructose is nothing but Fat and that too bad fat.

Nowadays we not only consume sugar for coffee but we consume sugar in all the processed foods. Even chips,biscuits, burgers,sauce, bread have sugar in high amounts and not to mention the drinks like fruit juice and fizzy drinks which has 28g or more of sugar in 12oz bottle.

Ask any bodybuilder that if he eats processed food or sports drink or any fruit juice, he would tell no. if you watch his diet it will mainly consist of fruits,veg,protein power, meat like chicken/fish,egg and mainly of home made foods free of sugar. Is in it obvious that we all consume a lot of sugar which is making us fat? Watch this video for the truth about sugar. (its 90 mins so take some time to watch it if you want to know more about it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

yarwell

Epidemiology - in a large group of people those that consumed most sugar also had most heart disease.

Being discussed at length in http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1193541-so-can-we-put-this-topic-to-bed-now

The NNH data in the study is interesting - The number needed to harm (NNH) is an epidemiological measure that indicates how many patients need to be exposed to a risk-factor over a specific period to cause harm in one patient that would not otherwise have been harmed.

Of the people consuming >=21.3% of calories from sucrose 1 in 22 would be expected to suffer an adverse effect as a result. Range of estimate is 13 to 66. So compared to eating <9.6% of calories as sucrose the extra risk is between 1 in 13 and 1 in 66, with expected 1 in 22 or ~5%. A 5% chance of a heart disease problem as a result of eating more than double the amount of sugar.

SugaryLynx

I'm under the impression that anything in large quantities could probably kill you. Water, even.

Still going to eat my sugar and not bat an eye.

sloth3toes

S'up ?

nikkihk

I'm under the impression that anything in large quantities could probably kill you. Water, even.

Still going to eat my sugar and not bat an eye.

Agreed... I can't give sugar up, I have to have that occasional cookie or muffins cuz I'd go crazy eating just meat and veggies all the time.