Sugar's effect on cholesterol and liver enzymes?

NessaDarlene
NessaDarlene Posts: 4
in Food and Nutrition
Frustrating that I can't seem to get my sugar intake down. It's not incredibly high but still not close enough to my recommended level. I know it's healthier to have less sugar in ones diet, but does anyone know how sugar effects liver enzymes and cholesterol? I had been focusing on saturated fats and trans fats and have them in the right amounts. Needless to say, I need to bring those numbers down. I'm not diabetic.

Replies

  • SirBonerFart
    SirBonerFart Posts: 1,185 Member
    not sure but I have more sugar in my diet now than ever and my liver values came back better than they have in years
    Also total cholesterol was 118

    Looks like I'm eating between 70 and 130 grams of sugar a day
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,157 Member
    How the liver delivers cholesterol is really dependent on the individuals lifestyle, overall health and weight and of course genetics.

    Sugar/refined carbs lowers LDL, which is seen as a good thing, but it's not that simple. Sugar also lowers HDL and increases triglycerides when used to displace dietary fat or protein. The other deleterious effect from sugar in general is that it promotes VLDL which refers to the particle size of those LDL and HDL. Sugar promotes pattern B lipoproteins which are very small and are associated with oxidized LDL/oxLDL which are consistanty and consistantly associated with atherosclerosis. Fat on the other hand especially saturated fat promotes Pattern A lipoproteins which are large and buoyant particles that are not associated with atherosclerosis and are generally seen as protective. Basically if your replacing fats with carbs, especially refined carbs you may want to rethink that idea. This is also the basic premise that argues that saturated fat is not the boogieman.
  • diodelcibo
    diodelcibo Posts: 2,564 Member
    Basically if your liver and muscles are glycogen saturated and more sugar is incoming then the liver has to convert the sugar to cholesterol and/or triglycerides.

    Hence how sugar can raise cholesterol levels.

    Also if you're not getting enough cholesterol in your diet from the foods you eat then the insulin you produce in your body will activate a lot more of the enzyme HMG co-a reductase which will start to produce cholesterol from carbohydrates.
  • Hexahedra
    Hexahedra Posts: 894 Member
    Excess consumption of fructose is related to increase in triglycerides and LDL cholesterol.Table sugar (sucrose) is half glucose and half fructose. High fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose and 45 % glucose.

    http://chc.ucsf.edu/sew/PDFs/Stanhope_etal_2011.pdf

    While pure glucose (a.k.a. dextrose) has no effect on triglycerides and LDL cholesterol, in excess it increases the risk of type 2 diabetes due to the insulin spike it causes. That's why they invented the glycemic index measuring the increase of blood glucose level after consumption of a particular food.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index

    Now, fructose tends to be stored as visceral fat (a.k.a. belly fat) while glucose tends to go to subcutaneous fat (a.k.a. skin fat). One of the risk factors for type 2 diabetes is waist circumference above the average.

    Either way excess sugar is bad for you. The recommendation is for women to not eat more than 100 calories of added sugar daily, and 150 calories for men. By added sugar they mean sugar not derived from carbohydrates as part of a balanced diet. A teaspoon of sugar is about 15 calories, so its a maximum of 7 teaspoons a day for women and 10 for men.
  • NikoM5
    NikoM5 Posts: 488 Member
    Not to hijack your thread but I'm reading a lot of stuff as of late that calls into question the link between cholesterol and heart disease. I'm eager for more info to come to light about this.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    OP, please note that a lot of the negative is about processed and added sugars. When tracking on MFP, there is no clarification between sugar intake from natural sources like fruits/veg and added/processed sugars. Also, not sure where your recommended limit came from. If from MFP, it may need to be changed.

    Your best bet is to discuss with your doctor and get clarificaiton on a total sugar limit that includes natural sources.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,157 Member
    Not to hijack your thread but I'm reading a lot of stuff as of late that calls into question the link between cholesterol and heart disease. I'm eager for more info to come to light about this.
    The info is already out there and has been for quite a while. For starters try researching saturated fat and cholesterol particle size, apo B cholesterol.
    There is abundant evidence that the risk of atherosclerotic vascular disease is directly related to plasma cholesterol levels. Accordingly, all of the national and transnational screening and therapeutic guidelines are based on total or LDL cholesterol. This presumes that cholesterol is the most important lipoprotein-related proatherogenic risk variable. On the contrary, risk appears to be more directly related to the number of circulating atherogenic particles that contact and enter the arterial wall than to the measured concentration of cholesterol in these lipoprotein fractions. Each of the atherogenic lipoprotein particles contains a single molecule of apolipoprotein (apo) B and therefore the concentration of apo B provides a direct measure of the number of circulating atherogenic lipoproteins. Evidence from fundamental, epidemiological and clinical trial studies indicates that apo B is superior to any of the cholesterol indices to recognize those at increased risk of vascular disease and to judge the adequacy of lipid-lowering therapy. On the basis of this evidence, we believe that apo B should be included in all guidelines as an indicator of cardiovascular risk. In addition, the present target adopted by the Canadian guideline groups of an apo B <90 mg dL(-1) in high-risk patients should be reassessed in the light of the new clinical trial results and a new ultra-low target of <80 mg dL(-1) be considered. The evidence also indicates that the apo B/apo A-I ratio is superior to any of the conventional cholesterol ratios in patients without symptomatic vascular disease or diabetes to evaluate the lipoprotein-related risk of vascular disease.

    http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/the-straight-dope-on-cholesterol-part-v
    Does the size of an LDL particle matter?
  • NessaDarlene
    NessaDarlene Posts: 4
    I was going by the recommendations on MFP. Honestly, I know I've had too much added sugar (junk food primarily) in my diet and since using MFP I've made many, many changes. My diet is primarily fresh veggies/fruit, carbs then meat protein (primarily fish and chicken), in that order, now. I've cut meat proteins to about three meals per week. I supplement with nuts and legumes for protein. I have a follow-up with my Doctor in two weeks to see if the numbers are improving with the hope of not having to take meds. I'll probably keep on this course, as I find it very doable, and see if and where it needs to be tweaked after the doctor visit.
  • Hexahedra
    Hexahedra Posts: 894 Member
    OP, please note that a lot of the negative is about processed and added sugars. When tracking on MFP, there is no clarification between sugar intake from natural sources like fruits/veg and added/processed sugars. Also, not sure where your recommended limit came from. If from MFP, it may need to be changed.

    Your best bet is to discuss with your doctor and get clarificaiton on a total sugar limit that includes natural sources.

    The negatives are about added sugar, which is sugar in addition to carbs you eat in a balanced diet. Since a balanced diet according to the USDA is about half grains + fruits, then your carb intake is about 50%. If your diet is 75% carbs and you eat more than you spend, then you'll get the same result as eating additional table sugar.

    Your body doesn't care whether the sugar is processed or unprocessed, it cares about the type of sugar. It makes a difference whether it's sucrose, fructose, glucose, etc, but it makes no difference whether you get the fructose out of corn syrup or fresh bananas.

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