The online British Medical Journal Open Heart has just reported that an analysis of all current available evidence shows that we need to drastically change the dietary advice that Americans and Europeans are given regarding how to prevent heart disease. There is more and more accumulating evidence that eating fat and salt, are not the problems that we have been told they are. Eating sugar added to processed foods is the problem.
As per the analysis presented in this study, sugars which are added to processed foods are likely to play a greater role in causing high blood pressure and heart disease, than added salt. People whose dietary intake of added sugar is greater than 25% of their total daily calories have fully three times the risk of heart and cardiovascular disease risk compared to people whose sugar intake is low.
Cutting salt intake has been the standard dietary approach to lower high blood pressure, but that advice is “debatable,” according to the authors of the study.
They advocate that we should now be emphasizing the avoidance of added sugars, especially high fructose corn syrup added to processed foods.
The article states, “Sugar may be much more meaningfully related to blood pressure than sodium, as suggested by a greater magnitude of effect with dietary manipulation. Compelling evidence from basic science, population studies, and clinical trials implicates sugars, and particularly the monosaccharide fructose, as playing a major role in the development of hypertension” . The research regarding high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener in processed foods is clearly worrisome. The data shows that a daily intake of more than 74 g of fructose is associated with a 77% increased risk of blood pressure above 160/100 mm Hg. Excess intake of added sugars has also been strongly associates with elevated blood cholesterol and other researched blood fats, as reported here in the recent blog post, New Study Proves that Eating Saturated Fat Does Not Increase Fats in the Blood (Dec 3, 2014).
It is important to note that the naturally-occurring fructose and other sugars found in fruits are not harmful and should be an important part of a healthy heart healthy diet.
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