Which can be beneficial if consumed occasionally and in small amounts.
Swedish scientists report that small, occasionally cute but fattening sweets are not harmful to health – except for sugary drinks.
In a large study they conducted, they found that not only is the occasional sweet treat not a burden on cardiovascular health, but it may also have a protective effect. Conversely, drinking sugary drinks significantly increases certain risks.
This difference surprised even the researchers themselves. “The most surprising finding of our study was the difference in the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases depending on the origin of sugar.“, he said lead researcher Suzanne Janzi Nutrition epidemiologist at Lund University. ““This striking difference highlights the importance of looking at the source of sugar, not just the amount of sugar someone consumes.”.
New findings Published in the medical journal Frontiers in Public Health. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Europe, the researchers explained. Diet is one of the strongest modifiable risk factors for their development.
Although sugar is a major component of our diet, its potential impact on cardiovascular health is understudied.
Additionally, most research to date has focused on sugary drinks rather than total sugar consumption. That’s wrong, researchers note, given that we consume at most a quarter of the total from these drinks.
Research
To fill this gap, researchers looked at sugar consumption and seven cardiovascular diseases in 69,705 volunteers. All were 45 or older at the start of the study. 47% were women.
In 1997 and 2009, researchers asked them to fill out detailed questionnaires about their diet and lifestyle. Of these they calculated how much sugar they consumed from three food categories:
- Spreads (eg jams)
- Sweetness
- Sugary drinks such as soft drinks, fruit drinks etc.
In addition, the following cardiovascular diseases were recorded among them:
- Ischemic strokes
- Hemorrhagic strokes
- Heart attack
- Heart failure
- Aortic aneurysm
- Atrial fibrillation
- Aortic stenosis
The researchers followed their volunteers until 2019, or until they were diagnosed with a relevant cardiovascular problem or died. By the end of the examination period, 25,739 people were diagnosed with some cardiovascular diseases.
Findings
As the researchers found, drink sugary drinks was the heaviest burden for cardiovascular health. The volunteers who consumed the most had a significantly increased risk of developing:
- Ischemic stroke
- Heart failure
- Atrial fibrillation
- Abdominal aortic aneurysm
As Ms. Canzi explained, sugar in liquid formfor example, those in many beverages can easily lead to overconsumption. In addition, it is often an element of the daily diet or even in large quantities. On the contrary, many people do not eat sweets every day or consume very little.
The study also showed sugar in general they increased cardiovascular risks even in people of normal body weight.
However greatest cardiovascular risks was observed in the volunteers who ate the least amount of sweets. Those who consume them even occasionally, they got better results than those who avoided them completely.
Education, of course shows not causation, but only correlation, Ms. Canzi was quick to clarify. However, his findings suggest that “extremely low sugar intake is not necessarily beneficial for cardiovascular health. It may generally reflect a strict and deprivation diet or the presence of other underlying health problems.”, he said.