Happy American Heart Month

In relation to February being American Heart Month and March being National Nutrition Month, I thought I would kick off a series of posts discussing sugar. I find the topic of sugar and increased levels of consumption fascinating. One of my clients is a former nutritionist and she subscribed me to a publication known as “Nutrition Action”. It is a small, research based health letter released quarterly by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. In a recent issue, the topic of “Sugar Belly” is mentioned and examined. Several studies are mentioned which link increased intake of fructose (sugar from fruit) with higher amounts of belly fat, liver fat, and in some cases muscular fat. The publication notes that it doesn’t technically matter where the fructose is coming from as it is used in several different types of sugar such as high fructose corn syrup and table sugar. Most of the “added sugars” or excess amounts of added sugars come from classic examples such as desserts. The primary focus of the article is on the added sugars from sweet drinks such as soda and fruit juice. One study is quoted where individuals who consumed 100% fruit juice increased their risk for diabetes whereas the individuals who consumed whole fruits did not. It is theorized that this may be due to the fiber and other possible nutrients which do not remain in the juice. As I do not have the magazine here with me, I will use other research to further examine this topic.

In a study by Stanhope et al. (2009), the effects of fructose (sugar naturally occurring in fruit) or glucose (sugar or a carbohydrate from plants that is also what our body creates and uses for energy)-sweetened beverages as 25% of one’s diet for a period of 10 weeks was examined. The average age across both groups was between 52-56 and the average baseline weight was 81.9-89.3 kg. In the glucose group, body weight went up by an average of 1.8% and 1.4% in the fructose group. Total body fat increased by 3.2 and 2.8% respectively. Clearly, based on these numbers, total weight and fat gain was similar for both groups. The next bit of data is where it gets interesting. In the glucose group, waist circumference, total abdominal fat, extra-abdominal fat, and intra-abdominal fat increased at 1.7%, 4.8%, 4.6%, and 3.2% respectively. In the fructose group these same variables increased by 1.9%, 8.6%, 7.3%, and 14%. These are large and very significant differences.

When I read this in the “Nutrition Action” health letter I was intrigued, interested, but not surprised. To actually review a bit of the research and see how significant the differences actually are is amazing. Not only did fructose negatively affect visceral fat more significantly than the glucose, it also affected fasting cholesterol with an average increase of 10.1% as compared to 3.9% in the glucose group.

Now, it is important to understand that just because fructose is sugar that comes from fruit, this article does not mean “do not eat fruit”. In fact, I am attempting to recommend just the opposite. As mentioned initially in this blog post, in the study where individuals ate fructose from whole fruit, they did NOT increase their risk for diabetes where as those who digested the fructose from 100% fruit juice DID increase their risk for diabetes.

TAKE HOME POINT: Added sugar intake should be limited no matter your age. Sugar is ok, in fact it is needed to create energy. We generally call sugar “carbs” when we discuss them for energy. The take home point is to get these carbs or sugars from naturally occurring substances such as fruit. The American Heart Association recommends less than 6 teaspoons (100 calories) for women and less than 9 teaspoons (150 calories) for men of added sugar (processed) a day. Below is a link to a document from myplate.gov with 10 tips for limiting sugar intake in our kids, but many of them also apply at all ages.

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/downloads/TenTips/DGTipsheet13CutBackOnSweetTreats.pdf

Reference

Stanhope, K., L., Schwarz, J., M., Keim, N., L., Griffen, S., C., Bremer, A., A., Graham, J., L., Hatcher, B., Cox, C., L., Dyachenko, A., Zhang, W., McGahan, J., P., Seiber, A., Krauss, R., M., Chiu, S., Schaefer, E., J., Ai, M., Otokozawa, S., Nakajima, K., Nakano, T., Beysen, C., Hellerstein, M., K., Berglund, L., & Havel, P., J. (2009). Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 119(5), 1322-1334.