Sweet Treats Linked with Heart Disease

Sweet treats and beverages aren't just expanding waistlines, but also driving up heart-disease risk, according to a new study.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, researchers and colleagues used data from national health surveys to estimate the amount of extra sugar Americans consume. 

Added sweeteners account for the excess amount of sugar in processed foods. Sugary drinks, grain-based desserts, candies etc are some examples of food with added sugar.

Health experts aren't sure how much of added sugar is good for health. According to Institute of Medicine calories from added sugar shouldn't exceed more than 25 percent of total calories. The World Health Organization says that calories from excess sugar should be below 10 percent, according to a news release. American Heart Association states that women should ideally be getting about 100 calories daily from added sugars while men should be getting around 150 calories.

The latest study showed that between 2005 and 2010, nearly 71.4 percent adults in the U.S. were getting 10 percent or more of their total calories from sugary foods and about ten percent of adults were consuming 25 percent of their calories from added sugar.

Researchers found that the risk for heart disease was three times higher for people who got a quarter of the daily calories from added sugars than people who got less than 10 percent calories from sugary treats, BBC reported.

The present study also found that regular consumption of sugary drinks- about seven servings per week- increased the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. A can of sugary soda contains about 35 grams of sugar (which is about 140 calories).

Sugary drinks are known to increase risk of several health complications such as diabetes and heart disease. Harvard School of Public Health had recently reported that 180,000 obesity-related deaths are associated with consumption of excess sugar-sweetened beverages. A related study had also linked sweet intake with a higher risk of heart failure.

"We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in research on the health effects of sugar, one fueled by extremely high rates of added sugar overconsumption in the American public," Laura A. Schmidt, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, wrote in a related commentary.

"In sum, the study by Yang et al contributes a range of new findings to the growing body of research on sugar as an independent risk factor in chronic disease. It underscores the likelihood that, at levels of consumption common among Americans, added sugar is a significant risk factor for CVD mortality above and beyond its role as empty calories leading to weight gain and obesity," Schmidt added.

The study is published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.