Scientists have found a strong link between sugar abuse and 45 diseases, including asthma, diabetes, obesity, depression and some types of cancer.
As you know, excessive love for sweets can have negative health consequences. Therefore, the WHO and other organizations are calling for a reduction in the consumption of free sugars, that is, all sugar added to food or drinks. But scientists from Sichuan University and the University of California School of Medicine decided that before talking about giving up sugar, it is necessary to comprehensively examine the existing evidence of its harm.
An international team of scientists conducted a comprehensive review to assess the quality and validity of all available research on this topic. The review included 73 meta-analyses from 8601 articles covering 83 potential health outcomes for adults and children. The researchers categorized the evidence presented by its quality (high, moderate, low, or very low) to draw conclusions.
As a result, they discovered “significant detrimental associations” between excessive sugar intake and 18 endocrine or metabolic diseases (including diabetes, gout and obesity), 10 cardiovascular diseases (including hypertension, heart attack and stroke), 7 cancers (including breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers) glands), as well as 10 other ailments, including asthma, tooth decay and depression.
Every additional 25 grams of fructose per day increases the chance of developing pancreatic cancer by 22%
Moderate-quality evidence suggests that sugary drink indulgence is significantly associated with weight gain, and that consumption of any added sugar versus no added sugar in the diet is associated with increased accumulation of liver and muscle fat. Other data show that each additional serving of sweetened beverages per week increases the risk of developing gout by 4%, and an increase of 250 milliliters per day is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease and death from all causes by 17 and 4%, respectively. In addition, every additional 25 grams of fructose per day increases the likelihood of developing pancreatic cancer by 22%.
“High dietary sugar intake is generally detrimental to health, especially in cardiometabolic disease. To reduce adverse health effects, it is recommended to reduce added sugar intake to less than 25 grams per day (approximately 6 teaspoons) and limit consumption of sweetened beverages to less than one serving per week (approximately 200–355 milliliters).” the authors of the study concluded.
Svetlana Pavlichenko, PhD, cardiologist, executive director of the National Research Center “Healthy Eating”
– The obesity and diabetes epidemic is fueled by excess calorie intake, mainly from sugary drinks and added sugars in foods. The need for sweets is difficult to overcome and, perhaps, is a complex evolutionary determinant. But today humanity consumes much more sugar than ever before. It has been estimated that in the 19th century the average European ate 2 kilograms of sugar per year, at the beginning of the 20th century it was already 17 kilograms. And this dynamic continues. Between 2001 and 2018, global consumption increased from 123 million tons to 172 million tons per year. Consumers love sweets, and manufacturers are trying to satisfy this demand. WHO, in its recommendations for a healthy diet, points to the need to reduce sugar intake and suggests that the upper acceptable limit for a person with normal body weight is 50 grams per day, taking into account all the sugar found in both drinks and food (this is 10% of total consumption). energy, about 12 level teaspoons). But to reap the health benefits, you need to reduce your sugar intake to 25 grams per day.
