Sugar and Heart Disease

thor

For years now there has been a backlash against the conventional wisdom that a high fat diet is the main cause of heart disease and that it is sugar which is the main culprit.
I am struggling to understand how sugar could cause arteries to fur up and all the reading I have done so far only says that sugar will make you obese and that will put a strain on your heart but is that enough to cause heart disease?
If heart disease is the clogging up of arteries and does not involve fat/cholesterol then what is the mechanism behind it?
I run 3 times a week, have low blood pressure, a good total cholesterol - hdl ratio and am not overweight but I do like my sugary snacks and is the reason why I exercise(burn it off before it turns to fat) but giving chocolates and white rice up is something I would prefer not to do.

NigeWick

I think "they" are on about sugar in great excess such as many youngsters indulge with fizzy drinks, choccy bars and etc. If your LDL/HDL/Triglyceriides are OK then I expect you're not overdoing the sugar. IMHO if we weigh up the risks and make our own decisions on what passes our lips we know what to expect.

I see in today's Times a banana has our daily allowance of sugar in it. I've just eaten one and I'm going to have an apple later so I shall be over my limit. Do I look bovvered?

System

This is where it gets confusing, I think. I assumed the recommended daily sugar allowance refers to processed or added sugar, not the natural sugars found in bananas or apples?

margaretclare

There may be a difference between naturally-occurring sugars - fructose in fruit or lactose in milk - and sucrose. I take the view that it's added sugar - sucrose - which is the big danger. It's often referred to as 'empty calories' i.e. it contains no other nutrients, vitamins etc, which is not true of naturally-occurring foods like fruits and dairy products.

I got into an argument with someone recently about my eating muesli. 'It contains sugar therefore is bad for you'. Well, the type of muesli I eat contains no added sugar and can't be found on any of the calorie-counting sites like myfitnesspal. It contains oats, nuts and dried fruits. Dried fruits in particular contain sugar, but it's the sugar which occurs naturally in the fruit and hasn't been added. This is what the argument was about.

Any of the cereals on supermarket shelves, including most muesli, will have added sugar. These foods are marketed as being 'healthy', and in addition, sugar is added to so many other commonly-marketed foods that it is difficult to avoid. Myself, I do my best to avoid anything with added sugar, but it's not easy.

NigeWick

avogadro wrote: »

This is where it gets confusing, I think. I assumed the recommended daily sugar allowance refers to processed or added sugar, not the natural sugars found in bananas or apples?

I don't believe in adding any refined sugar to what I eat and I do understand that our modern fruit has a lot more sugar in than uncultivated varieties that our ancestors would have eaten. OTOH, I'm not going to worry about the amount of sugar in an apple or banana when I decide to eat one.

I think the big culprits for modern sugar intake are the processed food manufacturers as they put so much of the stuff in to make it taste better when claiming it's "low fat."

margaretclare

NigeWick wrote: »

I don't believe in adding any refined sugar to what I eat and I do understand that our modern fruit has a lot more sugar in than uncultivated varieties that our ancestors would have eaten. OTOH, I'm not going to worry about the amount of sugar in an apple or banana when I decide to eat one.

I think the big culprits for modern sugar intake are the processed food manufacturers as they put so much of the stuff in to make it taste better when claiming it's "low fat."

Yes, this is true. If you take so much fat out of any food it would be absolutely tasteless, that's why manufacturers add sugar to 'low-fat' products. Much better to eat the fat - in moderation - and do without the added sugar.

thor

NigeWick wrote: »

I think "they" are on about sugar in great excess such as many youngsters indulge with fizzy drinks, choccy bars and etc. If your LDL/HDL/Triglyceriides are OK then I expect you're not overdoing the sugar.

These are all related to fat rather than sugar and my levels are very good when it comes to these ratios. It's just that I am wondering how sugar can cause heart disease. There are so many people making this claim but hardly any providing an explanation.

terra_ferma

Whatever "they" are saying today, it will be the opposite tomorrow.
A good varied diet, with plenty of non processed foods (produce, grains, pulses etc) is what I go for.
Nothing in moderation will hurt you.

Every time we hear some kind of dietary advice, it ends up costing us a lot of money, often with very little hard evidence (except a few limited studies that make the headlines...).
Wine, smoothies, eggs, red meat, friends today foe tomorrow, or viceversa.

The low-fat, low-sugar, free from foods are very expensive (e.g. low fat mayo and margarine have a lot more water in them, so they end up being much more expensive). Obviously they want us to buy them rather than unprocessed foods, so any study that will swerve public opinion towards them will get good publicity.

The best health advice in my opinion is: if it comes from a farm is likely to be good for you, if it comes from a factory/plant eat in moderation.
Anything else, like fad foods, low this-that-and-the-other, are all gimmicks IMHO.

cherryblossomzel

thor wrote: »

These are all related to fat rather than sugar and my levels are very good when it comes to these ratios. It's just that I am wondering how sugar can cause heart disease. There are so many people making this claim but hardly any providing an explanation.

Triglyceride and cholesterol levels are affected by sugar, though I don't know if they've figured out exactly how this mechanism works.

What does happen is that if you have too much sugar floating about in your blood it gets attached to protein (called advanced glycation end product or AGE). These AGEs cause cells and blood vessels to stiffen up, and this can contribute to atherosclerosis. How your body handles food is very complex, and I certainly don't understand it all, but there's a lot of research out there.

I'm by no means an expert, but if your BP, weight etc are OK, and your overall diet is healthy, then I wouldn't have thought you need to give anything up.

~Chameleon~

thor wrote: »

These are all related to fat rather than sugar and my levels are very good when it comes to these ratios. It's just that I am wondering how sugar can cause heart disease. There are so many people making this claim but hardly any providing an explanation.

Yes, there is a direct link between dietary sugar and CVD (heart disease) and it is connected to to the effect it has on insulin and lipoproteins which in turn adversely affects the triglycerides. I can't go into much detail about it right now as my brain is suffering malfunction but there is stuff available online you can read. Try to stick to journal articles rather than promotional websites and in particular avoid anything connected to or written by Mercola.

~Chameleon~

cherryblossomzel wrote: »

Triglyceride and cholesterol levels are affected by sugar, though I don't know if they've figured out exactly how this mechanism works.

What does happen is that if you have too much sugar floating about in your blood it gets attached to protein (called advanced glycation end product or AGE). These AGEs cause cells and blood vessels to stiffen up, and this can contribute to atherosclerosis. How your body handles food is very complex, and I certainly don't understand it all, but there's a lot of research out there.

:T :T

Ahhh thank you, you've explained it in slightly more detail than I have