Can A Sweet Tooth Hurt Your Heart?

The sugar story just got a little more serious. Most of us know that sugar in the diet can lead to dental caries (particularly if the sugary food is sticky) and if the calories from sugar are in excess of our body's needs, it can lead to extra body fat stores. No surprise there.

Then some research uncovered that liquid calories don't seem to register in our stomach like food calories do-they don't fill up and satisfy our hunger as well as solid food calories. Some of you might have figured this out already based on your own experiences.

I've seen various and sundry research over the last few years suggesting that sweetened drinks may be linked to a higher risk of:

• Weight gain
• Metabolic syndrome
• Type 2 diabetes

This is a scary thought considering soft drink sales have been soaring in the United States and worldwide.

Today, the American Heart Association released Dietary Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement due to heightened concerns about the adverse effects of "excessive consumption of sugars." Notice the word, "excessive?" That's the part that gets us into trouble. It isn't so much that we have some sugar... it's that we have too much sugar. The daily intake of added sugars for Americans was around 22 teaspoons between 2001 and 2004, according to the American Heart Association. Back in college I remember doing a presentation demonstrating that one 12-ounce soda had the equivalent of 9 teaspoons of sugar in it. That was before Big Gulps and supersized sodas.

Even though the American Heart Association Statement takes issue with the amount of added sugars in the American diet, it can't help but point a big finger toward soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages because these are the main source of added sugars in Americans' diets.

Regular consumption of sugar sweetened beverages was associated with a higher risk of coronary artery disease in women even after the researchers accounted for other unhealthful lifestyle or dietary factors, according to results from the Nurses' Health Study, which followed over 88,000 women for 24 years.

Trading in your regular sodas for non-calorie liquids is a great place to start and one of those drinks might even be a diet soda - artificially sweetened beverages, at least in Nurses' Health Study, were not associated with coronary heart disease. (Not that I recommend drinking large amounts of diet soda.)

The bottom line to the American Heart Association statement is that they recommend we reduce our intake of added sugars. They go on to explain that a prudent upper limit of intake for most American women is no more than 100 calories per day and no more than 150 calories per day from added sugars for most American men. I don't know about you but I opt to spend those added sugar calories on a few bites of chocolate or a scoop of light ice cream instead of sweet drinks.

[Circulation 2009; August 24]

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Alcohol Use or Abuse?

Answering this one question can tell researchers a lot about alcohol abuse:

How many times in the past year have you had 4 or more drinks in a day? (Make that 5 or more drinks a day for men.)

Just answering this question about alcohol use can help raise the warning flag to primary physicians that a spectrum of potential unhealthy alcohol use behaviors may be at play.

Photo: Kyle Flood

Unhealthy alcohol use - the spectrum from risky consumption to alcohol use disorders, alcohol abuse, and dependence - is "prevalent, but under-diagnosed, in primary care settings" according to Boston Medical Center researchers based on results from their study that appears in the March 12 online issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine. "Screening and brief intervention by primary care physicians for those with unhealthy alcohol use reduces risky consumption, " according to Peter C. Smith, MD, MSc, from Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues.

The researchers recently tested the use of this one question about alcohol behavior in a sample of primary care patients. Of the 286 participants in the study, unhealthy alcohol use was reported by 31% of participants. Further review of this subgroup found that (of the 286 participants):

• 6% consumed risky amounts but did not have alcohol-related problems or a disorder


• 13% consumed risky amounts and had problems but no current disorder


• 12% had a current alcohol use disorder

It doesn't hurt to ask yourself this question:

How many times in the past year have you had 4 or more drinks in a day? (5 or more drinks a day for men.)

Then honestly reflect on your answer, because your doctor might be asking you the same question in the years to come.

*****

Source: J Gen Intern Med. Published online March 12, 2009.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Alcohol Abuse Health Center
• Addiction and Substance Abuse Support Group
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Pepsi and Mountain Dew "Throwback"

High fructose corn syrup is out and natural sugar is IN?

Well, not exactly. The natural sugar switcheroo is only for 8 weeks and it's in a special "throwback" version of the sodas. The limited edition sodas feature a retro look in their packaging and are sweetened with natural sugar (not high fructose corn syrup), just as they were back in the '60s and '70s. I was actually around in those two decades but can't really recall what either tasted like.

Most likely they will still taste darn sweet since their calories per can aren't going to change. Both Throwback sodas will be available nationwide beginning April 20 in 20-oz single-serve bottles and 12-pack cans.

I asked the company if they would consider permanently offering the Throwback sodas (say if millions of anti-high-fructose-corn-syrup soda drinkers made a run on this product) and they replied "there are no current plans to offer them beyond mid-June."


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• High-Fructose Corn Syrup’s Bad Rap Unfair?
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Vitamin Water on the Hot Seat

Glaceau's Vitamin Water (now owned by Coca-Cola) was on the list of beverage "sugar shockers" in a recent article I wrote for WebMD. I was just looking at potential products for the mere shock value over the amount of sugar a serving contains. I wasn't looking for which products had confusing and perhaps erroneous health claims on their packaging. But CSPI was...

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a nonprofit health advocacy group based in Washington, DC, just served notice to Coca-Cola of a class action lawsuit filed over what CSPI says are deceptive and unsubstantiated claims on its VitaminWater line of beverages. CSPI is strongly suggesting that this VitaminWater is really:

Vitamins + water + sugar + hype…equals soda minus the bubbles.

Instead of promoting health, CSPI nutritionists believe this line of product with 33 grams of sugar in each bottle (and in spite of the health buzz words used on their labels like "defense," "rescue," "energy," and "endurance,") is actually doing more to promote obesity, diabetes, and other health problems.

"While it is true that vitamins do play various roles in the human body, the statements on VitaminWater labels go far beyond even the loose, so-called "structure/function claims" allowed by the Food and Drug Administration and cross the line into outright fraud," notes CSPI in their press release.

Stay tuned on this one folks! They could both be in for a wild litigation ride. In the meantime, my advice is to get your nutrients (or vitamins) from whole foods as much as possible and to drink water or green tea without added sweetener (or vitamins).

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• Sugar Shockers: Foods Surprisingly High in Sugar
• WebMD Video: The Truth About Vitamins
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