Could eating sweets be good for your heart?
"A little bit of what you like is good for you... unless it's a soft drink," scientists studying the effect of sugar on cardiovascular disease risk have found. Eating a lot of added sugar increases the risk, but eating a little sweets is linked to a lower risk.
In the study conducted at Lund University, researcher Susanne Ganzi and her colleagues found that drinking sweetened beverages increases the risk of stroke, heart failure and atrial fibrillation.
Sources of sugar
But they also found "an even more striking finding: the differential relationship between different sources of added sugar and cardiovascular disease risk."
According to Medical Express, this "surprising discrepancy highlights the importance of considering not only the amount of sugar consumed, but also its source and context."
Cardiovascular disease
To understand how sugar consumption affects the risk of cardiovascular disease, and whether consuming different types of it changes this risk, the scientists combined data from two major studies in Sweden between 1997 and 2009.
The scientists focused on a sample of 69,705 participants. They looked at three categories of added sugar consumption: honey, sweets such as pastries, and sweetened beverages such as soft drinks.
On the other hand, seven cardiovascular diseases were examined: two different types of stroke, heart attack, heart failure, aortic aneurysm, atrial fibrillation, and aortic stenosis.
The research found that drinking sugary drinks was worse for heart health than any other form of sugar.
Eating a little sweetness
And that drinking more sweetened drinks significantly increased the risk of: ischemic stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and abdominal aortic aneurysm.
While occasional sweets were associated with better outcomes than no sweets at all, overall sugar intake was associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke and abdominal aortic aneurysm, as well as an increased risk of heart failure in normal-weight participants.
