Sugar intake linked to heart disease deaths

Conclusion This study used dietary information from a large group of US adults to show that greater added sugar intake was linked to a higher risk of death from CVD. The study has many strengths including recruiting a large number of people and obtaining information spanning a relatively long time – average 15 years. The cohort in question was representative of US adults. Despite some ethnicity differences between the US and UK population that may influence the results, the main link between sugar and CVD death is likely to apply to UK adults. It wasn’t possible to estimate the absolute risk differences of dying from CVD for the different levels of sugar consumption from the results published in the study. This would have been useful to help us better understand the magnitude of the risks involved. All we have is relative risks. One of the limitations of the study was that it focussed on CVD deaths. The potential links between sugar and risks of other disease, such as cancer, were not assessed. It was also limited by the method for calculating the dietary intake. This was assessed over one or two 24-hour periods only, with statistical methods used to calculate an estimate of the usual intake. This is not only reliant on accurate recall and reporting of dietary intake at the time, but might not be representative of a person’s dietary intake over 15 years. In their discussion, the authors mention that “major sources of added sugar in American adults’ diet included s...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Heart/lungs Source Type: news