Consuming too much sugar can increase people’s risk for heart disease- even if they’re otherwise healthy, new research reveals. Scientists asked 11 men with fatty-liver disease and 14 healthy men to follow either a high- or low-sugar diet for 12 weeks.
All of the men consumed the same number of calories each day, but sugar accounted for 26 percent of the high-sugar accounted for 26 percent of the high-sugar diet (650 calories) and just 6 percent of the low-sugar diet.
When the study ended, both the healthy men and those with fatty-liver disease who were on the high-sugar diet showed damaging changes in the way their bodies metabolized the fat linked to heart disease.
The healthy men on the high-sugar diet also had more fat in their blood and liver. Dana Angelo White, a dietitian at Quinnipiac University who was not involved in the study, said its results provide another reason to cut back on sugar. “In addition to piling on the empty calories, sugar creates more metabolic work for the liver,” she said.
