Parents have long warned teens to skip sugary sweets such as soda and candy to prevent them from loading up on empty calories. New research has revealed that excess sugar consumption could affect their future health.
Teens that eat too much fructose, or fruit sugar found naturally in fruits and vegetables but also in high fructose corn syrup, a common sweetener in processed foods and soda, appear to be at an added risk of heart disease or diabetes.
Dr. Vanessa Bundy, a pediatric resident at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University and co-author of the study, noted that the nutrition parents provide to their children will contribute either to overall health and development or cardiovascular disease at an early age.
She said that adolescents tend to consume the most fructose, making it important to consider what it may be doing to their bodies in the the short term, and how it could impact their risk of heart disease later.
Researchers analyzed 559 teens between the ages of 14 and 18, assessing their diet history, overall fructose consumption and body fat.
They found that diets high in fructose correlated with higher blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin resistance and inflammatory factors that contribute to heart disease. Teens with excess belly fat, called visceral adiposity, appeared to be at a higher risk. Investigators noted that large consumers of fructose also tended to have lower levels of good HDL cholesterol.
“Fructose itself is metabolized differently than other sugars and has some byproducts that are believed to be bad for us,” Dr. Bundy said. “The overall amount of fructose that is in high fructose corn syrup is not much different than the amount in table sugar but it’s believed there’s something in the syrup processing that plays a role in the bad byproducts of metabolism.”
Researchers didn’t suggest dieting, instead advocating for a healthy diet with plenty of physical activity. They also urged parents to ensure they are strong role models in promoting nutrition. Additional research will be needed to examine the link between high fructose consumption and cardiovascular risk.
The study was recently published in The Journal of Nutrition.
Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and in the rest of the world. Estimates point to almost one half of all middle aged men and one third of all middle aged women in the United States developing some form of CAD. The primary symptom of angina, commonly known as chest pain, occurs when the artery is almost completely blocked.
Plaques made up of cholesterol and fibrous tissue lodge in the walls of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. Slow growth of the plaques can cause chest pain as they restrict blood flow to the heart muscle, and complete closure or rupture of the plaque can cause a myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack, with resulting disability or death. CAD is primarily a disease of diet and habits, with the greatest risk factors coming from smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.