Tag: sugar

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Sugar Intake Decreasing but Still Too High

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Further action needed, according to a University of Bonn study on child and adolescent nutrition

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

University of Bonn researchers have analysed data on sugar intake among children and adolescents in a long-term study, finding that intake has been declining steadily since 2010 – but is still above the level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The results, to be published in the European Journal of Nutrition, are already available online.

“Our study concerns the intake of free sugars,” explains Dr Ines Perrar, who is a research associate at the University of Bonn Institute of Nutritional and Food Science (IEL) and lead author of the study. “There is debate on whether sugar, like salt and fats, is linked to the development of chronic diseases.” The WHO defines “free” sugar as any form of sugar, including honey, syrup and fruit juice concentrates, added by a manufacturer or when preparing food and beverages at home. Free sugar also includes sugar naturally occurring in juices.

For their project, IEL researchers analysed data from the “Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed” cohort study (DONALD). The DONALD study has been ongoing since 1985, gathering detailed data on nutrition, metabolism, growth and health of children and adolescents. “Study participants weigh and document everything they eat and drink on three consecutive days every year,” relates Dr Ute Nöthlings, Professor of Nutritional Epidemiology at the IEL. “Referring to our Institute’s in-house nutrient database, we are able to estimate intake of certain nutrients, including free sugars.”

Sugar intake too high among adolescents in particular

The authors evaluated 4218 sets of three-day weighing dietary records by 751 children and adolescents between ages three and 18 in the years 2010–2023. “Our finding is that free sugar intake continues to decline,” Dr Perrar notes, “but average daily intake still exceeds the level recommended by the WHO and the German Nutrition Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung, DGE) of a maximum 10% of total daily energy intake.”

An analysis of DONALD back in 2019 already indicated that free sugar intake has been declining since 2005, then in 2016 a median value of approximately 16% of daily energy intake was determined. That value has subsequently declined further to 11.7%. The researchers surmise this trend may be explained by increased awareness of the health consequences of excessive consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and certain other sugary foods.

While the decline definitely represents good progress, there are noteworthy age group differences, as Professor Nöthlings points out, who is director of the DONALD study, spokesperson for the Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) Sustainable Futures and a member of the Life and Health TRA at the University of Bonn: “During the observation period, we saw a relatively high intake of free sugars around 15 percent of the daily energy intake in some cases, particularly among adolescents aged six to 14. The intake then declines significantly with increasing age.”

Actual sugar intake likely higher

The researchers point out that the actual sugar intake is likely higher than the study data suggests, due in part to potential under-reporting by the study participants self-reporting on what they eat. In addition, the study is not broadly representative of society, as the design of this large study favours participation by families of a rather higher socioeconomic status who are generally more aware regarding nutrition and health issues.

Source: University of Bonn

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Each Gram of Sugar Dropped from a Diet Slows Biological Aging

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Photo by Sharon Mccutcheon on Unsplash

Researchers at UC San Francisco have found a link between following a diet that is rich in vitamins and minerals, especially one without much added sugar, and having a younger biological age at the cellular level.

They looked at how three different measures of healthy eating affected an “epigenetic clock” – a biochemical test that can approximate both health and lifespan – and found that the better people ate, the younger their cells looked. Even when people ate healthy diets, each gram of added sugar they consumed was associated with an increase in their epigenetic age.

“The diets we examined align with existing recommendations for preventing disease and promoting health, and they highlight the potency of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients in particular,” said Dorothy Chiu, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health and first author of the study, appearing in JAMA Network Open. “From a lifestyle medicine standpoint, it is empowering to see how heeding these recommendations may promote a younger cellular age relative to chronological age.”

The study is one of the first to show a link between added sugar and epigenetic aging, and the first to examine this link in a heterogenous group of women – both Black and white – in midlife. Most studies on the topic have involved older white participants.

The study helps deepen our understanding of why sugar is so detrimental to health, said study co-senior author Elissa Epel, PhD, a UCSF professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

“We knew that high levels of added sugars are linked to worsened metabolic health and early disease, possibly more than any other dietary factor,” Epel said. “Now we know that accelerated epigenetic aging is underlying this relationship, and this is likely one of many ways that excessive sugar intake limits healthy longevity.”

Women in the study reported consuming an average of 61.5 grams of added sugar per day, though the range was large: from 2.7 to 316 grams of added sugar daily. A bar of milk chocolate has about 25 grams of added sugar, while a can of cola has about 39 grams. The US Food and Drug Administration recommends adults consume no more than 50 grams of added sugar per day.

A nutrient-based approach

For the cross-sectional study, researchers analysed food records from 342 Black and white women with a mean age of 39 years from Northern California. Then, they compared their diets with epigenetic clock measures, which were derived from saliva samples.

Researchers scored the women’s diets to see how they compared to a Mediterranean-style diet rich in anti-inflammatory and antioxidant foods and then to a diet linked to lower risk for chronic disease.

Finally, they scored the women’s diets against a measure they created called the “Epigenetic Nutrient Index (ENI),” which is based on nutrients (not foods) that have been linked to anti-oxidative or anti-inflammatory processes and DNA maintenance and repair. These include Vitamins A, C, B12 and E, folate, selenium, magnesium, dietary fibre and isoflavones.

Adherence to any of the diets was significantly associated with lower epigenetic age, with the Mediterranean diet having the strongest association.

The researchers examined sugar intake separately and found that consuming foods with added sugar was associated with accelerated biological aging, even in the presence of an otherwise healthy diet.

“Given that epigenetic patterns appear to be reversible, it may be that eliminating 10 grams of added sugar per day is akin to turning back the biological clock by 2.4 months, if sustained over time,” said co-senior author Barbara Laraia, PhD, RD, a UC Berkeley professor in the Food, Nutrition and Population Health program. “Focusing on foods that are high in key nutrients and low in added sugars may be a new way to help motivate people to eat well for longevity.”

Source: University of California San Francisco

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Study Shows a Link Between Sugar-sweetened Beverages and Liver Cancer

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One of the first studies to look at the association between intake of sugar-sweetened beverages, artificially sweetened beverages, and incidence of liver cancer and chronic liver disease mortality, has found an 85% increase in liver cancer incidence between postmenopausal women who consume one sweetened drink per day and those who consume them rarely. Results from the study, which was led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital, are published in JAMA.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to report an association between sugar sweetened beverage intake and chronic liver disease mortality,” said first author Longgang Zhao, PhD, of the Brigham’s Channing Division of Network Medicine. Zhao is a postdoctoral researcher who works with senior author Xuehong Zhang, MBBS, ScD, in the Channing Division. “Our findings, if confirmed, may pave the way to a public health strategy to reduce risk of liver disease based on data from a large and geographically diverse cohort.”

This observational study included nearly 100 000 postmenopausal women from the large, prospective Women’s Health Initiative study. Participants reported their usual soft drink, fruit drink (not including fruit juice) consumption, and then reported artificially sweetened beverage consumption after three years. Participants were followed for a median of more than 20 years. Researchers looked at self-reported liver cancer incidence and death due to chronic liver disease such as fibrosis, cirrhosis, or chronic hepatitis, which were further verified by medical records or the National Death Index.

A total of 98 786 postmenopausal women were included in the final analyses. The 6.8% of women who consumed one or more sugar-sweetened beverages daily had an 85% higher risk of liver cancer and 68% higher risk of chronic liver disease mortality compared to those who had fewer than three sugar sweetened beverages per month. No such increase was observed for consumption of artificially-sweetened beverages.

The authors note that the study was observational, and causality cannot be inferred, and relied on self-reported responses about intake, sugar content and outcomes. More studies are needed to validate this risk association and determine why the sugary drinks appeared to increase risk of liver cancer and disease. Furthermore, more research is needed to elucidate the potential mechanisms by integrating genetics, preclinical and experimental studies, and -omics data.

Source: Mass General Brigham