{"id":35070,"date":"2014-12-10T18:30:31","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T23:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=35070"},"modified":"2021-05-15T08:42:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-15T12:42:47","slug":"sugar-worse-than-salt-your-heart-121014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/health\/sugar-worse-than-salt-your-heart-121014\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Is Worse for Your Heart: Sugar or Salt?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sugar
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Your salt intake has historically been public enemy #1 in the battle to maintain good heart health. Yet, a new study is now suggesting that there may be an even bigger cardiovascular villain lurking in your foods \u2014 added sugar.<\/p>\n

In a new study published in Open Heart, a publication of the British Medical Journal<\/em><\/a>, researchers argue that dietary guidelines should put the spotlight on reducing added sugar consumption \u2014 rather than salt \u2014 in order to really<\/em> slash hypertension, heart disease and stroke rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the guidelines say restrict sodium, particularly the U.S. dietary guidelines,\u201d says study author Dr. James DiNicolantonio, of the department of preventive cardiology at Saint Luke\u2019s Mid America Heart Institute, Kansas City, MO. \u201cBut when I looked at the research, you only see a reduction in blood pressure of two to four mm Hg, in other people you even get a rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> The Bitter Effects About Sugar and Its Effect on Our Health<\/a><\/p>\n

Some recent research<\/a> has indicated that lowering salt intake levels below three grams per day, as recommended by many U.S. health organizations, might not actually offer much benefit to a person\u2019s health. Meanwhile, a growing number of studies indicate that sugar might actually be your heart\u2019s top threat. And it\u2019s hard to ignore some of the evidence. People who consume more than a quarter of their daily calories from added sugars have nearly triple the risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those who consume less than 10 percent of their daily calories from added sugars, the researchers note.<\/p>\n

DiNicolantonio\u2019s recommendation: \u201cDon\u2019t worry about the sodium count, focus on the added sugars, which are everywhere<\/a>. It\u2019s in ketchup, burger buns, 70 to 80 percent of foods in the supermarket have added sugars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Your Sweet Tooth Might Spell Trouble<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One of the biggest menaces to your ticker is high-fructose corn syrup, which is found in many processed foods. And of course, there\u2019s soda. \u201cProcessed food<\/a> that contains added sugars is the problem, not whole foods that contain fructose,\u201d DiNicolantonio says.<\/p>\n

“If you do need to eat something with a nutrition label, focus on the sugar.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d have to consume numerous pieces of fruit \u2014 five to six apples \u2014 to get the same sugar in one can of soda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eating or drinking more than 74 grams of fructose per day (slightly less<\/em> than what\u2019s in one 20 oz bottle of Mountain Dew<\/a>) has been associated with a 77 percent increased risk of a person having blood pressure above 160\/100 mm HG (normal blood pressure<\/a> is around 120\/80 mm Hg). Plus, diets high in sugar have also been linked to higher blood insulin levels, and metabolic syndrome.<\/p>\n

So how much added sugar is safe? DiNicolantonio says he agrees with the American Heart Association recommendations of six teaspoons per day for women, and nine teaspoons per day for men. But he notes, \u201cI disagree with the nine teaspoon threshold if it comes in liquid form<\/a>, which is one can of soda.\u201d<\/p>\n

The real way to curb your heart risk, and stay healthy is to avoid packaged goods, DiNicolantonio notes. \u201cEat real food<\/a> and everything else will fall into place. And if you do need to eat something with a nutrition label, focus on the sugar.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is added sugar your heart’s worst enemy? A new study explores why the sweet stuff might be worth for you than salt. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":35073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7,18],"tags":[31,217,51,251,345,406],"class_list":["post-35070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diet-nutrition","category-health","category-weight-loss","tag-beverages","tag-disease","tag-food-choices","tag-news","tag-tax1conditions","tag-tax2type-1-diabetes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}