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• Posted December 9, 2024

There's a 'Sweet Spot' for Daily Sugar Intake & Heart Health

When it comes to sweets, the type a person chooses can have a significant impact on their heart health, a new study finds.

Sugary drinks significantly increase a person’s risk of stroke, heart failure, irregular heartbeat and other heart health problems, results showed.

But adding honey to a bowl of oatmeal or eating an occasional sweet pastry doesn’t appear to drastically harm heart health, and in some cases might improve it, researchers found.

“The most striking finding from our study is the divergent relationship between different sources of added sugar and cardiovascular disease risk,” said researcher Suzanne Janzi, a doctoral candidate at Lund University in Sweden.

“This surprising contrast highlights the importance of considering not just the amount of sugar consumed, but its source and context,” Janzi said.

For the study, researchers analyzed data collected from nearly 70,000 Swedes participating in two long-term health studies. Participants responded to diet questionnaires as part of the studies.

The team looked specifically at three sources of sugar -- toppings like honey, treats like pastries and sugary beverages.

During a follow-up period that ended in 2019, nearly 26,000 of the participants had been diagnosed with a heart problem, researchers found.

Sugary drinks wound up being worse for a person’s heart health than any other source of sugar.

“Liquid sugars, found in sweetened beverages, typically provide less satiety than solid forms -- they make you feel less full -- potentially leading to overconsumption,” Janzi explained.

“Context also matters -- treats are often enjoyed in social settings or special occasions, while sweetened beverages might be consumed more regularly,” Janzi added.

Increased sugar in general caused a rise in a person’s risk for stroke and heart failure.

However, consuming an occasional sugary treat was associated with better health outcomes than not eating any treats at all, researchers found.

“This might reflect underlying dietary behaviors -- individuals consuming very little sugar might have very restrictive diets or might be limiting sugar due to preexisting health conditions,” Janzi said.

“While our observational study cannot establish causation, these findings suggest that extremely low sugar intake may not be necessary or beneficial for cardiovascular health,” Janzi added.

The findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

More work will be needed to fully understand why different sources of sugar might have different effects on heart health, particularly in other parts of the world, researchers said.

“Our findings are based on a Swedish population, which may have dietary habits and lifestyle factors that differ from those in other populations,” Janzi said in a journal news release.

“Particularly relevant in this context is the social custom of ‘fika’ -- regular coffee and pastry breaks that are deeply embedded in Swedish culture,” Janzi added. “These results may not directly translate to other populations with different dietary cultures.”

More information

Harvard Medical School has more on the health effects of excess sugar.

SOURCE: Frontiers, news release, Dec. 9, 2024