CUTTING down sugar can lower blood pressure and cholesterol in only nine days, says a new study reported on in the Telegraph. Children taking part were given a meal plan with the same amount of calories that they were eating before the trial, but with a restricted sugar intake.
What they ate overall had the same fat, protein, carbohydrate and calorie levels as they had previously eaten at home, with the carbohydrate from sugar replaced by starchy foods such as bagels and pasta. Hot dogs, crisps and pizza were all permitted during the study.
Overall, the total dietary sugar in the meal plan was reduced from 28 per cent to 10 per cent, and fructose from 12 per cent to 4 per cent of total calories.
The results of cutting down sugar were dramatic – after only nine days of cutting down sugar, the children showed marked improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol, insulin levels and liver function.
The research was carried out with the help of 43 obese children at the University of California San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital and is published in the journal Obesity.
The results of cutting down sugar were “dramatic and consistent” according to Dr. Jean-Marc Schwarz, one of the senior authors on the paper. He concluded: “I have never seen results as striking or significant in our human studies.”
Cutting down sugar vital for kids
Lead author Dr Robert Lustig, from a charity I belong to in America called the Food and Behaviour Research Organisation, said: “This study definitively shows that sugar is metabolically harmful not because of its calories or its effects on weight; rather sugar is metabolically harmful because it’s sugar.
“These findings support the idea that it is essential for parents to evaluate sugar intake and to be mindful of the health effects of what their children are consuming.
“When we took the sugar out, the kids started responding to their satiety cues. They told us it felt like so much more food, even though they were consuming the same number of calories as before, just with significantly less sugar. Some said we were overwhelming them with food.”
Dr Lustig added: “This study demonstrates that a calorie is not a calorie. Where those calories come from determines where in the body they go.
“Sugar calories are the worst, because they turn to fat in the liver, driving insulin resistance, and driving risk for diabetes, heart, and liver disease.”
Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist and advisor to Action on Sugar, said: “It’s time to abandon the outdated notion that a calorie is a calorie because this theory that continues to damage public health.
“This study provides further evidence that all calories do not have the same metabolic effects on the body with sugar calories being particularly harmful.”
Thinking Slimmer we are pleased to join in the fight on cutting down sugar by lobbying the Government and food manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar and fructose in our food.
And just as importantly, by providing affordable and effective tools to assist people to overcome their sugar dependence. Cutting down sugar has to be made easy!
