Sugar High (or is that low?)

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I remember way back when… the saccharine study was all the rage. Right before it was basically outlawed. One of the statements made was that if sugar were not a natural substance and subject to the same testing as saccharine, it would have been eradicated from the market. Because the same dose of sugar in pop was far more harmful to humans than saccharine.

Now, there’s new data to substantiate that claim. Dr. W. Potts (senior author, Utah), with coauthors Drs. Ruff, Suchy, Hugentobler, Sosa, Schwartz, Morrison [all of utah], Gieng, and Shigenaga [Children’s Hospital, Oakland] published their findings in Nature Communications (Human-relevant levels of added sugar consumption increase female mortality and lower male fitness in mice).

The mice in this study were provided a diet with 25% of added sugars (not those normally present in fruit or milk, comprised of fructose and glucose monosaccharides- modeling High Fructose Corn Syrup [HCFS]) ; this is the level that many of use consume every data

Our high-sugar diets are associated with obesity and diabetes; but they also are related (correlated, no causal foundation found) to elevated risks of coronary heart disease. In this study, the researchers were careful to keep the sugar levels consistent with the typical human diet.

Death rates of male and female mice, fed sugar (25% added levels)
Survival of Animals by Sex from Ruff et. al. Nature Communications 2013

The diet was employed for 26 weeks, where the mice were allowed to roam free, battle for territory and food among mice that were not fed this diet. Over the course of the experiment, the female mice died at twice the expected rates, while the males were less like to be fertile or to battle the other mice for territory. This was true despite no major differences in seven (7) markers of metabolic health (including body weight, insulin levels); there were decreased glucose clearances and increased fasting cholesterol, as well.

(The Corn Refiners retorted that mice don’t normally eat sugar, so the results have no bearing on human response. The Sugar Association hold that HFCS provides very different results than sugar. Potts’ position is that mice are perfectly fine for modeling human diets.)

It should be noted that the 2010 Dietary Guidelines advise us all to employ lower levels of added sugars- down to 5 to 15% of our dietary calories.   That sounds like good advice to me!

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6 thoughts on “Sugar High (or is that low?)”

  1. There’s an old book called “Sugar Blues” where they link the decline of nations based on their sugar intake. Britain used to add a lot of sugar to their cigarettes. I do try to resist it. Thank you for the reminder.
    Carol Tomany recently posted..Ask a Stupid Question…

    1. Elise…
      I stopped adding sugar to my coffee and tea when I started grad school- because it meant I did not have to search for it as I zoomed out of my apartment on my way to class. I haven’t missed it since. (In New York, beware ordering coffee- you have to tell them NO milk and NO sugar; regular coffee comes with a pound of sugar and a gallon of milk. 🙂 )

  2. They say any sugary substance should be reduced. Including hfcs, agave, stevia, equal and sugar. There is no substitute for a good healthy diet. Oh, and soda is the devil.

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