Besides adding empty calories to your diet, sugar may raise your blood pressure if you eat too much, suggests a study from the University of Colorado-Denver. When men ate a diet heavy in fructose for two weeks, their systolic blood pressure (the top number) went up about 6 points, on average, while their diastolic pressure (the bottom number) rose about 3 points. Both table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are made up of about half fructose molecules.
Moreover, the men developed features of metabolic syndrome, which, besides high blood pressure, also include high triglycerides (fats in the blood), low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, high fasting blood sugar, and increased abdominal fat. Metabolic syndrome is associated with increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Some caveats: The study, presented at an American Heart Association conference, has not been published, and it did not include women. And the amount of fructose used (200 grams a day) was even higher than the excessive amounts Americans typically consume (50 to 70 grams a day). Still, the findings offer another tempting reason to curb your sweet tooth.
Source: Health Insider
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