Written By: Debjani Arora | Published : March 3, 2016 5:40 PM IST
When it comes to preventing heart diseases salt becomes your solemn enemy. And why not, it increases blood volume through water retention and thus creates a pressure on the arteries and veins during the pumping action of the heart. After a period, the blood vessels start to stiffen, and that leads to increase in blood pressure, setting the stage for a heart failure. Here are nine reasons why having excess salt can be detrimental to your body.
While this is true the other white poison sugar isn t far away from being the next big culprit. Cutting down on your salt intake and not bothering about the sugar in your diet can cost your heart dearly.
Excess sugar increases mortality due to cardiovascular diseases
A 20-year long study published in JAMA internal medicine showed that people who had added sugar that amounted to 10 to 20 percent increase in calories apart from their overall diet had 30 percent more chances to face a risk of cardiovascular death. For those whom the caloric intake increased by 25 percent tripled the risk. However, the risk was lower for people who consumed less than 10 calories through added sugar [1]. Here are 10 ways how excess sugar can be your biggest enemy.
It increases levels of bad or LDL cholesterol in the body
When we talk about sugar it isn t just the white sugar that you add in your tea and coffee, which is the culprit. Even following a high carbohydrate diet can lead to the same dangers. Remember, carbohydrates after metabolism breaks down into simple sugars and increase sugar level in the blood. However, carbohydrates alone are not to be blamed the other aspects of one s diet also plays an important role fats, fibre and other macro and micronutrients. Studies suggest that a high carbohydrate diet is more potent for people with higher abdominal obesity and those who fall under the spectrum of metabolic diseases [2]. As it increases the level of LDL cholesterol and insulin resistance, it puts one at a risk of cardiovascular diseases. However not all carbohydrate rich foods are bad. Foods that are high in GI index should be avoided or taken in limited amounts for your heart and health s sake. Apart from this, even fructose, a natural sugar present in fruits and honey is harmful if consumed in large amounts [3]. Here are 10 things that are damaging your heart more than high cholesterol.
So limit sugar intake in every possible form apart from diabetes and metabolic syndrome it gives your heart a tremendous blow.
References:
1: Yang Q, Zhang Z, Gregg EW, Flanders WD, Merritt R, Hu FB. Added sugar intake and cardiovascular diseases mortality among US adults. JAMA Intern Med. 2014 Apr;174(4):516-24. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13563. PubMed PMID: 24493081.
1: Fried SK, Rao SP. Sugars, hypertriglyceridemia, and cardiovascular disease. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Oct;78(4):873S-880S. Review. PubMed PMID: 14522752.
Johnson, R. J., Segal, M. S., Sautin, Y., Nakagawa, T., Feig, D. I., Kang, D. H., & S nchez-Lozada, L. G. (2007). Potential role of sugar (fructose) in the epidemic of hypertension, obesity and the metabolic syndrome, diabetes, kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 86(4), 899-906.
Image source: Shutterstock
