For nine days,
researchers took sugary foods and beverages away from a group of 43
children and teens who had symptoms of metabolic syndrome, reducing the
sugar in their diets to 10% of overall calories from 28%. The children’s
cholesterol and other lipid levels improved, and their insulin levels
dropped.
Photo:
Getty Image The study was designed to isolate the effect of added sugar in particular, as opposed to calories. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, and Touro University California took soda, pastries, sugary cereals and other foods and beverages sweetened with added sugar away from 43 Latino and African-American children and teens for nine days. They replaced those foods with pizza, baked potato chips, and other starchy processed foods.
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Communications
Despite the short period of time and a diet still heavy on processed food, the researchers said they found striking results. The children’s cholesterol and other lipid levels improved, and their insulin levels dropped.
“We reversed virtually every aspect of their metabolic syndrome,” said Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco and lead author of the paper, published Tuesday in the journal Obesity. Of note, he said, triglycerides, high levels of which can contribute to a hardening of the artery walls and cause acute pancreatitis, showed a “very, very large improvement.”
His provocative views have led him to clash with food and beverage makers, who argue that obesity is the result of excess calories overall and too little exercise, and that sugar should not be singled out.
The American Beverage Association, which represents beverage companies including Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc., said the study didn’t demonstrate causation. “That’s the problem with studies like this. They raise an alarm without the proof,’’ said William Dermody, the association’s vice president of policy. “There’s nothing unique’’ about sugars or the calories in sugary products, he added.
Leon Bruner, chief science officer for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, said, “The broad conclusions and policy recommendations in this study only serve to further the author’s policy agenda without a sufficient scientific foundation.”
Some other researchers who study the effects of sugar on health praised the study. But they said more research is needed. The study didn’t have a control group of children, noted David Ludwig, director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. “Because of the study’s design, we can’t be completely certain that the changes are fully attributable to changes in sugar intake,” said Dr. Ludwig. “It’s possible that other aspects of the diet or lifestyle changed.”
Still, he called the study “an interesting and useful step forward in assessing the effects of added sugar in children.”
Health authorities in the U.S. and elsewhere increasingly are targeting sugar. The World Health Organization recommended in March that adults and children cut sugar to less than 10% of their daily caloric intake. In July the Food and Drug Administration proposed that U.S. nutrition labels list added sugar amounts and a recommended maximum daily sugar intake of 200 calories—40 fewer calories than a 20-ounce Coca-Cola. Voters in Berkeley, Calif., in November approved a sugary drink tax, becoming the first U.S. city to pass such a measure.
Consumers also are backing away. In a nine-country survey this summer by Euromonitor International, 41% of respondents said they looked for limited or no added sugar on food labels. In the U.S., 71% said they were concerned about the amount of sugar they consumed, according to a March survey by the International Food Information Council. U.S. soda consumption has declined for 10 straight years.
WSJ
