• The Downside of Having a Sweet Tooth - The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/well/eat/the-downside-of-having-a-sweet-tooth.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

    In fact, recent reports have found that regular consumption of sugary drinks heightens the risk not only of tooth decay, obesity, fatty liver disease and Type 2 diabetes, but also of heart disease and premature death, even in people free of other risk factors.

    You may have encountered contrary findings — reports that seemed to exonerate sugar consumption as a health hazard. Companies that produce sugar-laden foods and drinks would like you to believe that ailments linked to sugars result from excess calories, not sugars themselves. Don’t believe them; most reports holding sugar blameless are from sources tied directly or indirectly to financial support from the industries that depend on caloric sweeteners.

    The newest indictments of sugar-sweetened beverages began in April with the publication in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, of causes of death among 37,716 men and 80,647 women initially free of heart disease who were followed for 28 and 34 years, respectively. Cardiovascular mortality was 31 percent higher and the total death rate 28 percent higher among those who consumed two or more sugar-sweetened drinks a day when compared with people who rarely if ever drank them.

    Then in May, a team headed by Jean A. Welsh, a nutritional epidemiologist at Emory University in Atlanta, published an analysis of deaths among 13,440 participants in a long-term study seeking to identify factors that elevate the risk of stroke among African-Americans and residents of the Southeast.

    “Fructose and glucose are not metabolized the same way in the human body,” which can account for the adverse effects of fructose, Dr. Stanhope said. Glucose is metabolized in cells throughout the body and used for energy. Fructose is metabolized in the liver, resulting in fat production and raising the risk of heart and fatty-liver disease. In addition, she explained, “fructose doesn’t stimulate the satiety-promoting substance leptin,” prompting some people to overconsume it, especially in soft drinks containing high-fructose corn syrup, and other tempting foods as well.

    Following consumption of fructose, brain studies showed that people respond positively to pictures of highly palatable foods like cookies, candy and ice cream.

    #sucre #agrobusiness