Hello, I hope you’re having a beautiful weekend.  Thank you for your patience, between getting engaged (therefore planning a wedding), working full time and studying part time, let me just say time has run away with itself a little but here we are – so let us focus on the present! My past few submissions have been about those amazing foods research suggests is able to prevent the onset, development and mortality of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), this piece will focus on the ‘Devil’…Seriously though there is one common food constituent that offers little by way of nutritional value and should really be avoided as much as possible to ensure good health and to reduce our risk of CVD – SUGAR. Sugar = sucrose which = glucose + fructose.  A high intake of sugar is associated with the onset and/or progression of CVD.  We all know it’s bad for us but WHY?

Well not only is it considered ‘empty calories’; displacing beneficial nutrients from other food sources and contributing to obesity, a known risk factor for CVD but also because of its constituent FRUCTOSE.

The very high consumption of fructose is associated with increased blood pressure, visceral fat, triglycerides and decreased HDL cholesterol levels (good cholesterol which moves cholesterol away from the heart).  Fructose, unlike glucose has the unique ability to rapidly increase uric acid production in humans.  Recent studies have shown in both animals and humans that high uric acid levels may impair kidney function, causing glomerular damage and pre-glomerular arteriolosclerosis, two conditions which lead to arterial hypertension.  Uric acid further inhibits nitric oxide bioavailability which results in systemic and intra-renal vasoconstriction, renal microvascular disease, and systemic hypertension.

Bos et al. (2006) conducted a large prospective population based study which found a significant association between the risk of both CHD and stroke and the baseline serum uric acid levels suggesting its role in CVD risk, and in the cross sectional study by Mehrpour et al. (2012), results concluded that increased amounts of triglycerides and LDL cholesterol levels were associated with hyperuricemia (high uric acid levels) and therefore as a risk factor for acute stroke.  This result was supported by Koppula et al. (2013) which also found a significant association between elevated serum uric acid levels, stroke and poor outcome including death at 3 months.

Now don’t get me wrong – Fructose is also found in fruit – this fructose is fine and is also is found in safe levels so don’t avoid the fruit in order to eat the bag of sweets – not all sugar is equal. Let common sense prevail – natural sugar is meant to be eaten and has been eaten by humans for thousands of years; sugar containing E numbers, S numbers, artificial colours and flavourings are new and their effects are still not entirely understood so remember berries rule and snakes drool!

Have a beautiful week ahead!

WellWithNature xxx