Sugar intake linked to major health issues: Chinese researchers

CHENGDU, May 16 (Xinhua) -- A systematic review by Chinese researchers has found that dietary sugar intake is associated with several adverse health issues, such as weight gain and coronary heart disease.

Although many studies have focused on the associations between sugar consumption and a range of health outcomes, factors like deficiencies in the study design, varying measurements and inconsistent findings make drawing definitive conclusions difficult.

Researchers from West China Hospital of Sichuan University systematically searched, extracted and analyzed large amounts of data from published systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the associations between dietary sugar consumption and various health outcomes.

Their data sources include PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the hand-searching of reference lists.

After analyzing 8,601 related research articles, they detected significant harmful associations between dietary sugar consumption and 18 endocrine/metabolic outcomes, 10 cardiovascular outcomes, seven cancer outcomes and 10 other outcomes (neuropsychiatric, dental, hepatic, osteal, and allergic).

The results have been published in the British Medical Journal.

They pointed out that evidence for the harmful associations between sugar-sweetened beverages and changes in body weight, added sugars and ectopic fat accumulation, sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity in children, sugar-sweetened beverages and coronary heart disease, and sugar-sweetened beverages and depression seems to be more reliable than that for other outcomes.

Meanwhile, evidence of the association between dietary sugar consumption and cancer remains limited but warrants further research.

The researchers recommend reducing the consumption of free sugars or added sugars to below 25 grams per day (approximately 6 teaspoons per day) and limiting the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to less than one serving per week (about 200 to 355 ml per week).

To change sugar consumption patterns, especially for children and adolescents, a combination of widespread public health education and policies worldwide is urgently needed, said the researchers.