Sugar: too much is unhealthy. (Photo : Getty Images)
In another confirmation of the dangers of consuming too much sugar, the American Heart Association (AHA) has issued a statement saying children and teenagers should consume no more than 25 grams of added sugars a day.
The statement published in Circulation, the journal of the AHA, addresses the health concerns in young children and adolescents as a result of consumption of added sugars, such as an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, obesity and insulin resistance leading to Type 2 diabetes.
Other studies have shown added sugars make up at least 10% of the calories the average American eats in a day. One in 10 people, however, get a huge one-quarter or more of their calories from added sugar.
Another study over the course of the 15 years discovered that participants who took in 25% or more of their daily calories as sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease as those whose diets included less than 10% added sugar.
The odds of dying from heart disease rose in tandem with the percentage of sugar in the diet. This finding was true regardless of a person's age, sex, physical activity level and body-mass index.
The AHA statement explains how much sugar is considered safe.
AHA recommends children between the ages of 2 and 18 years should consume about 25 grams or about 100 calories (approximately 6 teaspoons) of added sugars each day. I came to this conclusion after examining the literature on five main categories: blood pressure, lipids, obesity, insulin and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
For children below two years old, all added sugars should be avoided, due in part, to the establishment of "taste preferences" early in life.
To help parents follow the new recommendations, the authors said that starting in July 2018, food manufacturers will be required to list the amount of added sugars on the nutritional facts panel.
Until then, the best way to avoid added sugars in a child's diet is to serve mostly foods that are high in nutrition such as fruits, vegetables, lean meat, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, poultry and fish and to limit food with little nutritional value.
"There has been a lack of clarity and consensus regarding how much sugar is considered safe for children, so sugars remain a commonly added ingredient in foods and drinks, and overall consumption by children remains high -- the typical American consumes about triple the recommended amount of added sugars," said lead author Dr. Miriam Vos, MD of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
Dr. Vos and her colleagues focused on studies where correlations were observed although there's a lack of data directly linking the quantities of added sugars and heightened cardiovascular disease risk.
The statement was developed by several AHA councils, including the nutrition committee of the council on lifestyle and cardiometabolic health and the council on cardiovascular disease in the young.
