The connection between sugar and heart disease can be dated to the low-fat diet or as it should be known - the high sugar diet which has been an absolute failure. The result? Americans are getting fatter and more diabetic at an epidemic rate.
There has been a frightening increase in a condition called the Metabolic Syndrome, or Syndrome X. The Metabolic Syndrome is actually a constellation of risk factors (increased belly fat, elevated serum glucose levels, high blood pressure, and lipid abnormalities) that often appear together in patients and is directly linked to an increased risk of coronary artery heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes and stroke.
We now know that for those who have heart attacks, Metabolic Syndrome will very likely be the reason. And the Metabolic Syndrome is caused by too much sugar in the blood.
Metabolic Syndrome Symptoms
The first symptom doctors are told to look for in diagnosing Metabolic Syndrome is the expanding belly fat, not the Dunlap's disease or it Dun lapped over my belt, but the development of visceral fat or the kind that is deep in the belly and surrounds our organs.
This visceral belly fat creates chemicals that cause inflammation and increasing sugar levels that leads to increased heart attacks. This means that if you're overweight, there's a good chance you have Metabolic Syndrome which is why you're more likely to have a heart attack or become diabetic (or both) than someone who's not.
This belly fat is caused by persistently high sugar levels and high insulin levels that take your excess sugar and convert it to long chain fatty acids that are deposited into your belly making inflammation and sugar heart disease link even worse.
Four Components of Metabolic Syndrome
The four main components of the Metabolic Syndrome connection are increased visceral fat, increased sugar levels, increased blood pressure and a lipid abnormality of high triglycerides and low HDL's
Having the Metabolic Syndrome is another way of saying that the cells in your body are actively ignoring the action of the hormone insulin - a condition known technically as being insulin-resistant.
You secrete insulin in response to the flooding of high carbohydrate foods you eat to keep blood sugar in control after a meal. If your cells become resistant to insulin, your pancreas responds to rising blood sugar by pumping out more and more insulin.
Eventually the pancreas can no longer keep up with the demand and will develop "pancreatic exhaustion." Now your blood sugar will rise out of control, and you've got Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.
Not everyone with insulin resistance becomes diabetic; some continue to secrete enough insulin to overcome their cells' resistance to the hormone. But having chronically elevated insulin levels has harmful effects of its own.
A result is higher triglyceride levels and blood pressure, lower levels of HDL cholesterol (the "good cholesterol"), further worsening the insulin resistance - this is Metabolic Syndrome.
When physicians assess your risk of heart disease these days, they will take into consideration your LDL cholesterol (the bad kind), unfortunately they should be focusing on our excessive sugar intake which is leading us down the road to the Metabolic Syndrome. Cholesterol is only a byproduct of an unbalanced metabolism, and is also not the problem, but is very critical in so many of vital functions in our body.
Dr. Scott Grundy, chairman of the panel that produced the last edition of the National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines feels that heart attacks 50 years ago might have been caused by high cholesterol - particularly high LDL cholesterol - but since then we've all gotten fatter and more diabetic.
Now it's Metabolic Syndrome that's the cause of blocked coronary arteries and heart attacks.
Glucose, Fructose & High Fructose Corn Syrup
Table sugar is 50 % glucose and 50% fructose. The fructose component of sugar and high fructose corn syrup (H.F.C.S.) are metabolized primarily by the liver and result in increased fat deposition in the liver with persistently elevated levels, while the glucose from sugar and starches are metabolized by almost every cell in the body, including cancer cells.
Consuming sugar (fructose and glucose) means more work for the liver than if you consumed the same number of calories of starch (glucose). And if you take that sugar in the rapidly absorbed liquid form in soda or fruit juices, fructose and glucose will reach the liver more quickly than if you consume them as a food or fruit. The increased demand of the liver will result in the production of toxic metabolites from fructose that cause increased triglycerides and LDL's, increased fatty liver and even high blood pressure.
Dr. Varman Samuel, who studies insulin resistance at Yale School of Medicine, describes the correlation between liver fat and insulin resistance in patients, lean or obese as "remarkably strong."
What it looks like, Samuel says, is that "when you deposit fat in the liver, that's when you become insulin-resistant." Many researchers today feel that the Metabolic Syndrome and insulin resistance are the reasons that many of the researchers today studying fructose (sugar or sucrose is 50% glucose and 50 % fructose) because sugar could be and most likely is the connection to heart disease.High Sugar Diets
We have been forcing high sugar diets on our population for the last two decades. What we are in need of is a low carbohydrate diet that has now been repeatedly shown to: 1) lower sugar levels; 2) reduce triglycerides; 3) reduce the inflammatory markers that are strongly associated with heart disease; 4) reduce the weight, fatty liver changes and the belly fat that is keeping the fires of the Metabolic Syndrome glowing bright.
Of all the substances we put in our bodies that are harmful, sugar is the top of the list as it ignites inflammation and inflammation causes heart disease. We can see the health damage in diabetes, obesity and cancer. Having seen the ravages of damaged hearts for 15 years as a heart surgeon, my goal today is helping patients prevent disease. A huge step in prevention is overcoming sugar addiction. To learn how to end sugar cravings and sugar addiction, visit http://stopsugarcravingseasily.com
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