US researchers have claimed high sugar consumption has more of a negative impact on heart health than high salt consumption.
According to a fresh body of research, published today (11 December) in medical journal Open Heart, sugar – particularly fructose – may play a greater role in high blood pressure and other cardiac conditions than salt.
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The researchers, led by Dr James DiNicolantonio, said: “It is sugar not the salt that may be the actual causative factor for high blood pressure. This notion is supported by meta analyses of randomised control trials (large-scale studies) suggesting that sugar is more strongly related to blood pressure in humans than sodium.”
There is a growing awareness around the threat to health presented by excessive sugar consumption. This summer, a scientific committee advising Public Health England concluded the amount of added sugar people are recommended to consume under UK government guidelines should be halved.
However, health campaigners are wary of downplaying the role that salt consumption has to play in public health issues.
Professor Graham McGregor – who is associated with both the Action on Sugar and Consensus Action on Salt and Health campaigns in the UK and is an expert in cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary, the University of London – said the evidence blaming sugar rather than salt for high blood pressure was “incredibly weak”.
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By GlobalDataProf. McGregor stressed “several decades” of work had demonstrated a strong link between salt consumption and high blood pressure.
“They are all important but by far the easiest and most cost-effective is salt reduction,” he told just-food.
