Be Careful, Sweet Food Can Be A Stroke Trigger

Illustration of sweet foods triggering stroke (Freepic)

JAKARTA - Strokes often come without warning, but the habit of eating everyday turns out to secretly increase the risk. Not only salted or fatty foods to watch out for, some of the diets that look normal, it turns out to have a big effect on heart health.

Reporting from the Times of India page, a recent study published in BMC Medicine found that high eating patterns of free sugar, including those added to processed foods, soft drinks, fruit juices, andgalos, turned out to increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

The study, which analyzed data on more than 110 thousand British residents aged 3773 years during the nine years, found that any increase in free sugar consumption by 5% was associated with an increase in the risk of heart disease by 6% and a risk of stroke by 10%.

In this sugar-free analysis, researchers did not calculate the natural sugar contained in whole fruits and vegetables. The data were taken from the Biobank UK, and the researchers evaluated participants' eating habits, especially carbohydrate intake and free sugar, then compared them to cardiovascular disease events.

"The most common form of sugar consumed by study participants is jam and candy," said Cody Watling, a doctoral student at the University of Oxford who is also the author of this study.

He added fruit juice, sweet drinks, and desserts were also a frequently consumed source of sugar. According to Watling, groups with the highest risk of consuming about 95 grams of free sugar per day, covering 18% of their total daily energy intake.

Excessive sugar consumption burdens the liver. The liver converts carbohydrates into fat and metabolizes sugar in a similar way as processing alcohol. This process can lead to a buildup of fat in the liver, leads to fatty liver disease, diabetes, and ultimately increases the risk of heart disease.

Too much additional sugar can also trigger chronic inflammation and high blood pressure, two main pathways that cause heart disease. Increased blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, diabetes, and fatty liver disease are the impact of excess sugar consumption, and all are related to increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

"Avoiding sweet drinks is probably the most important thing we can do," said Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition from Harvard University who was not involved in the study.

"A type of fruit juice is the same as Chocolate," he added.

Although orange juice in small portions can occasionally provide health benefits.

For example, if a woman with a small body, the energy requirement is certainly far less than a man with a height of 6 feet 7. They certainly need more food," explained Watling regarding the reasons for the guidelines more often using percentages than units of grams.

This study also found a positive relationship between fiber consumption and heart health, namely consumption of 5 grams of fiber per day attributed to a 4% decrease in the risk of heart disease. However, this relationship disappeared when researchers took into account the participants' body mass index (BMI).

The relationship between high sugar diets and an increased risk of death from heart disease was also found in a 2014 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

During the 15-year trial, the risk of death from cardiovascular disease increased 38% in individuals who received 17'21% calories from additional sugar, compared to those who only got 8%.

This study expanded previous studies by also calculating sugar from honey,ferredness, and fruit juice, not just additional sugar from processed foods. The authors noted that the relationship between free sugar and the risk of stroke still needs further research.

What is really important for health and welfare in general is that we consume carbohydrates that are rich in whole wheat. Watling nodes, while emphasizing the importance of reducing the consumption of sweet drinks and all kinds of sweet snacks that contain additional sugar.