Fat and sugar are considered the main culprits that harm health. Eating foods high in fat and sugar increases the risk of exposure to chronic diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. So, which of the two is worse for your health?
SugarㅣSource: Getty Images Bank
According to studies so far, sugar plays a more important role than fat in the development of metabolic diseases such as obesity.
“Sugar has a greater adverse effect on chronic diseases”
A research team led by Professor Ivaylo Ivanov of Columbia University in the United States announced that sugar causes serious changes in the composition of the gut microbiome, leading to weight gain, pre-diabetes, and metabolic diseases.
The research team revealed that when the experimental model mice were fed a diet high in fat and sugar, metabolic syndrome symptoms such as weight gain, insulin resistance, and glucose intolerance appeared after 4 weeks. The researchers concluded that sugar was the main culprit for detrimental changes in metabolic health, saying that mice fed a high-fat diet maintained their gut health.
The results of this study were published in the online edition of the biological journal ‘Cell’.
“To lower your risk of heart disease, you need to cut down on sugar rather than saturated fat”
So far, experts have recommended that you cut down on saturated fat intake as much as possible to lower cholesterol levels. The American Heart Association (AHA) also recommends avoiding coconut oil and animal products such as meat, eggs and cheese to prevent heart disease. However, a recent study found that the medical evidence to recommend reducing cholesterol intake was weak.
Researchers at the University of South Florida in the US emphasize that reducing sugar rather than saturated fat is key to maintaining heart health. “For the past 80 years, people with familial hypercholesterolemia have been advised to lower their cholesterol levels by reducing their saturated fat intake, but there is no justification for this recommendation,” said Professor David Diamond, lead author of the study. I couldn’t find it,” he said.
In particular, it was found that following a low-carb diet was more effective for people with risk factors for heart disease, such as overweight, high blood pressure and diabetes.
This study was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
“Consuming a lot of sugar increases the risk of cardiovascular disease”
Researchers at the University of Surrey have found that eating a lot of sugar increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, even in healthy people.
The researchers found that men who already had high levels of fat in their livers had an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as myocardial infarction and stroke, because fat was broken down in the blood and changes in the fat metabolism process used by cells. Even men with low levels of fat in the liver, when they eat a lot of sugar, fat accumulates in the liver, causing abnormalities in the fat metabolism process.