New evidence of the harmful effects of added sugar has been published, showing that obese children had significant improvement in metabolic health markers after eliminating sugar from their diet for 9 days, even when the sugar was replaced with high-carbohydrate foods such as crisps and pizza.
In the study, led by known anti-sugar author Robert Lustig, 43 children aged 8–18 years who were obese and had at least one metabolic comorbidity were given set meals for 9 days. The meals were designed to have the same calorie content as the participants’ normal meals but to reduce the proportion of calories from sugar and fructose to 10% and 4%, respectively, substituting these calories with those from fruit and starchy carbohydrates such as bread, pasta and cereals. The food choices were designed to be child-friendly, including turkey hot dogs, crisps, and pizza, all purchased at local supermarkets.
Compared with baseline, at 10 days there were reductions in mean diastolic blood pressure (5 mmHg; P=0.002), lactate level (0.3 mmol/L; P<0.001), triglyceride level (46%; P<0.001) and LDL-cholesterol level (0.3 mmol/L; P<0.001). Fat-free mass reduced by 0.6 kg (P=0.04). While mean weight also reduced by 0.9 kg (P<0.001), post hoc analysis of the 10 children who did not lose weight showed that they also benefitted in terms of their metabolic markers.
Commenting on these findings, study co-author Jen-Marc Schwarz (Touro University–California, Vallefo, CA, USA) said: “I have never seen results as striking or significant in our human studies; after only nine days of fructose restriction, the results are dramatic and consistent from subject to subject. These findings support the idea that it is essential for parents to evaluate sugar intake and to be mindful of the health effects of what their children are consuming.”
The study can be read in full here.
