Sugar may be more harmful than salt for blood pressure: study

Added sugars are more likely to have a greater role than salt in causing high blood pressure and heart disease, according to a study published on Thursday in the online journal Open Heart.

The authors of the study say the benefits of cutting salt intake to lower high blood pressure ''are debatable'', adding dietary guidelines should be focused more on reducing sugar and less on salt.

However, academics have claimed the research has been ''over-exaggerated'' and is not based on any new evidence.

The researchers say people who have a daily intake of more than 74 grams of high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener used in processed foods such as fruit-flavoured and fizzy drinks, have a 30-per cent higher risk of high blood pressure.

Cardiovascular research scientist Dr James DiNicolantonio, at the Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute, has published the paper, with Dr Sean C Lucan, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

In their paper, titled The wrong white crystals: not salt but sugar as aetiological in hypertension and cardiometabolic disease, they say, "Sugar may be much more meaningfully related to blood pressure than sodium, as suggested by a greater magnitude of effect with dietary manipulation.

''Compelling evidence from basic science, population studies, and clinical trials implicates sugars, and particularly the monosaccharide fructose, as playing a major role in the development of hypertension [high blood pressure].

''Moreover, evidence suggests that sugars in general, and fructose in particular, may contribute to overall cardiovascular risk through a variety of mechanisms."

They claim that worldwide sugar-sweetened drinks consumption has been implicated in 180,000 deaths a year.

''Just as most dietary sodium does not come from the salt shaker, most dietary sugar does not come from the sugar bowl; reducing consumption of added sugars by limiting processed foods containing it, made by corporations, would be a good place to start," they add.

''The evidence is clear that even moderate doses of added sugar for short durations may cause substantial harm.''

However, according to The Daily Telegraph, professor emeritus of nutrition and dietetics at King's College London, Tom Sanders, said there is "no evidence" to support their findings.

''In my opinion the effects of added sugars are exaggerated in this article," he said.

"Cutting salt intake and losing weight will lower blood pressure, but the evidence for a direct effect of added sugar is tenuous.

''Most of the salt in the diet comes from bread, processed meat, pickled foods and salt added during food preparation and at table. Salt intake has fallen in the UK as manufacturers have reduced the amount of salt added to food. This has also been accompanied by a fall in blood pressure.

''Added sugar intake is derived mainly from sugar-sweetened beverages, confectionery, cereal products, such as cakes and biscuits. The easiest way to reduce added sugar intake is to limit sugar-sweetened beverage and confectionery consumption. However, as far as I am aware there is no evidence to show that blood pressure is lowered when sugar-sweetened beverages are replaced by artificial sweeteners."