Study finds 45 negative health effects of added sugar

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There are at least 45 good reasons to cut back on added sugar, according to a new study.

Copious research has shown the negative effects of excessive sugar intake on health, which has informed recommendations to limit consumption of “free” or added sugar to less than 10% of a person’s daily caloric intake.

Still, researchers in China and the United States felt that before developing detailed policies for sugar restriction, the “quality of existing evidence needs to be comprehensively evaluated,” according to the study published Wednesday in the journal The BMJ.

In a large review of 73 meta-analyses — which included 8,601 studies — high consumption of added sugar was associated with significantly higher risks of 45 negative health outcomes, including diabetes, gout, obesity, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, cancer, asthma, tooth decay, depression and early death.

Free sugars — the type of sugar the authors focused on — are those added during the processing of foods; packaged as table sugar and other sweeteners; and naturally occurring in syrups, honey, fruit juice, vegetable juice, purees, pastes and similar products in which the cellular structure of the food has been broken down, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. This category does not include sugars naturally occurring in dairy or structurally whole fruits and vegetables.

The study “provides a useful overview of the current state of the science on sugar consumption and our health … and confirms that eating too much sugar is likely to cause problems,” said Dr. Maya Adam, director of Health Media Innovation and clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. Adam wasn’t involved in the study.

“Studies like this are helpful in…