Sugars are not created equal. Which type threatens your health more?
Recent scientific research has revealed that consuming sugar-sweetened beverages may be more harmful to metabolic health than eating hard candy.
The systematic study, which collected health data from more than half a million adults worldwide, examined the relationship between sugar consumption and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The results showed that each additional daily intake of a sugary drink or sweetened natural juice was associated with an increased risk of developing the disease.
Conversely, dietary sugar consumption via hard sweets or natural sugars has been shown to be associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
"This is the first study to clearly establish a relationship between different sugar sources and diabetes risk," said Dr. Karen DellaCorte, a nutrition scientist at Brigham Young University. "The study demonstrates why sugar intake from soft drinks and juices poses a greater health risk than sugar intake from solid foods."
It is worth noting that the prevailing belief is that added sugars are linked to diabetes, but some researchers point out that this connection is not sufficiently supported, and they believe that type 2 diabetes is more clearly linked to weight gain or excess energy intake, rather than sugar alone.
In 2023, studies revealed that sugar consumption is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, but this effect is closely linked to body mass index, suggesting that sugar may contribute to weight gain and thus indirectly affect metabolism.
The study indicates that the juice's high sugar content and low fiber make it similar to soft drinks in terms of its effect on metabolism, unlike whole fruits, which contain fiber that helps regulate blood sugar levels.
The researchers concluded that future dietary guidelines should consider the overall nutritional context when assessing the impact of sugars and should not condemn all added sugars equally, as some sugar sources may be more harmful than others depending on how they are consumed.