Effect of dietary sugars on metabolic risk factors associated with heart disease.

The results from studies in which the effects of the extended feeding of sugars such as sucrose and fructose as compared to starch and other glucose-based carbohydrates on metabolic risk factors associated with heart disease have been reviewed. In general, the feeding of the sugars as compared to starch produced undesirable changes in metabolic risk factors such as blood triglycerides, total cholesterol and its lipoprotein distribution, insulin and uric acid. Other dietary components (e.g., saturated fat) can magnify the adverse metabolic effects of the sugars. A finite segment of the population characterized by high levels of triglycerides and insulin may be at a substantially higher risk than is the general population from the present level of intake of sucrose or fructose.