A study published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association on May 24th found (what they call surprising, but many “anti-sugar” people already had a clue) a link between sugar consumption and high blood pressure.

The analysis came from an 18 month long study including 810 adults in which models were used to correlate blood pressure with changes in consumption patterns of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs). Once the initial SSB consumption patten for each participant was determined, the participants began to systematically reduced their SSB consumption.

Researchers noted that a reduction in SSB consumption by just one serving a day corresponded to a reduction in systolic BP of 1.8-mm Hg (95% confidence interval, 1.2 to 2.4)and reduction in diastolic of 1.1-mm Hg (95% confidence interval, 0.7 to 1.4) over 18 months.

To get an idea on standard blood pressure ranges, I found this:

So, do you remember a few posts ago when I was talking about P-values? We want to see P-values less than 0.05 for them to mean there is a significant correlation with the data. The researchers report that after adjusting the data for weight changes over the study period, that the P-value for the reduction in SSB consumption was less than 0.05. This is good, but I can’t get the exact value because only the abstract is free. There was also significant correlation between overall reduced sugar intake and lower blood pressure.

Also note that there was NO correlation found (the P-value was greater than 0.05) for diet beverage consumption or caffeine consumption and blood pressure.

Once again, sugar seems to have more potential for harm than most would like to admit. Of course the Sugar Association, which has dug it’s dirty claws into our government system, isn’t about to jump for joy over this study. Which reminds me of some information I just read about a tiff between the WHO and the Sugar Association back in 2003.

The Sugar Association basically freaked out when the WHO put out a report saying people needed to reduce their sugar intake to help prevent obesity, diabetes, and heart disease (and a few more things). The Sugar Association  threatened to lobby Congress to withdraw many millions in funding from the WHO if the sugar report was not withdrawn. The WHO backed down.

Sugar is not a benign addition of calories. Keep that in mind, and please pass on the info to your family and friends. Health is education.