Sweet Eats Can Have Sour Effects Sugar seen as first step to clogged arteries By E'Louise Ondash HealthSCOUT Reporter FRIDAY, Sept. 15, 2000 (HealthSCOUT) -- The adage "you are what you eat" may have just gotten a little clearer. Indulge in hot fudge sundaes, gooey doughnuts and super-sized sodas and expect some not-so-healthy reactions from your body, report researchers from the University of Buffalo. When your blood sugar soars, their study shows, your free radical count does, too. And that's bad, they say, because free radicals are oxygen molecules that damage the cells in the lining of blood vessels and other organs. The presence of free radicals in the blood is the first step in a series of events that causes arteries leading to your heart and brain to become clogged with fatty deposits, they say. And the final result? Heart attack and stroke. "What this study means is that this is the first link between nutritional intake and an increase in free radicals," says lead researcher Dr. Paresh Dandona, director of the division of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at the New York university. "There had been evidence in diabetes that there is an increase in free radicals, so we postulated that high glucose increased free radicals," Dandona says. "So we tested our hypothesis in normal subjects, and low and behold, we were right." For the study, 14 volunteers fasted for 12 hours, then drank a cup of water that contained 75 grams of glucose -- about the same amount of sugar (although a different type) that's present in two cans of soda. Another six volunteers drank water with artificial sweetener. Blood samples taken from those who drank the glucose water showed that free radical generation more than doubled in two hours, the study says. But those from the artificial sweetener group showed no change in free radical count. The researchers also found that levels of a-tocopherol, the active form of vitamin E -- which fights free radicals -- fell about 4 percent. "These are important findings because we're now looking at what effect fats and proteins have," Dandona says. Findings appear in a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. In fact, the researchers also found that ingesting foods high in protein and fats also raises free radicals, but not nearly to the extent that glucose does. Those results will be published later this year, they say. In addition, they found that the free radical count decreased by 50 percent after a 48-hour fast and that obese people who maintained a 1,000-calorie diet for a month not only lost 15 pounds but also decreased their free radical count by more than half. The findings could have major implications for Americans who weigh more than ever and are developing Type II diabetes at an ever-increasing rate, Dandona says. Others, like Dr. Robert Eckel, chairman of the American Heart Association's nutrition committee, seem a bit more cautious about the findings. "It's difficult at this point to put the study into perspective," says the professor of medicine at the University of Colorado. "The results need to be duplicated. "But in recommending a good diet, high sugar consumption would not be a part of it," Eckel says. If the findings seem discouraging, Dandona says, there is reason to stay positive. In many cases, cardiovascular disease is reversible -- with the proper diet. What To Do To learn more about Type II diabetes, visit "http://www.diabetes.org/ada/type2.asp" American Diabetes Association online. And for a wealth of heart-related information, check out the Web site of the "http://www.americanheart.org/catalog/Health_catpage0.html" American Heart Association.