HHS HealthBeat (March 5, 2012)

Sugar-sweetened teens

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Researchers say teenagers who eat or drink a lot of fructose – which is common as a sweetener in sodas and other processed foods – show signs of problems in their blood that could make things worse for them as grown-ups.

At the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University in Augusta, Dr. Vanessa Bundy looked at data on 559 teens, ages 14 to 18. She checked for things such as high blood pressure and high blood sugar levels.

“Adolescents that consumed more fructose had higher circulating levels of factors that are known to contribute to cardiovascular disease in adults.” (8 seconds)

Those factors also raise the risk of diabetes.

The study in the Journal of Nutrition was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: March 5, 2012