We all know how important it is to make sure we have a healthy diet, and now men have one more thing added to their plate. It has been found that a diet saturated with foods that have large amounts of fructose sugar, such as soft drinks, increases blood pressure in men.
Eating great amounts of fructose without the medication also raised the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, which are a group of risk factors that are associated with the developments of diabetes and heart disease.
According to the background information that was found by the American Heart Association, fructose is only one of several sugars in food and makes up approximately half of all sugar molecules in table sugar and in high-fructose corn syrup. The syrup is also often used as a sweetener in packaged food products. The Heart Association stated that fructose is the only known common sugar that increases uric acid levels.
The incidence of metabolic syndrome as it is defined in the United States, more than doubled to 44 percent in the group that was getting the high-fructose diet without the allopurinol. This syndrome is defined as having at least three out of the five risk factors including high blood pressure, high fasting-blood sugar, and increase weight gain around the waist. Those that were in the group receiving the allopurinol did not experience a rise in their metabolic syndrome incidence, possibly because the medication for gout stopped their blood pressure from rising, the authors stated.
Most of the sugar consumption in the United States tends to come from sweetened drinks and food that is high in fructose corn syrup or sugar, Johnson stated. The research results suggest that it is possible that lowering uric acid levels could become a routine practice in the near future, much like the process for lowering cholesterol. Johnson said, “This could become a risk factor that is modifiable and that lowering it could be of considerable benefit. However we still need more studies to prove it.”
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