WHEN it comes to health, added sugar has been enemy No. 1 for years. But surprising new research has found the negative health impacts of too much sugar may be reversible — within days.

    The new study, which was published in the journal Obesity, followed 43 obese children and found that removing added sugar from their diet dramatically improved their blood pressure, cholesterol, and other metabolic indicators of health after just 10 days.

    For the study — which was small, but rigorously controlled — researchers swapped foods with added sugar from the participants’ diets for starchy foods with the same amount of calories that had no added sugar. Yogurt was replaced with bagels, for example, and pastries were swapped for baked potato chips.

    While the children’s weight remained the same after 10 days, they showed a huge improvement in metabolic markers of health. Those markers specifically included: diastolic blood pressure (the pressure in the heart when it rests between beats which is used as a marker of pre-hypertension), LDL cholesterol levels, and glucose tolerance (the body’s ability to break down sugar).

    “I was surprised at how much the kids got better, and in such a short period of time,” says lead study author Robert Lustig, a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at University of California, San Francisco.

    The quick turnaround shows that the harmful effects of sugar can be reversed, he says — depending on how severe the problem is. “If you get fatty liver and that’s all, you can reverse it by reducing your sugar consumption, eating properly, and exercising,” he says. “But if you have it with inflammation and scarring, the scarring will never go away. There’s a point of no return.”

    Lustig says the same can be true for adults as well.

    Research published in The Journal of Pediatrics earlier this year found obese children who were put on a plant-based diet had significant health improvements within 28 days. So, the overall message is the same: Eliminating or dramatically reducing added sugar from a child’s diet is important for their overall health. (SD-Agencies)