Context

The American Heart Association Nutrition Committee recommends women and men consume no more than 100 and 150 kcal of added sugar per day, respectively, whereas the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, suggests a maximal added sugar intake of 25% or less of total energy.

Objective

To address this discrepancy, we compared the effects of consuming glucose, fructose, or high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) at 25% of energy requirements (E) on risk factors for cardiovascular disease. PARTICIPANTS, DESIGN AND SETTING, AND INTERVENTION: Forty-eight adults (aged 18-40 yr; body mass index 18-35 kg/m(2)) resided at the Clinical Research Center for 3.5 d of baseline testing while consuming energy-balanced diets containing 55% E complex carbohydrate. For 12 outpatient days, they consumed usual ad libitum diets along with three servings per day of glucose, fructose, or HFCS-sweetened beverages (n = 16/group), which provided 25% E requirements. Subjects then consumed energy-balanced diets containing 25% E sugar-sweetened beverages/30% E complex carbohydrate during 3.5 d of inpatient intervention testing.

Main outcome measures

Twenty-four-hour triglyceride area under the curve, fasting plasma low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and apolipoprotein B (apoB) concentrations were measured.

Results

Twenty-four-hour triglyceride area under the curve was increased compared with baseline during consumption of fructose (+4.7 ± 1.2 mmol/liter × 24 h, P = 0.0032) and HFCS (+1.8 ± 1.4 mmol/liter × 24 h, P = 0.035) but not glucose (-1.9 ± 0.9 mmol/liter × 24 h, P = 0.14). Fasting LDL and apoB concentrations were increased during consumption of fructose (LDL: +0.29 ± 0.082 mmol/liter, P = 0.0023; apoB: +0.093 ± 0.022 g/liter, P = 0.0005) and HFCS (LDL: +0.42 ± 0.11 mmol/liter, P < 0.0001; apoB: +0.12 ± 0.031 g/liter, P < 0.0001) but not glucose (LDL: +0.012 ± 0.071 mmol/liter, P = 0.86; apoB: +0.0097 ± 0.019 g/liter, P = 0.90).

Conclusions

Consumption of HFCS-sweetened beverages for 2 wk at 25% E increased risk factors for cardiovascular disease comparably with fructose and more than glucose in young adults.