HEALTH

CNN -  Sugary drinks were associated with a greater risk of developing cardiovascular health disease than sweets like baked goods, said lead study author Suzanne Janzi, a doctoral student in nutritional epidemiology at Lund University in Sweden, via email.

The study, published Monday in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, surveyed nearly 70,000 Swedish men and women about their diet and lifestyle between 1997 and 2009. Their incidences of cardiovascular disease –– including strokes, heart attacks and heart failures–– were collected from the national health registers through 2019, according to the study...

Researchers looked at sugar consumption in three categories: sugary beverages, sweets like pastries, and toppings like honey or sugar added to tea or coffee, according to the study.

Consuming sweet drinks (all sodas and fruit drinks that were not pure fruit juices) was associated with a higher risk of heart disease than those individuals who had more baked treats, but surprisingly those participants who consumed the least amount of sugar did not end up with the lowest risk of heart disease, Janzi said.

It is important to note that the study was observational, meaning that while researchers found associations, they can’t say for sure that the ways people ate sugar caused the different rates of heart disease, Janzi said.

The American Heart Association recommends no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar a day for women and 9 for men.

Popular Resistance  -Health insurance companies are a center-piece in a deeply corrupt, inhumane, and deleterious health system that allows business people to reap lofty profits even if it brings premature death, disability, and pain onto millions of families every day. 

UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson was killed in a targeted shooting outside a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, 2024, when he was about to speak at an investor conference. While mourning and preoccupation spread among economic and political elites, a mix of celebration and snark dominated social media commentary. There has been an outpouring of empathy for the perpetrator, shirts with the murder scene printed on it, and even a UnitedHealth CEO shooter look-alike contest in Washington Square Park. 

When a community of internet sleuths was asked to collaborate with the police to find him, they reportedly responded “Absolutely the F– not”. This reaction brings to light a widespread and deep-seated contempt for health insurance companies, who are single-handedly responsible for hundreds of thousands of cases of premature death, disability, and bankruptcy a year.

It is well known that the U.S. healthcare system is the most dysfunctional among high-income countries. Not only do the outcomes pale in comparison to countries with similar levels of economic development (and many less-developed countries), but most notably, the U.S. spends twice as much on healthcare. It is important to note, however, that it is private spending that makes the difference: premiums, copays, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket costs. A study by Papanicolas and colleagues found that, whereas public health spending in Germany, France, or the UK in 2016 were comparable to that in the United States, their private health spending was only about 30 percent of their public spending. In the United States, in contrast, private spending was as high as public spending. At the same time, the U.S. had worse outcomes than any of the other 10 OCDE countries in life expectancy, maternal mortality, infant mortality, uncontrolled asthma, and more.