Sugar Association addresses misleading claims made in University of Texas Study

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 19, 2013—The recent study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), explores the effect of a product of glucose metabolism—glucose 6 phosphate (G6P)—on heart function. G6P is hardly unique to sugar (sucrose).

“This is a complex and important piece of research,” said Dr. Charles Baker, Chief Scientific Officer at the Sugar Association. “But the idea that this data can be extrapolated into real-world sugar intake is inaccurate. There’s an incredibly dynamic process that takes place when glucose is metabolized in the human body that is lost when you look at organ functions in isolation.”

Further, the study does not involve sugar (sucrose) at all. In fact, the words “sugar” and “sucrose” do not even appear in the researchers’ published article. “It’s unfortunate that the University of Texas press team seems to be using their release to seize on the hype about sugar in an effort to promote this study. The study stands on its own,” said Dr. Baker. “Claiming this data suggests that consumption of sugar is to blame for heart failure is entirely inaccurate and in no way reflects the results of the study.”