We hope this doesn't ruin your Valentine's Day plans, but there's some alarming news about sugar: Consuming too much of the sweet stuff has been linked to a higher risk of dying of heart disease, according to a new Centers for Disease Control study.
Study authors analyzed data from a nutritional trends survey that tracked U.S. sugar consumption from 1988 to 2010. They also looked at mortality rates from cardiovascular disease—scarily, the number one killer of both men and women. Their conclusion: Just one 12-ounce can of soda a day added enough sugar to a person's diet to boost their odds of developing heart disease by a third. Don't drink soda? The results still apply to you: The researchers found a link between obtaining more than 15 percent of your daily calories from sugar-infused processed foods and a greater likelihood of heart disease. So if you're consuming 2,000 calories a day, that means that you should be taking in no more than 300 calories from processed foods that contain the sweet stuff.
The thing is, bread, crackers, salad dressing, ketchup, yogurt—they all contain added sugar even though they may not actually taste sweet, so you may not even realize how much of the sweet stuff you're consuming. (Check out these sneaky sources of sugar for more info on some of the surprising places you'll find it.)
The study findings were consistent across all age groups, genders, and dietary and fitness habits—so even if you practically live at the gym and read nutrition labels obsessively, you shouldn't blow off this new research. Take a look at your consumption of sweets and processed foods, and see if your sugar intake exceeds the American Heart Association's recommendation that women get no more than 100 calories a day from added sugar (that comes to about 25 grams of added sugar). If it does, swap in some of these healthy foods that satisfy salt and sugar cravings. Your heart may depend on it.
MORE: "My Week Without Sugar"
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