In addition to the more well-known effects on teeth, sugar may also be bad for your blood vessels and many other areas of the body, according to a new study from the University at Buffalo.

• The study showed that excess sugar in the bloodstream stimulates the generation of free radicals.

• In blood vessels, free-radical damage causes an accumulation of plaque that can lead to blocked arteries and cardiovascular disease.

• According to the researchers type II diabetes is associated with an increase in free-radical generation.

• In earlier research, researchers had shown that when obese subjects lost weight, there was a commensurate drop in free radicals.

• "This is the first time anyone has shown that nutrition has a role in generating free radicals" the researchers state.

They gave 14 healthy men and women who had fasted for 12 hours a drink composed of 75 grams of glucose, roughly equivalent to the sugar content in two cans of soda. 6 control patients drank a water-saccharin solution.

• Researchers then took blood samples from all participants before the glucose challenge and at one, two and three hours after.

• There was no change in free-radical generation in samples taken from controls.

• In subjects who drank the sugar water, free-radical generation increased significantly at one hour and more than doubled at two hours.

• At the same time, levels of alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E), a powerful antioxidant, fell about 4 percent by hour two and remained depressed at hour three.

"The link between nutrition and oxidative damage is important because oxidative damage of lipids -- low-density lipoproteins in particular -- may contribute to atherosclerosis," one of the researchers said. "Our work opens the way for an investigation of the effect of other macronutrients on free-radical generation and oxidative damage."

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism August, 2000.