Back when people were told to eat less fat and more carbs, sugar intake went up—and so did heart disease and obesity. Now scientists are wondering if sugar, not fat, might be the real problem.

Even though people are eating less cholesterol, more people are dying from heart disease — so maybe sugar, especially fructose, is to blame instead.

Eating a lot of sugary foods and drinks—especially those with fructose like soda and candy—might triple your chance of dying from heart disease, because they can mess up your metabolism and lead to fat buildup in the liver and other problems.

Eating normal amounts of sugar doesn’t make your blood pressure go up, raise uric acid (which can cause gout), or cause fat to build up in your liver — unlike what some people claim.

Eating too much fructose, like the sugar in soda and candy, can mess up your liver’s ability to respond to insulin, make more fat in your liver, and raise fat levels in your blood, which can lead to bigger health problems like heart disease.

Eating too much fructose, like the sugar in soda and sweet snacks, makes your liver create more fat, which raises bad fats in your blood and causes body-wide inflammation, making heart disease more likely.