'Sugar is toxic, needs to be regulated like alcohol'

Sugar is so toxic to the human body that their sale should be regulated as strictly as alcohol by governments worldwide, researchers have suggested.

In a commentary published in the journal Nature, a team led by Robert Lustig of the University of California claimed that sugar intake is responsible for a host of illnesses including obesity, heart disease, cancer and liver problems.

And thus, it should be taxed and slapped with regulations like alcohol and tobacco products, the researchers argued.

"We recognise that societal intervention to reduce the supply and demand for sugar faces an uphill political battle against a powerful sugar lobby," the authors wrote.

Measures such as smoking bans in public places, the use of designated drivers and the addition of condom dispensers in public washrooms were also battlegrounds that are now taken for granted for public health, they pointed out.

They also cited a number of studies and statistics to make their case that added sugar -- or specifically, sucrose, an even mix of glucose and fructose found in high-fructose corn syrup and in table sugar made from sugar cane and sugar beets -- has been as detrimental to society as alcohol and tobacco, LiveScience reported.

In the US, more than two-thirds of the population is overweight, and half of them are obese. About 80 per cent of those who are obese will have diabetes or metabolic disorders and will have shortened lives, according to the authors. of the commentary, led by Robert Lustig.

And about 75 percent of US health-care dollars are spent on diet-related diseases, the authors said.

According to the World Health Organisation, the obese now greatly outnumber the undernourished worldwide. And chronic diseases related to diet such as heart diseases, diabetes and some cancers -- for the first time in human history -- kill more people than infectious diseases.

Today, the researchers said, added sugar, as opposed to natural sugars found in fruits, is often added in foods ranging from soup to soda. "Nature made sugar hard to get; man made it easy," they wrote.

Dr Laura Schmidt, also of California University, said: "We are not talking about prohibition. We are not advocating a major imposition of the government into people's lives.

"What we want is actually to increase people's choices by making foods that are not loaded with sugar comparatively easier and cheaper to get."

The article also revealed that consumption of sugar has tripled in the past 50 years and that there are now more obese people than malnourished ones across the world.
It concluded that responsibility lies with the food companies, saying that while they may resist change, shifts in policy are possible if the pressure is great enough.
Examples include the ban on smoking in public places and the fitting of airbags in cars.

Some researchers, however, remained unconvinced of the evidence of sugar's toxic effect on the human body at current consumption levels, as high as they are.

While some argued that saturated fat, not sugar, is the root cause of obesity and chronic disease, others said it is highly processed foods with simple carbohydrates. Still others argue that it is a lack of physical exercise. It could, of course, be a matter of all these issues