Experts: Sugar should be as controlled as tobacco, drink

Sugar is “toxic” and so harmful it should be controlled in the same way as tobacco and alcohol, according to a team of public health experts.

Three American scientists from the University of California in San Francisco maintain sugar is more than just “empty calories” that make people fat.

They argue that high-calorie, sweetened food is indirectly responsible for 35m deaths each year due to heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

The researchers — Robert Lustig, Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis — called for restrictions and controls on sugar that mirror those on tobacco and alcohol.

The three set out their views in the leading science journal Nature.

They pointed out that, at the levels consumed in the West, sugar altered metabolism, raised blood pressure, disrupted hormone signalling, and caused liver damage.

The health hazards were similar to the effects of drinking too much alcohol — which is manufactured by distilling sugar.

Prof Lustig said: “As long as the public thinks that sugar is just ‘empty calories’, we have no chance in solving this.

“There are good calories and bad calories, just as there are good fats and bad fats, good amino acids and bad amino acids, good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates. But sugar is toxic beyond its calories.”

Worldwide consumption of sugar has tripled in the past 50 years, fuelling a global obesity epidemic.

The main culprit is said to be fructose, a sugar molecule added to food in sweetening agents such as high-fructose corn syrup. There is evidence that excess fructose is harmful.

The experts propose adding taxes to processed foods that contain added sugar. Other strategies included controlling access to the purchase of sugary drinks, and tightening controls on vending machines and snack bars.

The scientists stressed that to achieve a societal shift away from high sugar consumption, the public must better informed about the emerging science behind sugar.

Prof Schmidt said: “We’re not talking prohibition. We’re not advocating a major imposition of the government into people’s lives. We’re talking about gentle ways to make sugar consumption slightly less convenient, thereby moving people away from the concentrated dose.”