"Sugar is toxic, needs to be regulated like alcohol"
WASHINGTON, DC (PTI) - 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.
Thus, it should be taxed and slapped with regulations like alcohol and tobacco products, the researchers argue.
"We recognize 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 [the horribly processed artificial toxin known as] 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 is obese. About 80 percent 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 added.
According to the World Health Organization, the obese now greatly outnumber the undernourished worldwide. And chronic diseases related to diet such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer -- for the first time in human history -- kill more people than infectious diseases. More
Snorting Sugar
Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)
We have said it for years. Processed sugar is poisonous. It complicates many degenerative diseases, destabilizes mood, and wreaks havoc with metabolism. It CAUSES hunger.Carbs are almost as bad and should never be eaten without (unadulterated) fats. But sugar is hidden throughout many foods. Just four grams (4 g) equals one teaspoon. So a can of soda or bottle of processed pasteurized juice can easily have more than 10 teaspoons of sugar.
The solution is worse than the disease if one replaces cane sugar (which usually contains cow bones) with Aspartame or other artificial sweeteners. But a sweet tooth is soothed by the herb stevia (green, dried, and powdered) or annihilated with the Ayurvedic herbs guggul, gymnena silvestre, and bitter melon.
Blood sugar can be stabilized with other herbal combinations without resorting to synthetic pharmaceuticals. It is many times sweeter than sugar without containing toxic sugar or synthetic chemicals.
But sugar is added to processed foods precisely to make them more addictive and profitable as well as serving as a harmful preservative the body needs a great deal of water to deal with. So it will be an uphill climb to get the processed food industry to remove it without replacing it with more processed salt, empty calories, adulterated oils, MSG and other excitotoxins, or other addictive substances.
Sadly, what emotional void are we trying to fill with sugar, food, food-porn, and guilty pleasures? Connection, love, acceptance... all of which are accessible without poisoning our bodies with toxic sugar and its byproducts (alcohol...).