Sugar Is as Harmful as Alcohol

Scientists say that sugar is a poison, and its sale should be regulated as much as the sale of cigarettes and alcohol.

Facts and figures: American scientists believe that sugar somehow contributes to 35 million deaths worldwide each year. It provokes such diseases as obesity, heart disease and liver cancer, changes metabolism, increases blood pressure, and destabilizes hormone levels. In the paper entitled “The Toxic Truth About Sugar,” published in the Nature journal, an American expert on child obesity Robert Lustig claims that the problem of obesity occupies the first place in the USA today, and it cannot be compared with the problem of malnutrition in the world – the scale of obesity is much more global.

Sugar is found in almost everything we eat every day. Like alcohol, it is available and toxic. Just as with alcohol, we often use it without seeing any limits. Lustig believes that we have already missed the moment when it was possible to teach the children about the benefits of a healthy diet, exercises, and the dangers of sugar. It is time to impose taxes and to limit sales. The scientist and his colleagues recommend to deal with the problem on the state level, as with alcohol and cigarettes. One could double the tax on sugary sodas and limit their sale to those, who are under 18 years. In addition, one could tighten the standards for setting vending machines that sell sweet bars and soda in schools.

The consumption of sugar in the world has tripled over the past 50 years.