Saturday, March 10, 2012

Control of Sugar Intake Is Essential to Ease Public Health Burden, Experts Urge

Control of Sugar Intake Is Essential to Ease Public Health Burden, Experts Urge

Dangerous Sugar Consumption
Sugar should be controlled like alcohol and tobacco to protect public health, according to a team of UCSF researchers...

They maintain in a new report that sugar is fueling a global obesity pandemic, contributing to 35 million deaths annually worldwide from non- communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Non-communicable diseases now pose a greater health burden worldwide than infectious diseases, according to the United Nations. In the United States, 75 percent of health care dollars are spent treating these diseases and their associated disabilities.

In the Feb. 2 issue of Nature, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF),
argue that sugar's potential for abuse, coupled
with its toxicity and pervasiveness in the Western
diet make it a primary culprit of this worldwide
health crisis.

Sugar is a bigger health problem than just "empty calories" that make people fat. At the levels now consumed by most Americans, sugar changes metabolism, raises blood pressure, critically alters
the signaling of hormones and causes significant damage to the liver. These health hazards largely mirror the effects of drinking too much alcohol, which is essentially the distillation of sugar.

Worldwide consumption of sugar has tripled during the past 50 years and is viewed as a key cause of the obesity epidemic. But obesity may just be a marker
for the major health damage caused by the toxic effects of too much sugar. For example, 40 percent
of people with metabolic syndrome, the key metabolic changes that lead to diabetes, heart disease and cancer, are not necessarily clinically obese.

"There are good calories and bad calories, just as there are good fats and bad fats, good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates," the researchers explained. "But sugar is toxic beyond its calories."

Limiting the consumption of sugar has challenges beyond educating people about its potential toxicity. "Changing these patterns is very complicated"

Effective interventions on environmental and community-wide solutions, similar to what has occurred with alcohol and tobacco, helps increase
the likelihood of success.

The researchers argue for society to shift away from high sugar consumption, the public must be better informed about the emerging science on sugar.

"There is an enormous gap between what we know from science and what we practice in reality," they added. "this issue needs to be recognized as a fundamental concern at the global level,"

The research was made possible with funding from UCSF's Clinical and Translational Science Institute, UCSF's National Institutes of Health-funded program that helps accelerate clinical and translational research.

Many of the interventions that have reduced alcohol and tobacco consumption can be models for helping address the sugar problem, such as levying special sales taxes, controlling access, and tightening licensing requirements on vending machines and snack bars that sell high sugar products in schools
and workplaces.

The team cautioned "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. What we want is to actually increase people's choices by making foods that aren't loaded with sugar comparatively easier and cheaper to get."

Story Source:
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF),

Journal Reference:
The toxic truth about sugar. Nature, 2012;

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) (2012, February 1) Societal control of sugar essential to ease public health burden, experts urge.

This article is for informational and educational purposes only; It is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Consult your doctor or healthcare professional.
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