Sugar ‘like alcohol and cigarettes’

SUGAR should be controlled in a similar way to alcohol and tobacco because it is so damaging to public health, according to a team of experts.

The authors of an article that appears in the journal Nature today argue that sugar is fuelling a global obesity pandemic that contributes to 35 million deaths each year across the world from diseases including diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

The public health experts from the University of California, San Francisco, propose regulating it in a similar way to alcohol, by means such as taxing sugary products so that the cost doubles, reducing the number of places that such food can be bought, and designating an age limit, such as 17, for the purchase of drinks with added sugar.

A ban on television adverts for products with added sugars would also help protect children’s health, they argue.

The team wrote: “How can we reduce sugar consumption? After all, sugar is natural. Sugar is a nutrient. Sugar is pleasure. So too is alcohol, but in both cases, too much of a good thing is toxic.”

A recent report found that more than a quarter of adults in Scotland are obese, costing the health service more than £450 million a year, with warnings the rates could hit 40 per cent by 2030.

The authors of the article in Nature argue obesity is only a marker of the problem, and many people who are not obese also suffer health problems from sugar. They said it alters metabolism, raises blood pressure, affects hormones and damages the liver. These they say are health hazards that mirror the effects of drinking too much alcohol – itself created by distilling sugar – and, therefore, it should be tackled in a similar way.

“We recognise that societal intervention to reduce the supply and demand for sugar faces an uphill political battle against a powerful sugar lobby, and will require active engagement from all stakeholders,” the authors wrote.

“But tectonic shifts in policy are possible, such as bans on public smoking, and the introduction of condom dispensers in public bathrooms. It’s time to turn our attention to sugar.”

Worldwide consumption of sugar has tripled during the past 50 years and is viewed as a key cause of the obesity epidemic.

Laura Schmidt, professor of health policy and one of the authors, 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. ”

Professor Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, agreed greater regulation of sugar “would have some merit”. He thinks sugary drinks, such as Coca-Cola and Irn Bru but also those including fruit juices, are a particular problem.

Professor Mike Lean, chair of human nutrition at the School of Medicine at Glasgow Univeristy, said: “I think the most useful thing a government could do would be to put a hefty tax on drinks which contain over 8 per cent sugars.”