Docs Urge Feds to Regulate 'Toxic' Sugar - Texas Journal of Chiropractic

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Docs Urge Feds to Regulate 'Toxic' Sugar

Published 02/08/2012 - 6:25 a.m. CDT

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Medpagetoday.com REPORTS HERE that "added sugars are as much a threat to public health as alcohol and tobacco, and should be regulated in a similar fashion, some researchers suggest. That includes levying taxes on sugary foods and even enforcing age limits for buying sodas" researchers suggest.

"For both alcohol and tobacco, there is robust evidence that gentle 'supply side' control strategies which stop short of all-out prohibition -- taxation, distribution controls, age limits -- lower both the consumption of the product and the accompanying health harms," they wrote.
Researchers in this reports "called sugar 'toxic,' particularly in excessive amounts, noting that it poses dangers similar to those of alcohol. Fructose, specifically, can harm the liver, they wrote, and overconsumption has been linked with all the diseases involved with metabolic syndrome: hypertension, high triglycerides, insulin resistance, and diabetes."

"It also has potential for abuse, they wrote, as it interferes with the signaling of hunger hormones leptin and ghrelin and tinkers with dopamine pathways. And it exacts a great cost, they said, with the U.S. spending $65 billion in lost productivity and $150 billion on healthcare every year for problems related to metabolic syndrome. Thus, sugary foods should be regulated just like alcohol and tobacco. For instance, sugary products could be taxed, they said, noting their support for a penny-per-ounce soda tax currently being considered by U.S. lawmakers."

"Governments also could impose an age limit -- perhaps age 17, they suggested -- on the purchase of drinks with added sugars. Or lawmakers could tighten licensing requirements on vending machines and snack bars that sell sugary products in schools and workplaces, and states could enforce zoning ordinances for fast food outlets and convenience stores in low-income areas, they wrote."

"The FDA should "set the table" for that change, authors argued, first by removing fructose from the Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) list, which allows manufacturers to add unlimited amounts to any food."

"If international bodies are truly concerned about public health," they wrote, "they must consider limiting fructose, and its main delivery vehicles, the added sugars of high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose, which pose dangers to individuals and to society as a whole."

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