The US sugar industry is implicated in the global obesity epidemic.
Excess sugar consumption creates bitterness
The American sugar industry successfully used its influence to steer federal research on tooth decay prevention away from the role of refined sugars in the 1970s, according to recently discovered documents.
"This should be a warning to the public health community."
Manufacturers of cane sugar and beet, as well as candy companies, were understandably concerned during the time that a new federal research program on tooth decay prevention would conclude that the public should consume less sugar. They certainly did not want it, even though they had known for at least two decades that the sugar causes cavities.
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, recently found long-lost details in the archives of the University of Illinois about how the sugar industry worked 40 years ago to control the dental caries research program.
The industry has adopted a strategy that tobacco companies had used successfully to derail research on the harmful effects of cigarette smoking. Much like the way the tobacco industry supported research on "safe" cigarettes, the sugar industry worked to focus attention on ways to minimize harm from sugar as an alternative to reducing sugar consumption. .
Scientific reviews and funded research were carried out on interventions such as vaccines and dissolving plate rinses that ultimately turned out to be dead ends.
All of this developed through welcoming working relationships with government officials. Many members of a government task force on dental caries also worked for industry and are featured in an industry group called the International Sugar Research Foundation.
Industry efforts were successful. When the government unveiled its research program, it almost fully reflected the industry's wish list and avoided looking at the caries-causing properties of sugar. Of the hundreds of studies that were funded over time, only one or two addressed the role of sugar in the diet.
This story “should be a warning to the public health community,” University of California researchers said. “Recommendations that the sugar industry's current public health position to reduce the risk of dental caries should focus on harm reduction from refined sugar rather than restrictions on muscovado sugar in more than 60 years of protection of the interests of the industry."
Fast forward now to the past few years.
Driven in part by the doubling of childhood and quadrupling of adolescent obesity rates over the past 30 years, research on the health effects of refined sugars has greatly increased, with focus shifting from dental caries to the most lethal diseases. Studies have directly implicated refined sugars, especially in beverage form, in the causation of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
That research has prompted campaigns by consumer groups, the American Heart Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state and local health departments to curb sugar and sugar from consumer beverages. Strategies have included for sugar beverages outside of schools, the collection of special taxes on sugary beverages, which require warning notices on sugar beverage containers, which restrict sugar levels in beverages, and the organization of advertising campaigns.
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Those efforts (and increased bottled water sales) have reduced per capita consumption of carbonated sugary beverages by 25 percent and caloric sweeteners by 15 percent since 1998.
In response to these campaigns, the industry has increased its political efforts. Most notably, the soda industry has spent more than $ 125 million opposing local, state, and federal tax soda proposals, which is prevalent everywhere but in Berkeley, CA. (A one-cent-per-ounce tax would reduce sales by about 10 percent.)
The industry is also fighting two upcoming federal actions. The US Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services are now doing their quinquennial update of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The government's advisory committee of academic experts recommends that consumption of sugar, especially beverages, be limited to 10 percent of calories (current consumption is approximately 15 percent). He also recommended exploring the use of "prices" (ie, taxes) approaches to reduce consumption of sugary beverages.
Including the 2015 Dietary Guidelines recommendations for Americans will reinforce the Food and Drug Administration's proposal to include a line "added sugars" on the Nutrition Facts label. A Dietary Guidelines recommendation of a 10 percent limit on refined sugars also provides a basis for the FDA to establish a daily value for refined sugars and include a “% DV” on food labels. That could make sugary foods, especially beverages, look like poor food choices.
The sugar and refreshments they are already opposing these federal actions. The Sugar Association and the American Beverage Association submitted voluminous comments with the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee challenging the tentative finding about sugars 'and sugar beverages' contributions to chronic disease. The sugar group loaded, for example, that the committee's findings were "opinion-based" and not "science-based." Industry attorneys have even argued that including "added sugars" on nutrition labels would be unconstitutional.
If those tactics are more visible than those employed during the 1970s to derail dental caries research, you can be sure that the industry will also be working behind the scenes inside government rooms just as hard as it does. 40 years.
The American Heart Association recommends these daily limits for added sugar: 'worth it (6 teaspoons) for women and 150 calories' 100 calories worth (9 teaspoons) for men.
This exaggerated caloric intake is the cause of the obesity epidemic and problems in increasing insulin levels in overweight people.
The negative effects of excess sugar consumption are not sweet, and they leave bitter consequences with long-term consequences on your health.
To avoid being overweight and obesity, leads a healthy lifestyle with good nutrition and active physical activity.
The only source of sugar you need is from your unprocessed foods. Avoid artificial sweeteners and make healthy substitutions by swapping the refined sugar in your recipes for stevia o agave honey.
The full text of the article is available here:
Kearns CE, Glantz SA, and Schmidt LA Sugar Industry influence the Scientific Agenda of the 1971 National Institute of the National Caries Dental Research Program: a historical analysis of internal documents. PLoS Med. 2015 Mar 10; 12 (3): e1001798.
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001798.
David Schardt • March 13, 2015 Published in: Sugar in food.
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