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Things aren't that sweet at all......just to the contrary

Who hasn't got a sweet-tooth?     All too sadly sugar is a killer - and there are now calls to curb its use in the foods we eat. 

"Sugar should be regulated in the same way as alcohol and tobacco because its increasing use in processed foods poses a significant danger to public health, according to a group of scientists. They advocate controlling sales to children under 17 and taxing sugary foods.

Sugar, they argue, is as toxic to the liver as alcohol and overconsumption is at the root of growing public health problems including obesity and certain types of liver disease.

In an opinion article for the journal Nature, Robert Lustig, Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), said that, over the past 50 years, consumption of sugar had trebled worldwide. "Authorities consider sugar as 'empty calories' – but there is nothing empty about these calories. A growing body of scientific evidence is showing that fructose can trigger processes that lead to liver toxicity and a host of other chronic diseases. A little is not a problem, but a lot kills – slowly."

For the first time in human history, long-term diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes now pose a greater health burden worldwide than infectious diseases, according to the United Nations, contributing to 35m deaths annually. "There are now 30% more people who are obese than who are undernourished," said the UCSF scientists. "Economic development means that the populations of low- and middle-income countries are living longer, and therefore are more susceptible to non-communicable diseases; 80% of deaths attributable to them occur in these countries."

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