Sugar is as damaging and addictive as alcohol or tobacco
and should be regulated, claim US health experts.
According to a University of California team, new policies such as taxes are
needed to control soaring consumption of sugar and sweeteners.
Prof Robert Lustig argues in the journal Nature
for major shifts in public policy.
The Food and Drink Federation said "demonising" food was not
helpful as the key to health was a balanced diet.
Several countries are imposing taxes on unhealthy food; Denmark and Hungary
have a tax on saturated fat, while France has approved a tax on soft drinks.
Now, researchers in the US are proposing similar policies for added sugar
and sweeteners, amid concern about the amount of sugar in the diet.
The consumption of sugar has tripled worldwide over the past 50 years, with
links to obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.
In a comment in the journal Nature,
Prof Lustig, a leading child obesity expert, says governments need to consider
major shifts in policy, such as taxes, limiting sales of sweet food and drinks
during school hours, or even stopping children from buying them below a certain
age.
The professor of paediatrics at the
University of California, San Francisco, told the BBC: "It [sugar] meets
all the criteria for societal intervention that alcohol and tobacco meet."
The researchers acknowledge that
they face "an uphill political battle against a powerful sugar
lobby".
But they write in Nature, that
"with enough clamour for change, tectonic shifts in policy become
possible".
"Take, for instance bans on
smoking in public places and the use of designated drivers, not to mention
airbags in cars and condom dispensers in public bathrooms.
"These simple |