by JC Spencer

“Sugar’s [table sugar] potential for abuse, coupled with its toxicity and pervasiveness in the Western diet make it a primary culprit of this worldwide health crisis.” So says a Report from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), published in the Feb 2, 2012 issue of Nature, that document the dangers of table sugar.

The Report argues that sugar is far more serious than just "empty calories" that make people fat. Table sugar changes metabolism, raises blood pressure, critically alters the signaling of hormones and causes significant damage to the liver. In fact, sugar health hazards are closely related to the effects cause by alcohol, which is the distillation of sugar.

The report continues to outline that table sugar is fueling a global obesity pandemic, contributing to 35 million deaths annually worldwide from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

According to the UN, non-communicable diseases are a greater worldwide danger than infectious diseases. We, that’s US, spend 75% of our healthcare dollars addressing the non-communicable disease challenge.

The public must be better informed about the emerging science of sugar. The authors of the Report, Robert Lustig, MD, Laura Schmidt, PhD, MSW, MPH, and Claire Brindis, DPH, understand that education is the key to turning around the crisis and conclude that for society to shift away from high sugar consumption.

"As long as the public thinks that sugar is just 'empty calories,' we have no chance in solving this," said Robert Lustig, a professor of pediatrics, in the division of endocrinology at the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital and director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Program at UCSF.

"... [Table] sugar is toxic beyond its calories.” Lustig continued. "There are good calories and bad calories, just as there are good fats and bad fats, good amino acids and bad amino acids, good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates."

While we agree completely with the harmful health effects of table sugar, education and personal self-control is the answer, NOT more government control.

My ebook, Change Your Sugar, Change You Life is available as a download at www.DiabeticHope.com This book supports the UCSF Report with evidence of the harmful side effects of table sugar. I compare, side by side, these harmful side effects to the health benefits of the sugar Trehalose.

The UCSF paper was made possible with funding from UCSF's Clinical and Translational Science Institute, UCSF's National Institutes of Health-funded program that helps accelerate clinical and translational research through interdisciplinary, interprofessional and transdisciplinary work.

Source: UCSF; Feb 2, 2012 issue of Nature;
Change Your Sugar, Change Your Life;
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