The question of sugar
Although the idea that excessive consumption of sugars is not suitable for everyone, our attitude and social awareness about the consumption of sugary foods has little to do with what we have about alcohol consumption, and the same happens with the regulations on both. On the contrary, the three authors of the article "Toxic truth about sugar" (Nature, 2 February 2012) argue --and are not alone - that alcohol and sugar are very similar in terms of their health condition.
According to them, diseases that enter into the metabolic syndrome (cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes, lipid disorders) have a clear responsibility, sugar, which reaches consumers collected in soft drinks and processed foods. In fact, global sugar consumption has tripled in the last 50 years, as the Western diet expands and consumption of processed foods increases.
In the aforementioned article, the authors present evidence of the damage caused by the abuse of sugars and claim that it is time to address the issue of sugar through measures that encourage the reduction of consumption: the imposition of sugar added to processed foods, limiting its sale, and other measures in this regard, as has already been done with tobacco and alcohol, since "individual education campaigns are not successful".
The truth published last year in the journal Nature on sugar toxicity sparked debate and the thesis of the authors has not gathered as much consensus as the toxicity of alcohol. But the issue is interesting and, as sugar is part of the diet, something that affects us all. Therefore, since we consider that part of the success -- without giving up other measures -- is in a society of informed individuals, in this November issue we have collected the issue of sugar toxicity.
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