Sugar Is So Toxic To Human Body, Researchers Say

 A spoonful of sugar might make the medicine go down. But it also makes blood pressure and cholesterol go up, along with your risk for liver failure, obesity, heart disease and diabetes, researchers said.

According to an opinion entitled “The Toxic Truth About Sugar” published Februari 1 in the journal Nature by researchers, sugar and other sweeteners are, in fact, so toxic to the human body that they should be regulated as strictly as alcohol by governments worldwide.

The researchers from the University of California, San Francisco in the US, argued regulations such as taxing all foods and drinks that include added sugar, banning sales in or near schools and placing age limits on purchases.

The team of researchers led Robert Lustig proposed that it’s a misnomer to consider sugar just “empty calories.”

“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,” the explained.

They mention that numerous studies and statistics to make their case that added sugar has been as detrimental to society as alcohol and tobacco.

In the US, more than two-thirds of population is overweight, and half of them are obese.About 80 percent of those who are obese will have diabetes or metabolic disorders and will have shortened lives, Lustig said.

According to the World Health Organization, the obese now greatly outnumber the undernourished all over the world. Obesity is a public health problem in most countries. Chronic diseases related to diet such as heart diseases, diabetes and some cancers  kill more people than infection disease, the UN body said.

Lustig says sugar's roles in the obesity and chronic disease pandemic. From an evolutionary perceptive, sugar in the form of fruit was available only a few months of the year, at harvest time, they said. Similarly, honey was guarded by bees and therefore was a treat, not a dietary staple.

Many researchers are seeing sugar as not just "empty calories," but rather a chemical that becomes toxic in excess. At issue is that glucose from complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains, is safely metabolized by cells throughout the body, but the fructose element of sugar is metabolized primarily by  liver.

“This is where the trouble can begin — taxing the liver, causing fatty liver disease, and ultimately leading to insulin resistance, the underlying causes of obesity and diabetes,” Lustig said.

But, some researchers remained unconvinced of the evidence of sugar's toxic effect on the human body at current consumption levels, as high as they are.[VARIOUS SOURCES]