By Dr Benson Nasasira
The origins of sugar are thought to have been on the Islands of Polynesia from where it spread to India. Emperor Darius of Persia then invaded India and discovered this rare honey that came in the absence of bees.
Sugar production only spread slowly to the rest of the world because, like most man’s discoveries, it was a closely guarded secret for obvious reasons.
The sweetener went mainstream in the new world much later, first being recorded in England in the year 1099. For the most part, it was always an overpriced luxury something that has greatly changed.
Sugar takes many natural and artificial forms. The one we all know, sucrose is what is referred to in this article. Large amounts of sugar are found in most foods that we consume on a daily. From sweetened breakfast in the morning, to the mid-morning snack, the soft drink at meal time, the beer in the evening. More so, large amounts are found in substances you least expect to find it in, say salad dressings and soups simply to make them sweet, addictive and hence make them sell.
How dangerous is sugar?
Non communicable diseases including Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease are on the rise and contribute significantly to preventable death in the developed and more recently, the developing world. Doctors are already noting the changes in the trends of such diseases. The greatest preventable risk factor to these communicable diseases is obesity and being overweight.
High quality evidence shows that sugar is directly linked to obesity, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. A more recent study carried out in the US revealed a treble (3x) risk of death from cardiovascular disease in adults who consumed more than 25% of calories from added sugar versus those who consumed less than 10%, with findings consistent across physical activity levels and Body mass index. Simply put, it does not matter if one is small, lean or underweight. If your diet consists of larger proportions of added sugar, you are more likely to die from Diabetes, heart diseases than even your heavier colleagues who watch their sugar!
Why the comparison with tobacco?
By now, we are all familiar with the warning label, ‘Cigarette smoking is harmful to your health’ on cigarette packs. What doesn’t come out obviously is that it took over 50 years of research and warnings for the world to finally agree to the fact that tobacco was directly linked to lung cancer and other cardiovascular diseases, this despite tireless warnings from scientists.
The major hurdle is, I guess the financial implications of such messages. In his article, a New York Times author, Anahad O’Connor talked of how big companies in the sugar industry had paid millions of dollars to fund a research that downplayed the role of sugary drinks in Obesity and to rather push the blame to lack of exercise.
There is simply so much money in the sugar game that in my opinion, it would take much more time to appreciate the dangers. Take a look at the Ugandan Industry alone, we have more industries mushrooming in the beverage business than I can keep count of.
What’s the safe amount?
For the sake of the reader who needs straight-up answers, the answer is zero. The body has no requirement for added sugar. Sugar is therefore, not by any definition a nutrient. Recall sugar (sucrose) is broken down into 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Fructose is by experts described to be toxic, unavoidable, has potential for abuse and has a negative impact on society.
Even small amounts of added sugar daily plus the sugar already present naturally as in honey, juice, syrups is linked to the worst emerging epidemic among children globally – Tooth decay!
What do the doctors see as the future of sugar to be?
Already, there are calls by the World Health Organization (WHO) to tighten tax on sugary drinks. I, however, should not be misquoted, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with an occasional treat to a favorite ice cream, cake, and energy drink.
Nonetheless, the public health message must be clear; sugar has no place as part of a healthy balanced diet. And similar to smoking, further regulatory measures should be put in place as banning of sugary drink advertising, and including warning labels on the packaging. The science is more than sufficient, the case against sugar is overwhelming, the canary in this coal mine is dead, sugar is the new tobacco and we should treat it that way.
