How 'toxic' is sugar? Research suggests links to deadly diseases but some doctors and food industry representative are skeptical
By CBS News
Emerging research suggests that sugar may be linked to deadly diseases, but Health Canada’s current food labelling regulations make it tough for Canadians to get an easy picture of how much of the sweet substance they are consuming — and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change any time soon.
The groundbreaking and controversial research explored by the CBC’s the fifth estate in its season premiere tonight links sugar to diseases ranging from diabetes to cancer and Alzheimer’s.
“Sugar is toxic beyond its calories,” Dr. Robert Lustig, an expert on childhood obesity at the University of California, San Francisco, told the fifth estate’s Gillian Findlay.
While Canadians have become used to warnings about the dangers of consuming too much fat or salt, nutrition labels on food have never included recommended daily limits specifically for sugar.
Health Canada does not have a recommended limit for how much sugar Canadians should consume in a day.
A representative of Food and Consumer Products of Canada, an industry organization that represents the largest food companies in the country, says it sees “no need” for a recommended daily limit on sugar intake.
Health Canada declined numerous requests by the fifth estate for an interview, but former Health Canada employees did speak off the record, and said the department does not think that sugar should be singled out as a major culprit behind chronic diseases.
Stirring up debate
According to Statistics Canada, the average Canadian consumes 26 teaspoons of sugar per day. That works out to 40 kilograms per year —– or 20 bags.
While neither the Canadian nor U.S. governments has a recommended daily limit for sugar consumption, one major U.S. medical group is recommending people cut back on the sweet substance.
The American Heart Association is suggesting men consume no more than nine teaspoons a day. For women, the recommendation is a maximum of six teaspoons.
That recommendation comes as research from a small but influential group of medical researchers is stirring up debate on the impact sugar has on health.
One of the most vocal of those researchers is Lustig, an author who has become a YouTube sensation for a 90-minute lecture in which he calls sugar a toxic poison.
“I use those words and I mean them. This is not hyperbole. This is the real deal,” he told Findlay.
“Everyone thinks that the bad effects of sugar are because sugar has empty calories. What I’m saying is no, there are a lot of things that do have empty calories that are not necessarily poisonous.”