Sugar: the (Un)savoury Villain

In our last piece we had all but absolved dietary fat or cholesterol of the many accusations hurled at it, including being the root cause of cardiovascular diseases resulting from deposition of cholesterol plaques in the blood vessels. We left our readers with the poser, (like some vintage whodunit) just who is the culprit for the mayhem unleashed by cardiovascular disease? Well readers, the curtains are about to be lifted on that mystery. The scourge of the present cardiovascular epidemic can be traced to a major ingredient that is found in each and every pantry across the globe, from Antigua to Andaman, Buenos Aires to Benaras: SUGAR. Yes, sugar has only recently been found to be silently eating away our cardiovascular health from within our bodies, without our realising it. On the contrary, we are awash with the feeling of well-being brought on by our daily “fix” of sugar, nary realising the villainous designs of the food on our health. We may fool ourselves into thinking that only diabetics need worry about sugar consumption, but the cold, hard truth that has come to light only in recent years is that sugar is THE major causative agent of cardiovascular disease. What’s worse is that the stuff gives on a high, much like the “kick” associated with drugs of abuse with all its attendant cravings. But just how has sugar come to assume this position? More importantly, how come we were oblivious to this dark side of sugar? The entire sequence of events reads like a modern day espionage thriller! Read on to find out.

HISTORICAL ASPECTS
Our ancestors did not have the convenience of modern-day free sugar as we know it. They depended on fruits and sometimes, honey for their quota of sweetness. The early methods of extraction of sugar were expensive and time-consuming, making it a food for only the super-rich. However, with the advent of newer methods of extraction and refining, sugar production gradually rose to a peak of 1.5 million tons a year by the 1850s. Today, the world production of sugar has climbed to around 180 million tons per year. With this has also risen the consumption of sugar, such that today, Europeans eat a staggering 30kg of added sugar per capita every year. But why has the consumption of sugar rocketed like this? The main reason is that sugar is every food manufacturer’s dream. Sugar is not just found in confectionery or “sweets”. It is also part of most processed foods like sauces, stews, chips and biscuits. Sugar lends bulk to food along with a sweetish flavor, it also inhibits the growth of bacteria and fungus. These factors made manufacturers liberally use it in their products, resulting in food that tasted good and didn’t spoil easily.

EARLY EVIDENCE
Things went on like this till just after World War 1, when physicians began noticing that there was an increasing incidence of heart attacks and obesity among men, leading them to publicly advocate the reduction of dietary added sugar. By the ‘50s and ‘60s, when the incidence of obesity and heart disease skyrocketed, did the medical fraternity sit up and look into the link with increased sugar consumption. Yudkin, a British physiologist, theorised that sugar was responsible for obesity and heart disease; however, his claims were challenged by Keys of USA, who stated that excess body fat was responsible for cholesterol and heart disease. Today, we may say that they were both right in their own ways. Unfortunately, their respective claims soon degenerated into an ego clash, which later, took a turn for the sinister, with the sugar industry backing Keys against Yudkin! Obviously, the latter’s claims would have led to a loss of business and profits for the industry, so they played up the conflict between the two scientists as a sort of smear campaign against Yudkin. The British Sugar Bureau dubbed Yudkin’s claims about sugar “emotional assertions!” Simultaneously, in the U.S., the Sugar Research Foundation’s director suggested that the foundation could “embark on a major program to counter negative attitudes toward sugar.”

CORPORATE EVIL
These were the early attempts at a very dangerous game aimed at painting sugar as a harmless, indeed essential part of our diet. In fact, some attempted to sell the stuff as a health food! In 2016, a group of researchers unearthed correspondence between the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF) and some Harvard scientists from the 1960s. The correspondence demonstrated that the sugar industry funded research that turned attention away from sugar’s link to heart disease, toward fat and cholesterol as the bigger culprits – funding that amounts to the equivalent of half a million dollars in today’s money! Scientists from Harvard, no less, were asked to review available evidence that linked nutrients to heart disease. It wasn’t too difficult to downplay the evidence linking sugar to heart disease, and hype those that linked fat to the disease, as studies in those days were not too many and not too high-powered either. Even professional dental bodies were commissioned to find evidence that tooth decay and cavities were linked to other factors, like poor dental hygiene, anything except exposure to sugary drinks and foods! In her book Unsavoury Truth, NYU Professor of Nutrition, Health Studies and Public Health, Marion Nestle (who has nothing to do with the Nestlé food company) said that the sugar industry has been using the same methods applied by the tobacco industry to influence policy and public opinion for decades. These methods include casting doubt on the science and funding research to produce desired results or shift attention away from studies that condemn the health effects of sugar.

WHY IS SUGAR BAD?
Regardless of what the sugar industry would have you believe, YES. Sugar is BAD for you. The World Health Organisation strongly recommends to reduce intake of free sugars down to less than 10% of total energy intake, and even states that it would be better (if possible) to reduce it to below 5% of our total energy intake. Sugar consumption leads to weight gain, but if one were to substitute the calories derived from sugar with other non-sugar nutrients, our weight won’t change much. This means that it is the calorie intake that matters and not sugar per se. But we all know that weight gain is directly linked to the incidence of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and even cancer. Hence it stands to reason that increased sugar intake, leading to weight gain is indirectly linked to these diseases.

This entire saga holds an important lesson for us. Apart from the obvious takeaway that we should reduce sugar as much as possible in our diets, another important aspect hold true here. We should always be on the lookout for the demonization or extolling of a single nutrient, especially by big industry, who may very well have vested interests. In such a situation, we must always try and dig for the facts for ourselves, rather than blindly follow industry driven studies. This may understandably difficult for lay people, hence the onus lies on governments to ensure that rigorous scientific debate precedes such campaigns (either for or against a certain nutrient), so that the greater public good is not compromised.