The war on sugar
theGRIO REPORT - Mayor Bloomberg's proposed ban on large serving sizes of sugary drinks is yet another effort to curtail the dangers that come along with high sugar intake -- namely, obesity...
The fight continues
Many wonder if this ban can actually decrease obesity rates and lower BMI scores around New York City.
A 2006 study showed that after a focused intervention, adolescents with higher BMI scores who cut back on sugary sodas and juice lowered their overall body weight.
“However, there is conflicting research on whether these types of bans actually result in behavior change that leads to positive health outcomes,” says Brown-Riggs.
Two days ago, the FDA rejected a petition from the Corn Refiners Association to change the name “high-fructose corn syrup” — which has come under scrutiny lately — to “corn sugar.” In the rejection letter, Michael Landa of the FDA asserted that the sweetener should not be classified as a sugar, and that changing the name could be misleading and a public health concern for people with certain health conditions.
In fact, according to Dr. Robert Lustig and his team at the University of California, San Francisco, chronic exposure to one type of sugar in particular — fructose — causes many of the same long-term health problems as alcohol.
Earlier this year, that same team published a controversial paper in the journal Nature alleging that sugar, not fat, is to blame for high blood pressure and heart disease.
Lustig is a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital whose research focuses on the underlying causes of obesity. He has very vocal about his opinion that sugar is a toxic substance that people abuse, and should be thought of like cigarettes and alcohol.
