Anti-Sugar Activist: 'Sugar Is the New Tobacco'

Now that tobacco has become a perennial target for health guardians and salt has followed, with the Consensus Action on Salt and Health fomenting a campaign to reduce salt intake, the latest target of the health guardians of the world is – sugar.

A University of Liverpool researcher, Professor Simon Capewell, says sugar is the new tobacco. Capewell is a member of Action on Sugar, whose goal is to cut the amount of sugar in the public diet. Capewell publicly proclaimed, “Sugar is the new tobacco. Everywhere, sugary drinks and junk foods are now pressed on unsuspecting parents and children by a cynical industry focused on profit, not health.”

Action on Sugar echoed, “Children’s health is at particular risk from high sugar intake, both in terms of obesity and diabetes, and also dental disease, or cavities.”

Action on Sugar group said the food and drink industry and Britain’s Department of Health would be targeted to force a gradual reduction in the amount of sugar added to food products. The group avers that a 20% to 30% reduction in sugar added to food could be attained in three to five years. Capewell added that there could be a reduction of 100 calories per day, with an even greater reduction in obese people.

A similar program dealing with salt spearheaded by the Consensus Action on Salt and Health resulted in a 20% to 40% reduction in salt in most supermarket products, and 15% in individual salt consumption. That reduction, according to Capewell, led to 6,000 fewer strokes and heart attack deaths per year.