Excess sugar consumption leads to a host of diseases

14 April 2014 - SA Standard Times

But the pediatric endocrinologist's proclamations are supported by research his team has done at the University of California, San Francisco, with steady confirmation from other scientific studies linking sugar with chronic disease and early death.

Among his points are:

1. Sugar is poison.

2. Sugar is sugar and unhealthy in any form.

3. A calorie is not just a calorie. There are good ones and bad ones, including sugar.

4. Obesity is not a prerequisite for metabolic illness. Eighty percent of those with obesity do have metabolic disease or resulting chronic illness. But 40 percent of people of normal weight also have such diseases.

5. And don't blame those who are obese or chronically ill for their conditions. It's not so much poor lifestyle behavior as it is biochemical exposures to sugar and other unhealthful ingredients that food manufacturers routinely put into food products, with consumers often being unaware.

As Prevention magazine says, "If it's packaged, it's probably packed with sugar."