In a recent issue of Nature magazine, an article entitled “The Toxic Truth About Sugar” (subscription required), authored by three academics, one of whom is Claire Brindis, PhD, wife of ACC Past President Ralph Brindis, MD, MPH, MACC, is causing quite a stir.

Brindis and her co-authors highlight the growing body of evidence about the adverse effects of ubiquitous added sweeteners in the U.S. and global diet, particularly high fructose additives, which contribute immensely to non-communicable diseases, including diabetes and obesity. The United Nations recently declared that we must combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which represent a global threat killing over 35 million a year, and far exceeding the toll from communicable diseases now. (Read a previous blog post here). These problems now affect every country that has adopted the western diet of low-cost, highly processed food -- which is most of the world. The UN targets tobacco, alcohol, and diet as the three priority areas -- and diet issues are dominated by the metabolic syndrome-fostering impacts of added sweeteners to foods.

Brindis and her co-authors noted that tobacco and alcohol controls and social costs are typically mediated by government regulation and taxation, but that sugar addiction and its related toxicity escape this kind of regulation. The U.S. still leads the world in the average calories per day from added sweeteners in the diet (over 600 per day), but the rest of the world is catching up. These authors suggest -- despite the political hurdles anticipated -- that regulation and taxation of added sweeteners could have an enormous impact on reducing NCDs (including heart disease!), as well as health care and productivity loss costs. A courageous position!

Of course, you might imagine how much threatening opposition mail the authors have also been barraged with.  Nonetheless, my hat is off to the ‘other’ Dr. Brindis. The food industry is not going to give in easily here, even though this week we also saw that the transfat labeling requirements on foods (in combination with the restaurant transfat bans in some cities) have had a real impact in reducing consumption.