#003 Sugar Is The New Tobacco.
👋 Hey, I’m Cyril and welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Democratising Health For All. Each week I explore the dynamic synergy between consumers, healthcare and pharma, in my quest to provide insights to promote a long healthy and a pain-free life
How do we paint a picture that excess sugar and poor dietary choices are killing us and our children? How is this happening? Why is this a problem? What is the taxpayer cost? What can we do about it?
“Sugar is the new tobacco”
Simon Capewell, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Liverpool, UK
“Sugary drinks are the alcohol of childhood“
Robert Lustig, Professor of Paediatric Endocrinology at the University Of California, San Francisco
Rampant sugar consumption and poor diet are fueling a global “diabesity” crisis, with devastating health and financial impacts. Over 75% of Americans will be overweight or obese by 2020 while 63% of Australians are already overweight or obese. This drives sharply rising rates of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and various cancers — all linked to excessive sugar and refined carbohydrates.
When we eat carbs, the body breaks them into sugar, spiking blood glucose levels. This repeatedly stimulates massive insulin release from the pancreas in attempt to manage the sugar influx by promoting cellular energy storage. But perpetual insulin bombardment causes widespread damage — from obesity to insulin resistance to full-fledged diabetes. Cells lose ability to properly recognize or utilize insulin despite continually elevated levels, accelerating vascular deterioration towards heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, blindness and limb amputation.
Globally over half of adults suffer some degree of carbohydrate intolerance or metabolic disorder. Projections show nearly 600 million will have diabetes by 2035 as populations grow increasingly inactive and eat high glycemic diets. Already diabetes causes millions of deaths annually, outpacing many better-known diseases.
Taxpayer costs are astronomical — $58 billion yearly in Australia and Canada, over $300 billion in the U.S. Even prediabetes treatment expenses are estimated at $7 billion in just Australia and Canada combined. As populations gray, costs will continue ballooning without systemic changes targeting sugar consumption and refined grains.
Potential remedies span policy initiatives like soda taxes, marketing restrictions on junk foods, and public health campaigns — yet food industry interests oppose such measures. Consumers meanwhile underestimate personal risks of “diabesity” until severe complications appear. But small daily changes offer huge prevention rewards — eliminating sugary drinks, refined flours and high glycemic index carbs while emphasizing activity, sleep and stress reduction. Even modest calorie reduction and carb restriction sharply improves insulin sensitivity for most overweight adults, providing metabolic protection.
In total this data paints a grim portrait of unchecked sugar intake slowly eroding population health on a global scale. But it also empowers individuals and policymakers to pivot towards nutrition and lifestyle precautions conferring substantial personal and financial savings. The choice remains whether short-term indulgences today outweigh an healthy tomorrow.
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Citations:
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1693790/
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532266/
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9966020/
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9381199/
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7912123/
- www.uptodate.com/contents/vitamin-d-deficiency-beyond-the-basics
- www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj-2022-071609
- www.lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/micronutrient-inadequacies/overview
- www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2009/1015/p841.html
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5133084/
