Toxic is a strong word with strong implications, even though it seems to be thrown around pretty lightly lately. For the purposes of physical health, a toxin is a poisonous substance that has an ill effect on the body. We all know that sugar is a source of empty calories and is said to promote cavities, but is it toxic?That is the complicated question Gary Taubes tackled in his lengthy New York Times essay last Sunday.Partly inspired by a 2009 lecture Robert Lustig gave called Sugar: The Bitter Truth, which wasposted on YouTube (see on page two), the question has taken on a whole new legion of askers. And although its high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) that has become Public Enemy #1, Lustig lumps both white granulated sugar (sucrose) and HFCS in the same messy, disease-causing bowl.By the early 2000s, according to the U.S.D.A., Americans have increased consumption of sugar to
more than 90 pounds per person per year. This increase happens to coincide with the current epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Taubes writes that in 1980, roughly one in seven Americans was obese, and almost six million were diabetic, and the obesity rates, at least, hadnt changed significantly in the 20 years previously. By the early 2000s, when sugar consumption peaked, one in every three Americans was obese, and 14 million were diabetic.Lustigs argument is that sugarhas unique characteristics, specifically in the way the human body metabolizes the fructose in it, that may make it especially harmful, at least if consumed in sufficient amounts.If this is true, it would mean that sugar is the likely culprit for several chronic ailments considered to be diseases of Western lifestylesheart disease, hypertension and many common cancers among them.
