(Image source: Diet in Details)

BY ZAKIYYAH WAHAB

ANCHOR LAUREN ZIMA

Three professors from the University of California in San Francisco say sugar is toxic and should be regulated.  According to SkyNews, the professors propose...

“...adding taxes to processed foods that contain any form of added sugar...”

Other measures they suggest include:

“....controlling access ... such as age limits for purchase of sugary drinks, and tightening controls on vending machines and snack bars in schools and workplaces...”

Dr. Robert Lustig is one of the researchers calling for regulation.  He says has obese patients as young as six months old and says this is not because of a lack of exercise. As he tells UCSF News,

“...sugar has very specific effects that drive these phenomenon, that drive in some resistance, that drive excessive consumption...”

According to Nature.com, per Capita, Americans eat more sugar than just about anyone in the world.  More than 600 calories per day.

And according to the researchers’ findings, 

“Health problems due to excessive alcohol consumption such as hypertension and pancreatitis are also found in excessive sugar consumption.”

Not everyone agrees.  The Guardian reports that in response to the researchers’ suggestions, a spokesperson from Sugar Nutrition UK says,

“...expert committees, including … the European Food Safety Authority and the World Health Organisation …  have concluded that ... available evidence does not implicate sugar at the level currently consumed in any of the ‘lifestyle diseases’ such as obesity...”

Australian health experts also do not completely agree with the toxic sugar findings. Life Hacker reports, that,

“... casting sugar as the ultimate villain and calling for regulation is misleading, unfounded and unnecessary.”

But back in states, the San Francisco sugar researchers disagree.  They hope the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will consider removing sugar from its “generally regarded as safe list.”