Most of us consume large amounts of sugar everyday hidden in pre-packaged and processed foods without giving a second thought about the harmful effects of this legal drug that have just begun to surface after researchers proved that sugar consumption can be linked to high risk of heart diseases – and it has taken years for the truth to surface after the sugar industry deliberately tried to hide the dangerous role sugar plays in destroying our health.
Sugar Industry’s False Reports to Shift the Blame
Back in the 60’s, the concept of heart diseases being a direct result of our diets, was completely new to the public and there was a huge debate among doctors and researchers about the role foods played in increasing the risk of heart attacks and other diseases. There were speculations that sugar may be the culprit in the onset of certain heart conditions but, after a detailed report released by the sugar industry to clear its name, the blame was successfully shifted onto other foods high in saturated fats.
Decades later, the truth about how the industry buried the evidence that sugar consumption has a strong link with fat levels in the blood, has now been revealed. In 1965, amidst the big debate about the implications of diet on human health, a fabricated scientific review, which had been secretly funded by the Sugar Research Foundation, was published in a famous medical journal. In the review, renowned scientists and health experts claimed that sugar consumption had no link with the fat levels in our blood whatsoever. With the review, the industry was able to downplay its role in increasing heart diseases.
Sixty Years Later, the Truth is Finally Revealed
The industry was strategic about its move and it carried out a sophisticated cover-up plan like the tobacco industry to fool consumers into continuously buying and consuming their product. It has now been revealed that the researches done in 1965 to study the effects of sugar consumption was completely funded by the industry itself and the real findings were never revealed to the public.
Stanton Glantza is a tobacco control activist and professor at UCSF who has been trying to uncover the dirty truths that sugar and tobacco industries have paid millions to hide from the public. He and his assistant professor revealed some shocking facts about the sugar industry after reviewing many of their internal documents. Glantza found out that the Sugar Research Foundation conducted a research in 1968 involving lab animals to study the effects of sugar.
Is Sugar More Dangerous than Fat in Causing Heart Diseases?
What the researchers discovered was that increasing the amount of sugar in the animal’s diet, directly increased the triglyceride levels in its blood. Triglycerides are a type of fat that has been known for increasing the risk of strokes and various heart diseases. Shockingly, sugar doesn’t only affect the levels of fat in our body – it also increased the risk of bladder cancer due to high levels of cancer-causing enzymes in the urine.
The sugar industry knew that releasing the true findings of the experiment would bring about its destruction and a huge financial loss which is why they decided to pull the plug on the research before a concrete conclusion could be reached. A little while later, the Sugar Association in Washington D.C. made a public statement to explain why the study had ended abruptly. They announced that researchers had failed to find any significant link between sugar and heart diseases which is why there was no reason to further continue the investigation.
It was also claimed that the Sugar Association could no longer afford to fund the expensive research project. In conclusion, the statement said that when consumed in moderate quantities, sugar does not have any negative effects on health and can actually be considered a part of ‘a balanced lifestyle’.
Critics of the sugar industry say that companies are putting their consumers’ health on the line in order to protect their profits. The dangerous practice of misleading the public and manipulating scientific facts is preventing researchers and nutrition experts from doing their jobs properly. The real consequences of sugar consumption have been revealed 60 years after the initial study but had the industry not used its power to influence the results, the public could have gotten the message much sooner.
