Should sugar be regulated like liquor and cigarettes?
Most people understand that liquor and cigarettes are harmful to health and should not be sold to children. And that health warning labels should be on products containing tobacco and alcohol. Scientific research over recent years has also shown that sugar is harmful to health in several ways. Sugar (and its liquid equivalent, high fructose corn syrup) raises blood pressure, contributes to obesity, increases the risk of heart disease by worsening cholesterol profiles, and causes damage to the liver.
Foods like chicken, meat, fish, eggs, cheese, vegetables, and nuts contain nutrients that the body needs to breath, digest, move, circulate blood, grow and repair damaged tissue. Sugar, on the other hand, is a food which has no nutrient value. The body does not need it. Just like the body does not need alcohol or tobacco. In fact, the body processes sugar in exactly the same way as it processes alcohol.
No parent wants to think that they are harming their child by giving a soda or a juice drink, but would you give your child a daily glass of whiskey? Would a health warning label on that sugary drink make you think twice about buying that soft drink for your child?
