Arguing that sugar is as additive as tobacco or alcohol,
scientists at the University of California San Francisco say
that the sweet stuff should be regulated in much the same way as
those products. That means taxes to discourage consumption and
age-dependent restrictions on how much can be sold to a
consumer. “The only method for dealing with this is a public
health intervention,” said one of the scientists involved in the
study, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF. “Everyone talks
about personal responsibility, and that won’t work here, as it
won’t for any addictive substance. These are things that have to
be done at a governmental level, and government has to get off
its ass.” Pointing to results that show that 20% of obese
individuals have a normal metabolism and no ill health effects,
while 40% of individuals whose weight is considered normal have
metabolic issues that could lead to diabetes or heart disease,
the doctor claims that over-consumption of sugar, and not mere
obesity, is the culprit. And like