Britain’s sugar addiction: The silent public health crisis

Everyone understands that sugar is bad for you, but few seem to understand the extent to which it can damage you and our broader society.

84% of the UK population admits to consuming a sugary snack daily, with 79% consuming up to three every day. Worryingly, only 13% of people actively try to limit their sugar intake.

The government recommends that no more than 5% of the calories we consume each day come from free sugars (sugar added to foods as well as those present in honey, fruit juices, and purées). However, the average UK resident consumes 9% to 12.5% of their calories from free sugars, significantly higher than the recommended amount.

A review by the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that in animal studies, sugar causes “more symptoms than required” to be described as an addictive substance. These include, but are not limited to, withdrawals, bingeing, and dependence and reward. Studies performed on rats have found that in some cases, sugar is preferred over cocaine, depicting the intense cravings it can elicit.

If brain cells become insulin-resistant, they may starve for energy. This may lead to them dying and the brain’s cognitive decline, as seen in Alzheimer’s

Our collective sweet tooth can have severe impacts on our bodies. Type 2 diabetes is a condition where your blood sugar levels are constantly too high. While sugar doesn’t directly cause type 2 diabetes, it often contributes to excess weight gain, which is a significant risk factor for developing the disease.

In fact, sugary drinks alone are responsible for 2.2 million cases of diabetes and 1.1 million cases of heart disease globally every year. Between 2021 and 2022, diabetes cost the NHS £10 billion, with another £4 billion in indirect costs.

Diabetes is an interesting area of study. Everyone knows of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, but a new type may be emerging. A neuropathologist from Brown University, Suzanne M. de la Monte, named Alzheimer’s as ‘type 3 diabetes’. Type 2 diabetes is caused by insulin resistance or the pancreas’s inability to produce enough insulin. De la Monte argues that Type 3 diabetes is very similar, but it’s caused by insulin resistance in the brain.

If brain cells become insulin-resistant, they may starve for energy. This can lead to them dying and the brain’s cognitive decline, as seen in Alzheimer’s.

In a test on rats, insulin signalling (the biological process of maintaining glucose levels) was blocked, which led to similar cognitive impairment as displayed by Alzheimer’s patients. The drug they used in the test closely mimics the nitrates found in ultra-processed foods.

Age-adjusted rates of Alzheimer’s and type 2 diabetes have been increasing at a similar pace, suggesting a potential underlying cause, be it processed foods, high fats, or excessive sugar consumption. We do not currently have evidence that sugar consumption directly leads to Alzheimer’s. Still, it is a fact that it contributes to metabolic factors like obesity and type 2 diabetes, both of which significantly increase the likelihood of Alzheimer’s.

The question now is: why is sugar so prevalent even if we know it to be so damaging and addictive?

Furthermore, those who consume the highest levels of sugar also have higher levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides, along with lower levels of good cholesterol.

Triglycerides are a type of fat found in your blood. These are normal, as the body converts excess calories into them, and they are then stored in fat cells and used for energy between meals. Yet, high numbers of triglycerides may lead to arterial wall thickening, increasing the risk of heart conditions. The high levels of triglycerides could be due to sugar’s role in causing consistent calorie surpluses.

The question now is: why is sugar so prevalent even if we know it to be so damaging and addictive? Sugar is a clear public health threat, yet it seems to be of little priority to the government.

The government introduced a soft drinks industry levy in 2018, yet it was hampered by constant lobbying from the drinks industry. Simulating the tobacco industry, in September 2016 alone, they spent several hundred thousand pounds on such efforts. This is an estimate made by the Children’s Food Campaign.

The sugar industry have a long history of influencing policy. They even funded research in the 1960s, which downplayed sugar’s role in heart disease, instead blaming it on saturated fat. It is said they paid $50,000 for the research.

It is imperative to overcome these barriers and focus on reducing sugar consumption for the UK’s health. We need to expand our soft drinks levy to include a wide range of products high in sugar, such as cereals, biscuits, and chocolate. When it comes to the current cost-of-living-crisis, this would further increase the already high food bills we pay. However, profits from such a tax could be funnelled into subsidies for whole foods, fruit, and vegetables. This system would effectively punish unhealthy decisions and promote healthy ones.

Everyone agrees that tobacco and alcohol should be taxed as they harm individuals and society. Using this logic, sugar must be too, as it can cause obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, all conditions that taxpayers already have to pay for. It is essential to discourage sugar consumption and promote healthy living, or the NHS will continue to be overburdened with preventable diseases caused not only by poor individual decisions, but primarily by the unacceptable food environment in which we live.