November 21, 2017

expert reaction to paper looking at historical sugar industry documents and evidence of sucrose’s health effects from 50 years ago

A new paper, published in PLOS Biology, examines sugar industry sponsorship of germ-free rodent studies linking sucrose to hyperlipidemia and cancer through a historical analysis of internal documents.

Dr Ian Johnson, Nutrition researcher and Emeritus Fellow, Quadram Institute Bioscience, said:

“Our current understanding of the relationship between sucrose consumption and health is built upon decades of research, including both epidemiological studies on human populations and intervention studies to investigate the effects of sugar on human metabolism. The weight of evidence suggests that, apart from its well-known adverse effects on dental decay, sucrose is mainly a hazard to health because of the calories it provides, and the attendant risks of over-consumption of energy, and weight-gain. This study is perhaps of some historical interest but it is difficult to see what it adds to our current knowledge about sugar and human health.”

* ‘Sugar industry sponsorship of germ-free rodent studies linking sucrose to hyperlipidemia and cancer: An historical analysis of internal documents’ by Cristin E. Kearns et al. was published in PLOS Biology on Tuesday 21 November 2017.

Declared interests

Dr Ian Johnson: “ITJ was a member of the SACN working group on carbohydrates and health until 2015.”