Envisioning a world without sugar

In a recent article, New York Times columnist Mark Bittman goes over the results of a massive new study that highlights the link between sugar and diabetes. It seems that even if you control for obesity and all other factors, sugar is what causes diabetes.

"The study demonstrates this with the same level of confidence that linked cigarettes and lung cancer in the 1960s," Bittman says, before pointing out that cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) both had the same effects. All forms of sugar (derived from fructose) are, in Bittman's words, "poison." He finishes the article by calling for the FDA to start regulating fructose the way it regulates all other toxic substances.

We're accustomed to a world in which cigarettes are considered toxic. Are you ready for a world where sugar is in the same category as cigarettes?

Now I agree that there is a lot of room to roll back the encroachment of sugar in our lives. If you start reading ingredients lists, you will find sugar (typically in the form of HFCS) in everything from your whole grain crackers to your salad dressing. We live in a highly sweetened world, and it really needs to stop. I think most people are with me on that one.

But are we ready to go all the way with this? Regulating sugar the same way we regulate cigarettes would mean the end of dessert as we know it. It means no more birthday cake. (Happy birthday: Here's your plate of fruit. Blow out the candles!) No more pie at Thanksgiving dinner. No more candy canes at Christmas. When kids knock at your door on Halloween, what would you give them? Ice cream would be a forbidden substance. Not to mention entire cuisines (like the tradition of French pastry-making) would vanish.

It also means that artificial sweeteners would become even bigger business. Are the sugar-haters out there ready for an onslaught of aspartame? A world without sugar would mean only diet soda on the menu. How far should we really take this?

Image courtesy Flickr/Uwe Hermann