Sugar...as toxic as tobacco and alcohol?

I just read the article posted by Professor Yang entitled “Sugar Should Be Regulated As Toxin, Researchers Say” which was published on LiveScience.com. The article immediately caught my attention when I saw it on twitter because I myself have health issues which require me to closely watch the sugars I intake. I do not think that a lot of people realize just how bad sugars are for the body. Sugars that are naturally found in places like fruit are of course not found to be harmful to the body because they also contain fiber and do not contained added sugar. Yet sugars that are man-made like table sugar and high fructose corn syrup are metabolized in a much different way than natural sugars. Obesity is such an enormous problem in our country these days and I think that people definitely need to start monitoring the sugars they intake more closely. According to the article, correlations have been found linking the excess intake of processed sugars to many health issues including liver failure, diabetes, and heart disease. Some researchers feel so adamantly about encouraging people to reduce sugar intake that they are proposing putting a tax on foods containing “added” sugar. I think that it is also important for school cafeterias to take a closer look that the foods containing added sugar. One quote from the article that was particularly strong in my opinion was  “added sugar — or, more specifically, sucrose, an even mix of glucose and fructose found in high-fructose corn syrup and in table sugar made from sugar cane and sugar beets — has been as detrimental to society as alcohol and tobacco”. This can be proven in the amount of deaths that are occurring because of heart disease and diabetes. I think that people need to start taking a closer look into the nutrition facts on what they are eating. Consuming less sugar and high-fructose corn syrup will make a huge impact on people becoming healthier individuals.