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Quote:

From The Times
London, UK
22 November, 2017

Sugar industry ‘halted research after heart link’

The sugar industry shut down research that appeared to show a link between sucrose intake and heart disease 50 years before the current debate on the safety of sweet foods and fizzy drinks, scientists have claimed.

Researchers accused sugar trade bodies of using tactics similar to those of tobacco companies by “suppressing” science showing their product was unhealthy, after finding internal documents describing the study.

The documents showed that the Sugar Research Foundation, an industry-funded US research organisation, initially backed a University of Birmingham study into the effects of sucrose intake on rodents.

However, early results appeared to find evidence of an association with heart disease, above and beyond the calorific content of the sugar. They also identified a potential mechanism for this, in the form of interactions with gut microbes. At that point the foundation — which is linked to the current organisation, the Sugar Association — stopped the funding. It claimed the work had “nil” value.

Cristin Kearns, of the University of California, San Francisco, wrote about the findings in the journal Plos Biology. She said they showed “the sugar industry spent considerable money to understand the health effects of sucrose — and were only interested in publishing results that exonerated sucrose”.

Her co-author, Stanton Glantz, is a researcher who helped show that tobacco companies knew before the public that nicotine was addictive and that smoking caused cancer. He said the latest findings implied that sugar companies should not be trusted in scientific debates about sugar.

Several studies have found that sugar is linked to heart disease even if people are not overweight — but these results have been challenged by the industry.

“They’re out there questioning the science and presenting themselves as a legitimate participant in debates,” Professor Glantz said. “They are still taking the position this is all hokum, that there is no evidence linking sugar consumption and heart disease.

“What they are doing here isn’t science, it’s advocacy. The companies continue to demand a seat at the table for scientific discussions, presenting themselves as experts. What this early history shows is they are very expert.

They understood the emerging science, and were doing their best to derail it.
“It’s the whole game they play, tobacco companies play, anti-global warming people play. Their behaviour here is prima facie evidence about why they shouldn’t be taken seriously.”

The Sugar Association denied that interpretation. In a statement, it called Kearns and Glantz’s paper “a collection of speculations and assumptions about events that happened nearly five decades ago, conducted by a group of researchers and funded by individuals and organisations that are known critics of the sugar industry.”

The organisation claimed the funding was cut because the research was delayed and over budget. “Throughout its history, the Sugar Association has embraced scientific research and innovation in an attempt to learn as much as possible about sugar, diet and health.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...-link-ch3bhd2bq