Big Sugar's position is ridiculous, of course. Refined white sugar directly promotes obesity, blood sugar disorders, Type-II diabetes, behavioral disorders such as ADD and aggression, and even cancer. These assertions are clearly revealed in the scientific literature. As Professor Kaare Norum, chair of the WHO report's working group says, "I regard the need for a global strategy on diet to be of paramount importance . There is an extensive body of sound scientific research now available which supports the case for immediate action to improve dietary health through the reduction in the consumption of foods containing high levels of fats, added sugars and salt and soft drinks containing high volumes of calorific sweeteners."
Yet Big Sugar wants to block any attempt to reduce global consumption of added sugars since, naturally, that would mean a reduction in their profits. As Professor Norum explains, "It is significant that resistance from business interests, which included the sugar industry and soft drinks manufacturers with US government support, was also demonstrated when a previous WHO expert report, based on a scientific consultation in 1990, made similar recommendations intended to prevent diet-related chronic diseases."
Big Sugar's primary argument against the WHO is that sugar isn't a "bad" food. In fact, according to Big Sugar and the soft drink industry, there's no such thing as a food that's bad for you! To hear it in their own words, listen to Dr Riaz Khan, director-general of the World Sugar Research Organisation, who says, "The concept of 'good food and bad food' displayed throughout Report 916 lacks scientific validity. It singles out single elements of the diet, such as sugar, meat, edible oils and dairy products as being unhealthy. It is the most basic of nutritional principles that there are 'good and bad diets', not 'good foods or bad foods'."
In other words, according to the sugar industry, sugar isn't bad for you at all. It sounds quite familiar to the Big Tobacco executives swearing, before Congress and national television, that "nicotine is not addictive." It's a Big Lie, and it is repeated for one purpose: to save their profits. If people realize that sugar promotes obesity and disease, they might eat less of it, and that would hurt the profits of the sugar industry. So to prevent that, the industry broadcasts what can only be called "nutritional lies" about the health effects of refined white sugar.
It is precisely this sort of behavior that has made the United States the world's largest exporter of disease. As a nation, we export more disease-causing foods and beverages than any country on the globe, and when consuming countries want to protect themselves from the ravaging health effects of our disease-causing products, we call them liars and insist that there's no such thing as an unhealthy food. It's the American way, of course: maximize profits at the expense of public health. The pharmaceutical industry and the FDA are all too familiar with that line of thinking, and it's rampant in the food and beverage industry as well. Too many Americans will do anything for a buck, including blatantly promoting products that cause untold death and suffering around the world. Not that America has a monopoly on evil, of course, but ever since the Bush Administration took office, we seem to be far more effective at actually spreading that evil.
The Bush Administration is relevant to the sugar debate, by the way: Big Sugar raised millions of dollars for his reelection campaign, and since U.S. taxpayers send enormous checks to U.S. sugar growers in the form of federally-approved subsidies, it appears that Big Sugar's involvement in politics will remain high. Top level executives of the sugar industry reportedly have direct phone access to President Bush. It's not hard to tell that there's a high degree of political corruption at work here.