The WHO is actually quite reasonable on sugar

You'll have seen the signs of a demonisation campaign going on. That sugar is addictive, that it has no nutritional value (as if calories are not nutrition), that we must tax it, or possibly ban certain uses, that AHHHRGH! we're all gonna die! and so on.

And then we get the actual sciency bit from the World Health Organisation which looks just fine to me:

Free sugars contribute to the overall energy density of diets. Ensuring energy balance is critical to maintaining healthy body weight and ensuring optimal nutrient intake. There is increasing concern that consumption of free sugars, particularly in the form of sugar-sweetened beverages, may result in both reduced intake of foods containing more nutritionally adequate calories and an increase in total caloric intake, leading to an unhealthy diet, weight gain and increased risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Also of great concern is the role free sugars play in the development of dental diseases, particularly dental caries.

Sugar has calories, too many calories can be bad for you and sugar can, if swilled around the mouth, rot your teeth. There's nothing here that we've not all known for decades if not centuries.

And it really is worth our noting that this is the sciency bit. The WHO is not saying that sugar is addictive. It's not stating that fructose is worse than sucrose or glucose. It's not insisting that we're all being hooked on it by the dastardly food manufacturers. All of these are inventions by the public health campaigners interfering prodnoses who would rule our lives and diets for no better reason than that they enjoy doing so.

The importance of noting ths is of course that we cannot allow said prodnoses to now start telling us that the WHO has indeed backed up all of their phantastical claims. The actual advice is don't eat too much and remember to brush your teeth. Which is the sort of nannying which most of us can manage to put up with. And to hell with those who want to insist upon more such nannying.

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