It is a revelation that makes a lot of noise. An American study published in the scientific journal PLOS Medicine this March 10 reveals that the sugar industry mobilized strongly in the 1960s in the United States to influence research on dental caries in children.
The three University of San Francisco researchers analyzed 319 internal industry documents dating from 1959 to 1971 and from public records.
At the same time, they also searched data from the US National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR).
This is how the research team discovered that the professional association of the sugar industry had recognized in the early 1950s that sugar was responsible for children’s cavities. The lobby also noted that medical authorities were already seeking to reduce sugar consumption to control this dental health problem.
Tactics similar to those of the tobacco industry at the same time
In view of this threat, manufacturers have developed a strategy to divert the attention of the authorities and the population from sugar consumption. To do this, the lobby funded research aimed at developing enzymes capable of partially eliminating dental plaque, as well as a vaccine against the bacteria responsible for cavities. So many initiatives carried out while cultivating close relations, and perhaps even paying off, with NIDR officials.
Thus, three-quarters of the content of a report presented by the sugar industry to NIDR was directly incorporated into the first proposed study on the problem of caries, as part of the national caries prevention program, reports the AFP.
At the same time, and unsurprisingly, the studies likely to harm the lobby of the sugar were ignored.
For Stanton Glantz, co-author of the study, “These tactics are very similar to those of the tobacco industry at the same time. “He also adds that these revelations on the sugar lobby” should alarm government officials responsible for protecting public health as well as consumer defense associations to understand that the sugar industry, like that of tobacco, seeks above all to to preserve its interests. “
According to the researchers, authorities should not tolerate opposition from the sugar industry to current proposals by health authorities to reduce sugar consumption. “There are now strong indications linking excessive sugar consumption to heart disease, liver disease and diabetes, not to mention dental caries,” said Laura Schmidt, one of the study’s authors.
In early March, the World Health Organization called for a reduction in the sugar consumption less than 10% daily energy intake, equivalent to 50g of sugar per day for an adult.
Read also :
Cavities: a third of the world’s population does not treat them
WHO’s recommended sugar intake is still too harmful for teeth
Infographic: the health effects of sugar
