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 in order 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 from public archives.
At the same time, they also looked at data from the American National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR).
This is how the research team discovered that the sugar industry trade association had recognized as early as the early 1950s that sugar was indeed responsible for cavities in children. The lobby had 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. For this, the lobby has 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 profitable, with the persons in charge of the NIDR.
Thus, three-quarters of the content of a report submitted by the sugar industry to NIDR was directly incorporated into the first study proposal on the problem of caries, within the framework of the national program for the prevention of caries, reports the AFP.
At the same time, and unsurprisingly, studies likely to harm the government lobby sugar were ignored.
For Stanton Glantz, co-author of the study, “these tactics are really similar to those of the tobacco industry at the same time. He also adds that these revelations about the sugar lobby “should alarm government officials responsible for protecting public health as well as consumer protection associations to understand that the sugar industry, like the tobacco industry, seeks above all to preserve its interests. »
According to the researchers, the 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 also called for reducing 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 harmful effects of sugar on health
