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Sugar poses enough health risks that it should be considered a controlled substance just like alcohol and tobacco, argue a team

admin2018-07-10  34
问题     Sugar poses enough health risks that it should be considered a controlled substance just like alcohol and tobacco, argue a team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In an opinion piece called "The Toxic Truth About Sugar" published in Nature, and the author Claire Brindis argues that it’s wrong to consider sugar just "empty calories." She writes: "There is nothing empty about these calories. A growing body of scientific evidence is showing that sugar can trigger processes that lead to liver toxicity and a host of other chronic diseases. A little is not a problem, but a lot kills—slowly."
    Almost everyone’s heard of—or personally experienced—the well-known sugar high, so perhaps the comparison between sugar and alcohol or tobacco shouldn’t come as a surprise. But it’s doubtful that Americans will look favorably upon regulating their favorite vice. We’re a nation that’s sweet on sugar the average U.S. adult downs 22 teaspoons of sugar a day, according to the American Heart Association, and surveys have found that teens swallow 34 teaspoons.
    To counter our consumption, the author advocates taxing sugary foods and controlling sales to kids under 17. Already, 17% of U.S. children and teens are obese, and across the world the sugar intake has increased three times in the past 50 years. The increase has helped create a global obesity plague that contributes to 35 million annual deaths worldwide from noninfectious diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Linda Matzigkeit, a senior vice president at Children’s Healthcare, said "We have to do something about this or our country is in danger. It’s not good if your state has the second-highest obesity rate. Obese children turn into obese adults."
    "There are good calories and bad calories, just as there are good fats and bad fats," Robert Lustig, director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health program at UCSF, said in a statement. "But sugar is toxic beyond its calories."
    The food industry tries to imply that "a calorie is a calorie," says Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University. "But this and other research suggests there is something different about sugar," says Brownell.
    The UCSF report emphasizes the metabolic effects of sugar. Excess sugar can alter metabolism, raise blood pressure, affect the signaling of hormones and damage the liver—outcomes that sound suspiciously similar to what can happen after a person drinks too much alcohol. Laura Schmidt, co-chair of UCSF’s Community Engagement and Health Policy program, noted: "When you think about it, this actually makes a lot of sense. Alcohol, after all, is simply made from sugar. Where does vodka come from? Sugar."
    But there are also other areas of impact that researchers have investigated: the effect of sugar on the brain and how liquid calories are interpreted differently by the body than solids. Research has suggested that sugar activates the same reward pathways in the brain as traditional drugs of abuse like morphine or heroin. No one is claiming the effect of sugar is quite that strong, but, says Brownell, "it helps confirm what people tell you sometimes, that they hunger for sugar and have withdrawal symptoms when they stop eating it."
    There’s also something particularly tricky about sugary drinks. "When calories come in liquids, the body doesn’t feel as full," says Lustig. "People are getting more of their calories than ever before from sugared drinks."
   
选项
答案C
解析 第一段提到Claire Brindis的研究，在末句的直接引语中提到糖可以引发肝毒等慢性病。C项复现了原文的liver toxicity及diseases，excessive intake则与最后的a lot对应，故确定C为本题答案。
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