Sugary Accusations

In a recent article we were given in class there was talk about how added sugars had the potential to increase the risk of death from heart disease in people. The article later explained that by added sugars it meant all non-natural sugars, such as high-fructose corn syrup and not natural sugars like those in fruit and dairy products. The high intake of these added sugars leads to several other health problems as well, such as obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and even stroke, heart attacks, hypertension, and heart failure. To find this, a researcher by the name of Quanhe Yang and his colleagues conducted a study on 31, 000 people who participated in a health survey that examined dietary habits based on in-person interviews. Now, most would think that this would be undeniable evidence, however the American Beverage Association (or the association you didn’t know existed until just now) has claimed that the study does not show that cardiovascular heart disease is caused by drinking sugar-sweetened beverages. Multiple people would probably be enraged, saying this is just another way of protecting big corporations like Pepsi or Coca-Cola to not go bankrupt and, while it might be just that, there’s really no way of knowing since the article says nothing in depth about the experiment other than Yang and his colleagues studied an old survey and drew conclusions. This shows absolutely no scientific method in this experiment and, therefore, causes its finding to come into question. Especially with such a large claim being made about added sugar. Even though it’s not a huge secret that excessive amounts of added sugar isn’t exactly healthy for you, to make a claim such that it increases the risk of heart disease-related death like smoking increases the risk of lung cancer, you’re going to need more in your article than just your finding on the subject.