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It’s a crystalline white powder worth billions of dollars, and backed by a powerful lobby. You’ll find it where you least expect it, feeding what some argue is a deadly addiction.

Sugar is a seemingly innocuous sweetener in cakes, cookies, and processed foods. It is North America’s most popular food additive, and has become a controversial subject of intense international scrutiny in recent months.

In April 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) boldly issued Diet, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases, which raised a battle cry from the sugar industry. The report linked increased intake of sugar with cancer, diabetes, and obesity.

Researchers who examined the relationship between diet, nutrition, exercise, and health state that sugar intake should be less than 10 per cent of total daily calories, or 200 calories. The American sugar industry threatened to pressure Congress to end its WHO fundingæworth $406 million USæunless the international body withdraws these new guidelines.

The Sugar Association argues that it’s acceptable for sugar to comprise 25 per cent of daily calories. The US Soft Drink Association also lambasted the report, which concluded that sweetened drinks contribute to obesity. The report noted that a can of soda pop contains 10 to 12 teaspoons of sugar, and that soda pop products figure in eight per cent of calories consumed by the average person and 25 per cent of overall sugar consumption.

In 1839, international refined sugar production was 800,000 tons; it now exceeds 100 million tons, representing both a sweetener and a bargaining tool. The Centre for Responsive Politics notes the sugar industry gave $3 million US to last year’s federal elections. WHO has so far defended its findings.

In Canada, refined sugar consumption increased from just over 37 kilograms per person in 1998 to nearly 45 kilograms in 2002. Average households spend $2.50 on sugar and sugar preparations weekly, and this doesn’t include sugar in pre-prepared items such as confections and junk foods. Canadians now consume an estimated 12 to 15 per cent of their daily calories from sugar.

Canadian federal nutrition policy has not embraced the WHO report. Health Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating suggests eating sugar in mod-eration but doesn’t specifically recommend reduced sugar intake. The Canadian Sugar Institute Web site denies sugars contribute to poor health and diabetes, and states sugars “are no more likely to lead to weight gain than cereal products, vegetables and fruit, or even lean fish.”

Meanwhile Canadians continue to consume far too many sweet calories and suffer the consequences—cancer, obesity, and poor health.

Refined sugar consumption, select years from 1976 to 2002

Year Kilograms per person

1976 41.29
1981 37.10
1986 41.32
1991 36.35
1996 38.02
1998 37.27
1999 37.86
2000 39.07
2001 40.94
2002 44.89

Source: Adapted from Canada Food Statistics, Table 4: Food Disappearance, by Commodity, 2002, vol. 2, no. 1

Source: alive #253, November 2003