Is sugar worse than smoking or drinking? The short answer is: yes.

Now you may be thinking, how could sugar possibly be worse than smoking or drinking? Sugar is in fact 3 times worse than smoking and drinking; in relation to the number of deaths caused by these substances.

According to a study from UCLA in 2012, more than 35 million deaths are linked to sugar consumption. To put this number in perspective, it is like the equivalent of the whole population of Ireland, Sweden, and Chile together. On the other hand, smoking has caused “only” 7.1 million deaths, around 5 times less than sugar. Alcohol was linked in 2012 by the World Health Organization to 3.3 million deaths.

Higher brain activation than cocaine

Researchers believe that sweetness receptors in the human brain evolved at a time when our diets didn’t contain all that much sugar, and they have yet to adapt to our modern levels of sugar consumption. As a result, those receptors become overloaded by processed foods. That makes the brain release abnormal amounts of endorphins – happy chemicals. When a person attempts to cut off their sugar addiction, it can be tough.

If sugar were a drug, it never would be approved by the FDA or any other international drug administration due to its side-effects and how addictive it is.

Sugar is not regulated by the government, like alcohol or tobacco. Although it’s proven to be the root cause of more deaths than alcohol and tobacco together. It has the 4 criteria to be regulated by governments: it is unavoidable in society, toxic, can be abused and is bad for society, but it stays unregulated.

Last but not least, sugar is present in virtually all processed foods and drinks, even the so-called “healthy” ones. Not long ago I was personally having a nutrition coaching session with a client, who was eating “diet bars” bought from a pharmacy. These bars were not bought in a supplement store but in a pharmacy. Clearly in the label that for every 100gr of product, 30gr were pure sugar.