NO

This is the response from Anne Mardis, a doctor at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a summary devoted to the effects of sugar on health, published in 2001, she even specifies that a number of studies show rather a reverse link between sucre and the degree ofoverweight¹.

How can this be? Because increased sugar intake is associated with reduced fat intake, she explains in this document. She concludes that the consumption of sugar cannot be directly linked to obesity and that it cannot be considered as an independent risk factor.

It should be noted, however, that this synthesis was carried out on behalf of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is responsible for promoting food products produced in the United States, including sugar.

Other independent syntheses go in the same direction as that of Anne Mardis: their authors, more nuanced, underline the difficulty of pointing out sugar as the only cause of obesity.^2,3,10. In a recent epidemiological survey (2005) conducted in 34 countries among 137 school-aged children, it was observed that the consumption of sweets was lower in children who were overweight than in those of normal weight.⁴!

According to Simone Lemieux, researcher at the Institute of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods (INAF)⁵, the current data, taken as a whole, are not convincing. “But when studies look at diet, everything is so interrelated that it is difficult to isolate the specific effect of sugar on weight gain. We weight the effect of fat consumption on obesity, for example, to isolate the effect of sugar, but this is not easy, since many foods are high in both sugar and fat, such as cookies or pastries, ”she says.

The sugar industry does not fail to point out that the summaries of studies exonerate sugar from all responsibility. “Sugar is not part of the obesity problem,” recently trumpeted the president of the United States Sugar Association.⁶.

However, the conclusions of a report by the French Food Safety Agency (Afssa), published in October 2004, provide some nuances in this regard. “If the data does not make it possible to incriminate sugar, they do not allow it to be exonerated either”, can we read in the document. Carbohydrates and health⁷. A fact that even Anne Mardis’ conclusion mentions in secret.

YES

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the sucre is part, with the gras and lack of physical activity, the three main causes of the epidemic ofobesity¹¹. In a voluminous report on the preventive effects of diet on chronic diseases, the WHO recommends limiting the consumption of free sugars (added sugars and sugars in fruit juices) to prevent overweight⁸.

The report’s authors, aware that this position is controversial, point out that many of the studies showing that there is no link between sugar and weight gain have methodological flaws that limit the validity of their conclusions. Researchers have also found that, in studies that are based on the consumption reported by individuals suffering from overweight or obesity, it is common for the latter to underestimate the amount of food and therefore of sugar, that they eat^7,9,10.

The other point on which the WHO relies to establish a link between the risk of overweight and sugar consumption is unanimous. Indeed, it is accepted that sugar increases the number of calories in a food, without enriching it with healthy nutrients.

Adding sugar increases the caloric density or energy of food, that is to say the number of calories they contain per gram. A high calorie density food contains a lot of calories per gram. For example, an apple contains roughly the same amount of calories as an oatmeal cookie (see table below), but its bulk and weight make it better for satiety. It is indeed easier to be satisfied with an apple than with a single cookie.

“When people are offered high calorie density foods, they tend to overeat, both in the short term and in the long term. », Explains Simone Lemieux of INAF.

In this regard, Réjeanne Gougeon, associate professor at the Center for Nutrition and Food Sciences at McGill University, cites a clinical trial on caloric density as an example. “The participants ate a snack containing 500 calories in three different volumes before a meal. Only the snack with the lowest energy density resulted in compensation in the meal that followed, ”she says. We also eat with our eyes!

Source: Nutritional value of some common foods, Health Canada, 1999.

YES, in the case of children and adolescents

If the data concerning excess sugar and the health of adults are open to interpretation, it is different for children, according to Afssa. “Excessive consumption of carbohydrates, in particular in the form of simple carbohydrates, especially in the form of drinks, therefore appears to be the cause of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents in industrialized countries”, reads its report. Carbohydrates and health⁷.

Difficult to identify sugar as the only culprit in obesity? That is. But we can’t ignore it either. Fat and a sedentary lifestyle are also part of the picture, as the WHO points out.

Still, the situation is even more complex than it appears, because studies do not always reflect reality. “The link between fat and obesity is better established than with sugar, but in practice, it is much less clear. Indeed, even if the consumption of fat has decreased over the past 20 years, obesity, on the contrary, has increased significantly, ”points out Simone Lemieux of the INAF.

On the other hand, we know that the consumption of sugar has increased. There may have been a simple ‘Shifting’ calories. “Yogurts are a good example: they are less fat than before, but, in fact, they contain as many calories because they are sweeter,” she continues. They therefore have the same caloric density as before, even if their composition has changed.

In short, trying to quantify the exact importance of each of the factors of obesity is a difficult task that scientists have tackled, but which may take them some time. In the meantime, it might be better to play on several aspects at the same time, but not in a radical way, especially when it comes to sugar.

Dietitian-nutritionist Hélène Baribeau advises not to completely eliminate sugar from your diet, at least for people who are watching their weight. “When an overweight person cuts sugar too drastically, they end up giving up their diet because their food doesn’t taste good enough,” she notes. You have to make a compromise between the energy density provided by sugar and the pleasure it provides. “