It is the twenty first century, and the world runs on a sweet, addictive substance that can end one’s life: sugar. Ironically, as I am typing this essay, I am slurping on a McDonald’s milkshake. The problem in society is that it is challenging to stop, but it is necessary to make a change. In the article, “The Toxic Truth about Sugar” by Robert Lustig, a childhood obesity specialist, Laura Schmidt, and Claire Brindis, whom teach in the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy, claims that sugar is poisonous and is the cause of many commonly known noncommunicable diseases. In addition, these health experts report that sugar, in fact, is comparable to tobacco and alcohol. Furthermore, people are intoxicating their bodies just for the taste of it. For this reason, I agree with the government taking a stand and start regulating sugar.…show more content… As a result, fewer people would consume it, but companies do not want to because “sugar is cheap, sugar tastes good, and sugar sells” (Lustig, Schmidt, and Brindis 288). However, the authors report that the consequences that come with sugar, such as hypertension, high triglycerides, and diabetes are diseases “associated with metabolic syndrome” (Lustig, Schmidt, and Brindis 286). Moreover, fructose has similar effects on the liver as alcohol. As a matter of fact, the article mentions that alcohol comes from the fermentation of sugar. Therefore, sugar falls under the abused category because it prevents the hormone leptin to work properly, causing people to not feel full. Overall, obesity is not the problem sugar is, since it damages a person’s metabolism causing a variety of diseases. For this reason, the authors ridicule the authorities for saying that sugar contains “empty calories” when in reality it harms a body (Lustig, Schmidt, and Brindis