Dr. Joe Schwarcz

Science doesn't work by leaps and bounds.

Science progresses by a series of small steps.

And what those small steps have shown is that the closer we are to a plant-based diet, the better off we are.

And there the information is,

becoming more and more impressive about the benefits of being on a plant-based diet.

So we like... I think both of those statements are true to a certain extent.

but you do have to take into account the extent to which we are exposed.

I think, as a general rule, the population, certainly in the Western world, is consuming too much sugar.

When you consider that a serving of soft drink, a can of soft drink, can contain 40 grams of sugar, which is actually more than the amount of added sugar that we should be eating during a day.

Sugar mostly...

does its harm by contributing excess calories.

So it, of course, leads to obesity.

It obviously also has an effect on dental health because it feeds the bacteria that will erode teeth.

And

It is unnecessary in the diet.

We certainly require glucose in our diet, but that is furnished by all of the starch that we eat.

We don't need extra sugar in order to get the glucose into our body that our body actually needs.

Now, in terms of the artificial sweeteners, which of course were introduced in order to replace the calorie content of sugar, they have a checkered history.

First of all, they have not really done what they were supposed to do, which is to make a dent in obesity.

We have seen that since the early 1980s, when the artificial sweeteners really became very popular, we have seen an increase in obesity.