Report: Sugar industry hid connection to heart disease for decades

In the 1960s, a debate began over the effect of sugar and fats on cardiovascular disease. Researchers say that the sugar industry, wanting to influence the discussion, funded research to look into sugar consumption.

And when it found data suggesting that sugar was harmful, the powerful industry pointed a finger at fats.

In an investigation published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Biology, researchers from the University of California at San Francisco claim that newly uncovered historical documents indicate the industry never disclosed the findings of its work and effectively misled the public to protect its economic interests.

After examining the sugar industry’s internal documents, UCSF researchers said that in 1968 the Sugar Research Foundation, which has organizational ties to the Sugar Association, funded animal research to explore the link between sugar consumption and cardiovascular disease. Rats were fed a high-sugar diet — and were found to have increased levels of triglyceride, fatty substances in the bloodstream. In humans, high triglyceride levels can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.

The research also found a connection between sugar consumption and an enzyme associated with bladder cancer.

In their investigation, the UCSF researchers said it is likely that the Sugar Research Foundation was unhappy with findings associating sugars with chronic disease, and what those findings could mean for humans. So it chose to end the study and did not publish its results, the researchers said.

One of the investigation’s authors, Stanton Glantz, told the New York Times that while the documents are several decades old, they are significant, as they show how long the sugar industry has spent de-emphasizing sugar’s effect on health.

“This is continuing to build the case that the sugar industry has a long history of manipulating science,” he said.

The Sugar Association criticized Tuesday’s report and said in a statement that it was not a study but a perspective, “a collection of speculations and assumptions about events that happened nearly five decades ago.” It also called the researchers “known critics of the sugar industry.”

The sugar industry has long denied that sugar has any specific role in chronic disease.