According to a new research paper, the sugar industry has known that sucrose may lead to disease including cancer for 50 years. But a trade group swept under the rug the findings and the mouse study behind them.
In the study, the group of researchers from the University of California at San Francisco reviewed historical data and internal documents provided by the sugar industry. The team found that the Sugar Research Foundation was behind a comprehensive study about sucrose impact on heart’s health more than 50 years ago.
When the animal research revealed a link between sucrose and bladder cancer and heart disease, SRF stopped the study and refused to submit the findings to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.
California researchers also found that the organization had poured money into a study in 1967 that tried to discredit the link between sucrose and cardiovascular disease. That phony research suggested that gut microbes may be at fault for the high cholesterol levels seen in rodents fed sugar and assured the population there is no risk for human health.
Industry Funded Secret Study on Sugar
The latest review of those studies revealed that SRF which is now known as the International Sugar Research Foundation had funded a secret mouse study to assess the nutritional effects of gut microbes when coming in contact with sucrose.
That study too placed the blame on microbes in the gut for sugar’s adverse effects on cardiovascular health. The SRF found once more that starch and sugar lead to two different metabolic effects and that the high levels of beta-glucuronidase spurred by sugar consumption are mainly to blame for bladder cancer.
In an internal document, the organization described the secret study’s findings as one of the first evidence that sucrose can lead to biological differences in mice when compared with animals fed starch.
Shortly after, the group stopped funding for the research and failed to publish the results.
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