Inevitable comparison with tobacco? Check.
Heavy reliance on Robert Lustig's eccentric theories? Check.
Blaming UK obesity on a product (high fructose corn syrup) that is virtually non-existent here? Check.
Call for sin taxes? Check.
It can only be an editorial in The Observer, Britain's [cough] liberal Sunday newspaper.
To see how this theory stands up against the facts, I invite you to study the graph below—spotted on the Cancer Research website by Simon Cooke—which shows a large decline in sugar consumption over the last forty years (black line).
The only type of food that has been consumed in greater quantities during the period of expanding waistlines is fruit. Fruit contains fructose, which Lustig says is "toxic".
So the lesson is, er, don't eat fruit.
