New documents recently found show the sugar industry paying researchers to hide effects of sugar on heart disease.

During the 1960s, scientists promoted saturated fat as one of the leading causes of heart disease. According to recently found documents, the sugar industry paid a large sum of money, nearly $50,000 by today’s standards, for researchers to downplay the role sugar has in heart disease, and focus on fat.

While this report is nearly 50 years old, the research and findings from these reports has gone on to be a base and also shape a lot of continual research about heart disease.

This fat-focused research is also where the “fat-free diet” trend came from. Individuals began cutting fat from their diets, while still consuming sugar. In some cases, higher amounts to compensate for the lower fat levels.

The most alarming part of the documents showed that a top sugar industry executive received access to drafts of the reports before publication. Hickson “enlisted the Harvard researchers to write a review that would debunk the anti-sugar studies.” In 1965, he selected the papers for the researchers to review and made it clear he wanted the reports to favor saturated fat as the culprit.

Publication of the original documents

These documents discovered in early September of this year by a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. JAMA Internal Medicine, a peer-reviewed medic al journal published twice a month by the American Medical Association, published the report.

Author of the JAMA Internal Medicine paper, and professor of medicine at U.C.S.F., Stanton Glantz said, “They were able to derail the discussion about sugar for decades.”

In fact, one of the scientists paid by the sugar industry, D. Mark Hegsted, went on to become the head of nutrition at the United States Department of Agriculture. In 1977 he even helped draft the forerunner to the federal government’s dietary guidelines.

How to switch out sugar for an alternative sweetener

Now that these findings have come to light, many will be looking for an alternative to sugar. When you’re looking for a sweetener that you can use in a 1:1 ratio for sugar, xylitol is the smart choice. Not only can you substitute it just about anywhere for normal table sugar, but also it comes with dental and health benefits, rather than increasing your risk of heart disease.

*Ref:  How the Sugar industry Shifted Blame to Fat

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