The Binary Circumstance

The government has been promoting and subsidizing high-sugar foods for many years. This type of diet has been linked to obesity and other health problems and a new study (New York Times, reg. req.) suggests a link to macular degeneration which often leads to blindness.

After controlling for age, sex, education level, body mass index, alcohol consumption and other variables, they found that the higher the dietary glycemic index, the more likely a person was to have macular degeneration. Those in the highest one-fifth of the dietary glycemic index had more than a 40 percent increased risk of significant macular degeneration than those in the lowest one-fifth. The amount of carbohydrate consumed was not correlated with disease, suggesting that it is only carbohydrates with a high glycemic index that cause the effect.

“Sugar is fuel for the cells, but too much is destructive,” said Allen Taylor, the senior author of the paper and chief of the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research at Tufts University. “It is known from laboratory and animal studies that carbohydrates can damage the proteins in cells and affect their function. The sugars actually modify things, modify the proteins, and it’s the accumulation of this modified stuff that is poisonous to cells.”

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