Not only does ordinary sugar (technically a glucose-fructose combo) add extra calories to our diet, writes Gary Taubes in the New York Times Magazine article “Is Sugar Toxic?” but its consumption is an independent risk factor for heart disease, high blood pressure and many common cancers.

The liver, according to Taubes, is where sugar’s damage begins. He writes: “In animals, or at least in laboratory rats and mice, it’s clear that if the fructose hits the liver in sufficient quantity and with sufficient speed, the liver will convert much of it to fat. This apparently induces a condition known as insulin resistance, which is now considered the fundamental problem in obesity, and the underlying defect in heart disease and in the type of diabetes, type 2, that is common to obese and overweight individuals. It might also be the underlying defect in many cancers.”

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