Sugar and Government Joined at the Hip

The industry's tactics—similar to those used by Big Tobacco in downplaying the adverse health effects of smoking—were explored by Gary Taubes and Cristin Kearns Couzens in the 2012Mother Jones investigation "Big Sugar's Sweet Little Lies." But this latest report draws on some newly released documentssubmitted as evidence in a recent federal court case involving the two biggest players in the sweetener industry: the Sugar Association and the Corn Refiners Association (the trade group for manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup). 

The report details companies' plans to bury data and to convince consumers that sugar is "fine in moderation." It also shows how trade groups hired independent scientists to cast doubt on studies that show the adverse affects of sugar consumption—and strategized to intimidate scientists and organizations who didn't tow the industry line.

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/06/sugar-industry-tactics-to-make-your-food-unhealthy

Examples of their "fine work" follow in the article.

What the sugar industry did is almost as bad as what the federal government has done - first they empowered these groups by putting them on government working groups as "expert witnesses."  Second, they pushed the shoddy science of low fat.  

What's the difference?  If you do the work you could figure out that the sugar industry and the government are doing us wrong, but because the government is over-reaching, the sugar industry was able to employ the government to do its dirty work.  Further, the government used its power to remove funding to force all kinds of institutions to comply with it's faux guidelines.  We could escape the sugar industry's deceptions if not for the coercive influence of the government.

So are the sugar guys guilty?  Of course.  Almost as guilty as the government, which is not going to play the other side of the fence and act outraged - OUTRAGED I TELL YOU - as it prosecutes the sugar industry for ... working with the government.

Next thing you know, the government will sue the diabetics that are wrecking the health care system for eating what the government said they should.