For some apparently unfathomable reason, in the Western world since the 1970s the average BMI of the population has spiralled upwards while simultaneously the level of dieting, consumption of diet food and amount of exercise performed, whether in the form of gyming or running, has skyrocketed. How is this possible? Was this sheer co-incidence or happenstance or are there, within the current dieting regime, prospective candidates as the culprit.

 The current suspect is sugar. Like a rabbit trapped in a car’s headlights its apologists and defenders such as the sugar water industry – read Coke – are supine but not immobile. With sugar taxes looming after New York City’s courageous imposition of this punitive measure recently, their muted rational response is quite credible.

Main picture: Will sugar take the mantle as the new tobacco over the next decade or is it being unfairly cast as the villain in the piece?

What is it and does it bear consideration?

Their method of self-exculpation is to place the onus on the consumer of the product. With a ring of plausibility, they claim that the level of one’s sugar intake should be a function of one’s level of exercise.

So far so good.

Technically this is sagacious advice. That places the much maligned sugar in its correct context. Be forewarned that in this game of bluff uncritical acceptance of this tenet will never achieve the desired result.

What they are disingenuously neglecting to inform the consumer is that the daily quantities of sugar which should be consumed are considerably lower than one would anticipate. An example will highlight the problem.

For breakfast one will typically have cereal with a few spoons of sugar and a cup of coffee with two spoons of sugar. Already one’s daily limit on the consumption of sugar might have been exceeded. One could argue, like the sugar industry is with gusto, that if one is doing exercise that one can consume more sugar.

At a superficial level that is true but the quantity of sugar in two Coke cans contains sufficient sugar to be able to run the Comrades which is 90kms. When placed in that context with the quantity of sugar actually required being miniscule, the average person’s intake of sugar in whatever form is vastly in excess of one’s requirements.

To bring the problem of invisible sugar home to one more vividly, read the labels on commonly consumed items. Favoured milk has sugar added, 99% of yoghurts on the market have additional sugars added. Don’t try and dodge the bullet by consuming fruit juices. All forms of sugars, whether as fructose, sucrose or whatever, are equally guilty. Moreover in the case of the supposedly healthy fruit juices, the quantity of sugar is actually greater than that of an equivalent quantity of Coke!

So why is New York not imposing its sugar tax on all items which contain an abundance of sugar?

I contend that a sugar tax should be imposed upon all drinks which contain sugar. To penalise the egregious offenders, this tax should be on a sliding scale based upon the level of sugar per 100ml of liquid.

Like all runners, I uncritically accepted that if I was running that I could drink limitless quantities of Coke while so doing. What this inevitably meant was that I would consume a glass of Coke at every “water” table. In the case of Comrades, this was every two kilometres whereas at a normal road race it was every three kilometres. The unintended consequence was that I was picking up weight the more that I ran. Now I am more circumspect as I – for the first time – interspace water with Coke but this is probably still means that I consume too much sugar during a race.

A personal example will afford a notable insight into this conundrum.

Some 20 years ago, I elected to run the 50km Loskop road race between Middelburg and Loskop Dam. As I had previously completed the race in a PB [Personal Best] of 5h30, I was hoping to make it a crowning glory by obtaining a sub 5h30. This objective rested more on hope than expectation as my fitness level was not at its peak. At the start I was under no illusions about the challenge ahead.

Like all road running achievements apart from the world beating, the world is profoundly indifferent to one’s result, including one’s family. It is a personal challenge and nothing else. To buttress my ego, I put a positive gloss on my prospects. Apart from mental preparation – exuding confidence – I ate a packet of jelly babies and drank Energade on the two hour trip from Joburg to Middelburg at three o’clock in the morning.

At every watering table during the race, I took my compulsory glass of Coke and when sweets or boiled potatoes were available, I had my fair share too. By 42kms, I was in a precarious position. With temperatures in 40s, the heat had taken its toll. It would be a close run thing to beat my previous PB. Defying logic I pushed steadily on. My indomitable spirit would not at this late stage in the race concede defeat. It would have to be mind over matter.

There was a faint glimmer of hope. From the marathon mark to the finish it is mainly downhill but on the negative slate, above all else, was the two km vertiginous winding Faraday’s Hill commencing at 46kms. This would be the decider whether my PB was possible.

Half way up my body decided otherwise. It forced me to entertain the prospect of a short break on a rock. My ill-judged attempt at sitting resulted in an attack of cramps and rapid greetings with the stony ground. Not that I welcomed it but it benignly lay there as I attempted to right myself. Like a capsized ship, I wallowed on the ground. I surrended to its welcoming embrace and lay their groaning.

There was still 3kms to go with 30 minutes before 5h30. In runners parlance that is achievable, in the bag, a doddle of a run.

But my body would not partake of any running whether as a doddle or not.

Waves of nausea struck me as I attempted to right the ship.

Cramps wracked my legs making them immutable and rod-like.

This charade was replayed until an ambulance was summonsed. I was whisked off to the medical tent at Loskop Dam.

In the spacious tent another half a dozen runners were also in a similar state of distress.

First it was various blood tests and then the results came.

Clearly in charge was a doctor and none of the nurses who had taken the samples. He looked concerned as anxiously enquired, “Do you suffer from diabetes?”

“No, I don’t”

“Why?” I insouciantly enquired.

“Well your sugar level is so high that we might have to admit you to hospital”

It was clearly evident that I had consumed too much Coke. Combined with the Jelly Babies prior to the race, the level of sugar had overwhelmed my body’s insulin.

That concern had never ever been expressed by running doctors. Their only concern was whether we were imbibing sufficient water.

Coke and similar sugar water products, and even fruit juices ultimately, are in the activists’ cross-hairs. This is no trifling matter. As is noted in the response by cool drink manufacturers, this will a long drawn-out battle much like that of cigarette industry taking over half a century before defeat is conceded.

From its current unassailable position, sugar will be dethroned and with it the spectre of mass obesity.