Scientists are urging sugar be regulated by governments worldwide due to its harmful effects on the human body, much like alcohol and tobacco.

According to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, while sugar can make medicine go down, it can make blood pressure and cholesterol go up. Sugar has also been known to increase risks for diabetes, heart disease, obesity and liver failure.

Due to sugar's detrimental effects, the researchers recommended regulatory measures like taxing all food and drinks that use sugar, banning sales in certain locations like schools, or sales to children.

In fact, many researchers are seeing sugar as not just "empty calories," but rather a chemical that becomes toxic in excess. Studies showed that glucose from complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains, is safely metabolized by cells throughout the body, but the fructose element of sugar is metabolized primarily by the liver and this causes fatty liver disease.

Author Robert Lustig, one of the advocates of consumer tax on any product with added sugar, said that 80 percent of those who are obese will have diabetes or metabolic disorders and shortened lives. A medical doctor in UCSF's Department of Pediatrics, Lustig compares added sugar to tobacco and alcohol in that it is addictive, toxic and has a negative impact on society.

In her book "Lick the Sugar Habit," clinical nutritionist Nancy Appleton enumerated reasons on how sugar could ruin a person's health. According to Appleton, aside from contributing to diabetes, sugar:

• decrease growth hormone

• feeds cancer

• increases cholesterol

• weakens eyesight

• causes drowsiness and decreased activity in children

• interferes with the absorption of protein

• causes food allergies

• contributes to eczema in children

• causes cardiovascular disease

• impairs the structure of DNA

• causes hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children

• weakens defenses against bacterial infections

• promotes the uncontrolled growth of candida albicans yeast infections

• contributes to osteoporosis

Researchers believe that sugar contributes to approximately 35 million deaths globally, urging professionals to enlighten everyone on the emerging science of sugar and, just like the restrictions set for alcohol or tobacco intake, to implement interventions to keep sugar consumption in check.