Is sugar poisonous? According to UCSF researcher and pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Robert Lustig, very. Though most people are quick to condemn sugar as an unhealthy choice, Dr. Lustig took sugar slandering to a new level when he asserted in February that sugar is toxic and should be regulated similarly to alcohol and tobacco.

On Sunday in an interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta on 60 Minutes, Dr. Lustig argued that sugar, more than any other substance, is to blame for the skyrocketing rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.

New research backs up Dr. Lustig’s claim. UC Davis nutritional biologist Kimber Stanhope has found that people who consume high-fructose corn syrup have increased levels of LDL cholesterol and are at a higher risk for developing cardiovascular disease than those who consumed the name number of calories without the added sugar.

For years, science has supported the theory that sugar can be as addictive as alcohol or tobacco. Does it then follow that this commonplace but potentially harmful substance should be similarly regulated?

According to researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), absolutely.

In their study, "The Toxic Truth About Sugar," published in the scientific journal Nature, the authors advocate taxing sugary foods and controlling sales to children under 17.

According to their statistics, reported on CBS New’s HealthPop, worldwide sugar intake has tripled in the last 50 years, and the average person is taking in a whopping 500 calories from added sugar in processed foods alone.

But is sugar really "toxic," like the authors of the Nature article say? In those quantities, yes.