TOBY SHAPSHAK: Sci-Fi was right: sugar is a drug
Science fiction sometimes has an unerringly way of predicting the future.
It was the fictional Judge Dredd in the 2000 AD comic book who first warned me that sugar was a drug. As a child I read about this futuristic law maker in stories set in a far-off future world where sugar was the addictive substance. Science fiction sometimes has an unerring way of predicting the future. The great writer Isaac Asimov envisioned Google (he called it Multivac) and set down safety laws for robotics and artificial intelligence. William Gibson coined the term cyberspace. Author Neal Stephenson’s vision of the Metaverse has evolved into virtual reality. And the British comic for kids revealed what society denied back then but is increasingly admitted now: sugar is one of the most dangerous drugs in our society. Last week the National Council of Provinces’ select committee on finance adopted the sugar tax bill, which is a good thing for our society.Alcohol produces more violence and road deaths. But it is sugar — to which we are individually addicted, and which the food an...
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