Sugary foods and drinks should come with a smoking-style health warning, according to a leading Dutch health expert. Paul van der Velpen, head of Amsterdam’s health service, said that sugar is ‘the most dangerous drug of our time’. The health chief – from a city that has a famously liberal attitude to cannabis – added that sugar is a drug like alcohol and tobacco and that its use should be discouraged. Writing on a public health website, he said that users should be made aware of the dangers. He wrote: ‘This may seem exaggerated and far-fetched, but sugar is the most dangerous drug of this time and is easy to obtain.’
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