In order to help people eat less unhealthy food and consume more nutritious, vitamin-rich options, a team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco is recommending that public health agencies control sugar in the same manner they regulate alcohol and tobacco.

Robert Lustig, Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis wrote in the latest issue of the journal Nature that sugar consumption is at the heart of the majority of non-communicable diseases, including diabetes and heart disease. These conditions account for 35 million deaths worldwide each year. The U.S. dedicates 75 percent of its healthcare spending to treating these diseases.

The team argued that sugar has a potential for abuse and may be toxic in high doses, much in the way alcohol and tobacco can be. Therefore, the case can be made that it should be regulated in the same manner.

"As long as the public thinks that sugar is just 'empty calories,' we have no chance in solving this," said Lustig. "There are good calories and bad calories, just as there are good fats and bad fats, good amino acids and bad amino acids, good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates. But sugar is toxic beyond its calories."