5 ways sugar can kill you

Five delicious lollipops isolated on white. (iStock)

How sweet it isn’t.

In his new book, “The Case Against Sugar” (Knopf, out now), health and science journalist Gary Taubes argues that our collective sweet tooth isn’t just making us fat — it could be killing us in ways we can’t even imagine.

“People are dying today, literally every second, from diseases that seemed virtually nonexistent in populations that didn’t eat modern Western diets or live modern Western lifestyles,” Taubes writes. Here, Taubes tells The Post why sugar is the prime suspect in a deadly diet.

It increases the risk of dementia

Researchers believe insulin resistance, associated with high sugar intake, can impair some brain functions and weaken the brain’s ability to clear away the “plaques and tangles,” which are thought to cause Alzheimer’s disease.

“If sugar consumption increases our risk of dementia as we age, surely eating less of it would help to minimize the risk,” says Taubes, assuming we want to age “with all our faculties intact.”

It makes cigarettes even worse for you

Cigarette tobacco is often cured using a technique that turns its starches into sugar, or by soaking the tobacco leaves in sugar. The sugar allows smokers to inhale the smoke more deeply, making tobacco “as addictive as possible,” author Gary Taubes says. “Being able to take [the smoke] deep into the lungs, and absorbing all the carcinogens,” leads to further nicotine cravings.

Click for more from the NYPost.com.