Move over salt and alcohol. There's a new enemy in your kitchen - sugar. Scientists now argue that the excessive use of sugar, which is anyway a primary ingredient in many of our favourite foods, makes it a prime suspect in the worldwide health crisis. A consortium of scientists are of the view that an open war needs to be launched against sugar because it is fuelling a global obesity pandemic, contributing to 35 million deaths annually worldwide from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. These experts say that sugar content in our food needs to be controlled just like alcohol and tobacco. Sugar, they argue, is far from just "empty calories" that make people fat. Given the amount of sugar most people consume, sugar changes metabolism, raises blood pressure, critically alters the signaling of hormones and causes significant damage to the liver. This largely mirrors the effects of drinking too much alcohol.