Earlier this month, experts released a new statement suggesting that processed meat consumption is linked to cancer. Now a new study on sugar has convinced some researchers that the sweet substance is toxic to our health.

The conclusion follows a paper published in the journal Obesity earlier this week by a research team from the University of California, according to Time Magazine. The paper concluded that sugar is toxic even absent weight gain or any change in caloric intake.

The study followed forty-three African American and Latino children ages eight to eighteen over nine days. Using food questionnaires, the researchers determined the children’s typical daily calorie count, and then created a special diet for them to follow.

The diet plans replicated the children’s usual calorie intake, but replaced sugar with starchy foods. The researchers intentionally did not alter the diets to make them healthier, to insure that the results focused only on the elimination of sugar.

After just nine days, the children showed improvements in all health indicators that were tracked. Their fasting blood sugar levels, insulin production, triglycerides and “bad” cholesterol levels all dropped significantly, with blood sugar levels dropping by 53 percent.

The lead researcher says the study provides proof that metabolic syndrome, a cluster of adverse health conditions that can increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes, is caused by dietary sugar.

But other experts urged caution when evaluating the study, since it relied on dietary self-reporting, and others note that eating too much food in general, and not just sugar, may be the real culprit when it comes to dietary health.