While I agree that sugar is increasingly in the spotlight due to its negative effects on public health I disagree with the conclusion that companies that produce sugary snacks and drinks are bad investments.

To use the author's example: while IBM and other IT leaders of the 1970s were overtaken by a new generation of tech companies, tobacco companies have done remarkably well as an investment - even during and after the tobacco wars of the 1990s.

A simple example is a chart of two investments: the five biggest tech companies in 1977 and the five biggest tobacco companies in 1977. The performance over the last 40 years of the tobacco companies has not only been better than the IT companies but better than the S&P500.

Why is this the case? In my view because the tobacco industry unlike the tech industry did not have to face new entrants. Everybody knew the tobacco I distrust had no future so the existing firms could split the market amongst themselves and had no competition to fear.