I use only sugar for my Tea or coffee. My liver function is normal at age 86. I have eaten more deserts than most humans during my 55+ cruises. So sugar can’t be that harmful.
Sugar is fine.
Fructose and especially High Fructose Corn Syrup, HFCS, is bad for us.
We are not bears, that need to fatten up to hibernate.
Considering your age, a lot of the food you ate for decades was very different from a good part of the ‘food’ served today. Your beef was likely grass fed for quite some time, your milk was mostly milk with limited/no hormones, the sugar was cane sugar not high-fructose corn syrup, your chicken was all chicken and limited meds/chems, goodness, even your chocolate bars had real cacao and cocoa butter (as opposed to ‘chocolatey’ and ‘vegetable oil chocolate candy’ today).
So, you ate well and hearty, and you’re still around and doing well. However, your personal experience largely stems from a time when food was ‘real’. You did not build a dietary foundation of cr@p, and Id even bet the coca cola you drank in your youth was likely more healthy than vitamin water today (slight exaggeration, but not by much).
I think it’s the high fructose corn syrup that is bad not sugar.