|
It’s contained in many, many foods; it wreaks havoc with many of the body’s physiologic systems and plays a central role in the current heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity epidemics. The culprit: plain old sugar and it’s thinly disguised evil cousin, high fructose corn syrup – yes, they will kill you. Maybe not overnight, but over time sugar and corn syrup-derived sweeteners will erode your health leading to many fatal diseases. Sugar is a super-concentrated unnatural food – the fact that it comes from something natural doesn’t make it natural to the body. Gasoline comes from something very natural, oil, and is therefore essentially a natural product, but you wouldn’t want to eat it. In the past 75 years our modern industrial culture has seen a unique convergence of many negative lifestyle factors that have lead to a dramatic increase in ‘lifestyle behavior diseases’ which include heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, senile dementia, and cancer (yes, cancer is a lifestyle disease, not a genetic one as is commonly believed). This “Perfect Storm” of disease-producing lifestyle behavior choices includes the following: • A decrease in the intake of micronutrients and trace elements within our food supply due to commercial farming practices utilizing year round growth cycles and nitrogen-based petrochemical fertilizers, creating epidemic nutritional deficiencies or malnutrition within modern industrial nations as well as food processing methods that strip nearly all nutrients from our food. • An increase in toxicity of our food supply due to the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides in combination with modern food processing techniques utilizing chemical additives, and preservatives. • A pronounced decrease in physical activity levels unprecedented in the history of mankind. Added to this … • After the Jesuits’ introduction of sugar in 1751, sugar became less expensive to produce (thanks in large part to slavery), sugar/sweetener consumption has risen steadily (per person/per year): • 1821: 10lbs • 1880: 38lbs • 1970: 119lbs • 1990: 132lbs • 2007: 158lbs When found in nature as fruit (think strawberries, bananas, etc.), sugar is in the form of a complex carbohydrate bound to fiber which functions to slow down or inhibit the breakdown and absorption of the sugars into the blood stream, creating a gradual flow of sugar (glucose) into the blood stream. Refined sugars (simple carbohydrates) such as sugar (versus sugar cane) or apple juice (versus an apple), have been stripped of their natural fibers allowing for rapid digestion into the blood stream, which causes blood glucose levels to spike. This results in over-secretion of insulin, the carrier hormone that transports glucose from the blood to the cells and tissues. Normally, insulin secretion is gradual, corresponding to the gradual absorption of sugars found in complex carbohydrates. When eating refined sugar or corn syrup, the sudden demand for insulin becomes acute and insulin is ‘dumped’ into the bloodstream. This acute demand for insulin production and secretion overwhelms the pancreas, the organ that produces and secretes insulin. It gets worse: over time, sustained levels of insulin (from continuing to eat refined carbohydrates such as sugar, corn syrup and white flour – the diet of Americans) results in insulin resistance, a chronic but deadly condition where the body’s cells don’t respond to insulin in a normal or healthy manner, causing even more insulin to be secreted (think of the pancreas as ‘shouting’), thus aggravating insulin resistance syndrome even further, creating a self-perpetuating cycle which ultimately leads to many disease processes including atherosclerosis (clogging of the arteries), cancer, diabetes, weight gain/obesity, high blood lipids (abnormal LDL:HDL cholesterol levels), and mineral depletion. Now with an unlimited supply and unlimited access to foods containing sugar or corn syrup, as a society, we’re totally hooked - sugar is without a doubt, addictive. To verify this for yourself, try going 2, 3, or 7 days without any refined sugar; one, it’s hard to eat foods that have none; two, if you’re like most people, your body is habituated/addicted to the sweet poison. Sugar Destroys Your Health • Causes Obesity and Diabetes • Causes Mineral Loss • Disrupts Hormone Function • Depresses the Immune system • Causes Chronic Disease • Increases Cancer Risk As mentioned above, increased consumption of sugar and corn syrup are not the only factors contributing to the epidemic of obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases; it is also due to decreased activity levels (i.e. sedentary lifestyle), decreased fiber and phytontutrient intake, increased processed grain consumption, and increased dairy consumption. However, the increase in sugar and sweetener consumption has many layers of negative health consequences attached to it that cannot and should not be ignored in our pursuit of health. And if you think artificial sweeteners are the answer, guess again. That’s next week’s topic. You are what you eat (and what you don’t eat). As a practitioner and student of wellness for 25 years, Dr. Paul C. Kratka has learned one HUGE lesson – people are in denial about the consequences of their lifestyle habits and their present and future health. He is the creator of Dr. K’s Perfect Greens for Health, a delicious whole food nutritional source of natural vitamins and minerals. For more in-depth, no holds-barred information about your health, visit http://www.drkratka.com.
Related Articles -
Sugar, Diabetes, Health,
|
