Sugar, It's More Than Cavities

Sugar
It’s more than Cavities

Good research is finally clarifying what has been known a long time.  For lack of full understanding of the metabolic processes, this has been a hard subject to broach and expect anybody to make a serious change in their life.  After all, we all love our sweets!

In the 1970’s books like “Sugar Blues” told us that sugar was the culprit in our dietary errors, not fat.  Though excess fat in the diet is likely not healthy, it is not nearly the culprit that sugar is.  After all, Eskimo and Northern American Indians lived on fat a large portion of the year.  Yet, they did not suffer heart disease or diabetes.  After the introduction of refined carbohydrate to their diet by Europeans, things began to change.  Eskimos and Native Americans now have the highest diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dental caries, and obesity rates in the world.  Dietary fat is not the issue.  It is refined carbohydrate; sugar.

I enjoyed a recent discussion between 3 pediatricians who specialize in metabolic disease and research.  They discussed how sugar is truly addictive, just like illicit drugs.  Is it any wonder it is so hard for us to reduce sugar in our diet?  Is it any wonder food processors have added sugar to nearly all our packaged and processed foods to improve our appreciation of their flavor.  Catsup is nearly 40% sugar!  Just read the labels, sugar is everywhere.

Approximately 50% of the sugar we eat is Fructose.  No system in the body uses Fructose.  It is up to the liver to detoxify the Fructose in our body and change it into something useful.  At 50 grams Fructose per day the liver begins to fail.  Yes, fail.  The average American who ate 15 grams of Fructose in the 1960’s is now eating 100 grams of Fructose daily.  And yes, livers are failing.  There are numerous cases of teenagers with total liver failure and needing liver transplants.

It is time to look at what we are eating.  Read labels.  Vitamin Water (What a misnomer!) is the lowest calorie beverage you can buy in the store today; only 50 calories per 8 oz.  That translates, in grams, to a full 20 oz bottle (small in today’s standards) having 33 grams of sugar.  That is more than the average American ate in an entire day in the 1960’s.

Keep your eyes on the health literature; this is a growing hot topic as degenerative disease claims more of our friends at younger ages.  Keep your eyes on the labels of packaged foods and be surprised!  Consider doing more “cooking” of real food from the vegetable, dairy and meat perimeter walls in your supermarket.  Real food.  Fresh food.

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