Sugar

Sounding the Alarm

Most people do not know that they regularly eat large amounts of sugar.  Most people say “I never add sugar to my food or drinks,” they say,  “so how can I be getting that much sugar?” 

     Actually over three fourths of the 128 pounds of sugar most people eat each year is in processed foods. You never see it and you have no control over the amounts added.  Sugar is used in packaged foods to prevent spoilage, to retain moisture, to maintain texture and appearance, and of course as a sweetener.  It’s an all-around cheap filler.

     So how much “hidden” sugar is in the American diet?  About one-third of a pound every day or about 600 calories.  One-fifth or more of the total food intake each day comes from refined sugars.

     Out of all this sugar, 20% of it is consumed in soft drinks alone.  Many breakfast cereals are 40% - 50% sugars.  Foods prepared in many restaurants and fast food places may also contain high amounts of sugar.  French fries, for example, are often soaked in sugar solution before they are frozen and shipped.

Refined Sugar, A Drug?

 Refined sugar by some, is called a drug, because in the refining process everything of food value has been removed except the carbohydrates.  It is just pure calories, without vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, enzymes or any of the other elements that make up food.  Many nutrition experts say that white sugar is harmful to our health, especially in the quantities consumed by the present-day American.

     Dr. David Reuben, author of Everything you always wanted to know about Nutrition says, “…white refined sugar is not a food.  It is a pure chemical extracted from plant sources, purer in fact than cocaine, which it resembles in many ways  Its true name is sucrose and its chemical formula isC12H22011.  It has 12 carbon atoms, 22 Hydrogen atoms, 11 oxygen atoms and absolutely nothing else to offer.”

  The chemical formula for cocaine is C17H21N04.  For all practical purposes, the difference is the sugar is missing the “N”, or nitrogen atom.

     White sugar is commonly made from the sugar cane or sugar beets.  Through heating and mechanical and chemical processing, all vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, enzymes, and indeed every nutrient is removed until only the sugar remains.  Sugar cane and sugar beets are first harvested and them chopped into small pieces, squeezing out the juice which is then mixed with water. This liquid is then heated and lime is added.  Moisture is boiled away, and the remaining fluid is pumped into  vacuum pans to concentrate the juice.  By this time the liquid is starting to crystallize and is ready to be put into a centrifuge machine where any remaining residues (like molasses) are spun away.  The crystals are dissolved by heating to the boiling point and passed through charcoal filters.  After the crystals are condense, they are bleached snow-white, usually by the use of cattle or pig bone. 

    During these refining processes, 64 food elements are destroyed.  All the potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, manganese, phosphate, and sulfate are removed.  The A, D, and B vitamins are eliminated. Amino acids, vital enzymes, unsaturated fats, and all fiber are gone.

  To a lesser or greater degree, all refined sweeteners such as corn syrup, etc. undergo similar destructive processes. 

Molasses is the chemical and deranged nutrients that is a by product of sugar manufacture.

     Today we have a nation that is addicted to sugar.  In 1915, The national average of sugar consumption (per year) in the united states was around 15 to 20 pounds per person. But today the average person consumes his/her weight in sugar, plus 20 pounds of corn syrup.  Vital organs of the body can be damaged by this gross intake of sugar. 

     Sugar also makes the blood very thick and sticky, inhibiting much of the blood flow into the minute capillaries which supply our gums and teeth with vital nutrients.  Therefore we can wind up with diseased gums and starving teeth.  America and England, the two largest sugar consumers, have horrendous dental problems.

     Another serious problem with sugar that is coming to the forefront is the various levels of mental problems.  Our brains are very sensitive and react to quick chemical changes within the body.  As sugar is consumed, our cells are robbed of their B vitamins, which destroy them, and insulin production is inhibited.  Low insulin production means high sugar (glucose) level in the bloodstream which leads to a confused mental state or unsound mind and has also been linked with juvenile criminal behavior. 

Dr. Alexander G. Schauss, brings this solemn fact out in his book, Diet, Crime and Delinquency.  Many mental ward and prison inmates are “sugarholics” and erratic emotional outbreaks often follow a sugar binge. 

SWEET AND DANGEROUS

    * In America most infants are placed on formulas—and many of these mixtures contain sugar. Children develop a taste for sugar at an early age which is generally carried on throughout childhood and into adult life.  Some baby foods have a high sugar content.

·       Refined sugar is empty calories.  It fails to nourish the body and it robs the body of precious vitamins and minerals that the body needs.

·       Refined sugar causes plaque to build up on the teeth, which can lead to dental decay and gum disease.

·       Refined sugar is fattening, not only because it is high in calories, but because it is addicting causing one to eat it frequently. Usually when one begins eating refined sugar on a regular basis, the craving usually becomes intensified.

·       Refined sugar plays havoc with the body’s blood level.  It is absorbed like a sudden, intravenous infusion that puts the glandular system into a state of alarm.  The pancreas, the liver, and the adrenals are stressed from eating sugar.

·       The calcium-phosphorus balance is thrown off decidedly by eating foods containing white sugar.

·       There are facts that show that a diet of soft drinks, candy, soda, pastries, chewing gum, pies etc., can lead to a nervous breakdown.

·       Sugar destroys the immune system and slowly leads to degenerative disease.

·       Sugar, and this includes corn sugar, depletes enzymes.  When there is a deficiency of enzymes, it is possible to become allergic to any undigested food that is sitting in the stomach.

·       The average person consumes 20 per cent of his or her calories from some form of refined sugar.

·       Refined sugar lacks the very B vitamins needed for it assimilation, so it depletes the body reserves of these nutrients and thus is a vitamin antagonist.

·       Refined sugar disturbs the exological balance within the body.  It weakens the immune system and encourages the growth of pathogenic yeast organisms within the body.

·       Refined sugar increases the level of triglycerides (fats) within the blood stream.

 

     The refined sugar may yet prove to have been a greater tragedy for civilized man than the discovery of tobacco.   

---J.A.S.  Dickson,   M.D.,        

The Lancet, 

August 15, 1964.                            

                                                                                                                                                                                            Whether therefore ye eat, or drink,

 or whatsoever ye do, do all to the

                 glory of God.  

            1Corinthians 10:31.

 Katy Chamberlin

freedomofhealth.org