Sugar – Empty Calories
Man's attraction to sweetness began thousands of years ago when his forerunners discovered bee's honey and wild fruit, and since then sugar consumption continues to rise.
Nowadays, people eat more sugar than they did fifty years ago. Sugar is added to almost any food product available on supermarket shelves. The higher sugar consumption means getting more calories, but calories devoid of essential vitamins, minerals, fats, and amino acids.
Sugar is a metabolic thief
The increase in sugar consumption is often at the expense of other necessary foods, with a corresponding loss in nutrient values. Refined sugar contains nothing but carbohydrate calories, but even the raw, unprocessed product contains only one half of 1% of the minimum daily requirements of vitamin B1, 1% of B2, 2% of calcium, and 5% of iron.
Sugar does not contain the ingredients needed for its own metabolism by the body as most nutritious foods do. Consequently, the nutrients needed to break down pure cane sugar must be robbed from other foods, causing them to become deficient, or it must be taken from the body's tissues. But the tissues of millions of people are already deficient because of malnutrition. Their bodies limp along, depleted, with their reserves constantly being siphoned. And with reserves already inadequate, disease is sure to strike. Thus, sugar is not only composed of empty calories, devoid of any nutritional value, but is composed of sickness-breeding calories, “malignant” calories that actually destroy health.
Many ailments are directly related to sugar
There is evidence that sugar may cause harm to the skin, eyes, liver, and hormones. Its use is related to gout, some forms of cancer, and diverticulitis (an intestinal disorder) in test animals. Research physician Dr. D. T. Quigley said: ". . . Every ounce of sugar that is taken into the human economy reduces the ability to resist infection, as it furnishes only calories and none of the elements which protect against infections...”
Dr. Yudkin found that patients suffering from a skin disease called seborrheic dermatitis, which causes the skin's glands to oversecrete an oily substance, ate substantially more sugar than those without the skin disease. Bottle-fed babies who have sucrose in their formulas rather than the mother's natural sugar (lactose) often have stomach ailments. Sugar consumption tends to fatten the liver and make it produce fewer enzymes, which can throw the body's cholesterol production out of kilter.
Gout, too, may be triggered by eating large amounts of sugar. Gout attacks nearly any joint in the body, although the classical attack is of the large toe. Many cases not connected with the feet are thus mistaken for bursitis or arthritis, but the disease is not as rare as believed by many physicians. Here, too, an inherited characteristic is thought to be part of the cause. The genetic trait causes the abnormal metabolism of certain compounds in the body called purines, which are then not broken down properly; a residue is left, uric acid. The uric acid may build up in joints sufficiently to cause the swelling and pain of gout.
Several researchers have discovered that microbes in the colon that help in digestion differ in type and number between large-quantity sugar consumers and those who are not. The differences are enough to affect the function of the colon and enough to cause diverticulitis, which causes severe pain and diarrhea in the large intestine.
Sugar was earlier defined as a “metabolic thief”, harmful to good health. In this sense, it is no better than the illegal hard drugs that satisfy the addict's craving for a physical pleasure but do not satisfy any of his nutritional needs. Therefore should be labelled "Caution. May be dangerous to your health."
References
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Dr. Brennan, R. O. & Mulligan, W. Nutrigenetics New Concepts for Relieving Hypoglycemia. New York: First Signet Printing
Posted in Sugar – Empty Calories
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