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Introduction
Welcome to my May 2006 newsletter. This month I have decided to talk about sugar and its effects on the body, simply because so many people have walked into my practice this month with no knowledge of the harmful effects of sugar and appalled by my suggestion they eliminate this from their daily diet. Even last night I spoke to an epidemiologist (person who studies diseases) who became very angry when I mentioned I was writing about the harmful effect of sugar in our diet.
I am continually astounded by the ignorance of orthodox practitioners to link diet to health, or rather, poor diet to poor health. So, if you want to remain healthy, do read about what sugar is, and what it does to you. Next month I intend to look at weight loss and how best to achieve this.
Remember, if there is any specific subject you would like me to cover please e-mail me and I will try and do so in one of my future newsletters.
Content for this Issue:
Introduction
So How is Sugar Refined?
Addiction
Diabetes
Sugar and the Colon
Infection
Why Sugar is Toxic to the Body
Counting the Many Ways Sugar Harms Your Health
Why not visit Alex at one of her clinics for a check-up?
Health related information
Brochures available to download
Further Resources of interest
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So How is Sugar Refined?
Sugar is a basic element found in starchy food. Sugar cane contains 14% trace elements, minerals and vitamins, plus chlorophyll. The sugar we purchase in the supermarket for personal consumption is heated up in chalk-milk, so that calcium and protein are extracted. It initially becomes an alkaloid, thus destroying all vitamin content. In the second phase, the sugar is mixed with acid chalk, carbonic gas, sulphur dioxide and finally, with natrium bicarbonate. This mixture is cooked and cooled off several times, and thereafter crystallized and centrifugalized.
This dead mass is then treated with strontium hydroxide. Subsequently, it arrives at the refinery where it is passed over chalk carbon acid to clean it. Dark coloring is removed by adding sulphuric acid and then it is filtered with bone charcoal. Finally, it is colored with Indathrenblue, or the highly toxic Ultramarine.
This product’s chemical composition is C12 H22 O11, which you can buy in shops as "pure cane" sugar, sugar cubes, sweets, etc. All of its life-giving and protective forces have been destroyed, and this product called sugar has an atomic density of 98.4 to 99.5 %. Such density falls under the category of poison. This industrial sugar irritates the mucous membranes, tissues, glands, blood vessels and intestinal tracts of the persons who eat it. White sugar also paralyzes the intestinal peristaltic functions and leads to immune system failure. White sugar also destroys brain cells and elevates the internal temperature of the body.
What we are talking about here is sucrose, the white crystalline sugar refined from cane or beet juice by stripping away all its vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber, water, and other synergists. The 'brown sugar' sold in supermarkets is nothing more than refined white sugar with some molasses spun back into it for color and flavor. It is not a 'health food'.
Sugar suppresses the immune system by causing the pancreas to secrete abnormally large quantities of insulin, which is required to break it down. Insulin remains in circulation in the bloodstream long after sugar has been metabolized, and one of its main side effects is to suppress the release of growth hormone in the pituitary gland.
Growth hormone is a primary regulator of the immune system, so anyone who eats a lot of sugar every day is going to experience critical growth hormone deficiency and consequent immune deficiency caused by the constant presence of insulin in the bloodstream.
Furthermore, refined white sugar is treated as a toxic foreign agent by the immune system, owing to its unnatural chemical structure as well as the industrial contaminants it retains from the refining process. Sugar triggers an unnecessary immune response while simultaneously suppressing immune function, thereby debilitating the immune system with a double edged sword.
Sugar is the chief culprit in many diseases and degenerative conditions. It can easily cause diabetes and is a major factor in Candida, both of which are epidemic in the industrialized Western world.
Since sugar is 'nutritionally naked', the body must 'borrow' the missing vitamins, minerals and other synergistic nutrients required to metabolize sugar from its own tissues. Heavy sugar consumption therefore causes a constant siphoning of nutrients from the body. Recent evidence suggests that sugar causes dental problems not so much by contact with the teeth but rather by leaching the teeth of calcium from within.
Sugar also depletes the body of potassium and magnesium, which are required for proper cardiac function, and is therefore a major factor in heart disease. The nutritional leaching caused by sugar can give rise to intense food cravings and eating binges, as the body seeks to replenish the nutrients 'stolen' from it by sugar.
Excess sugar eventually affects every organ in the body. Initially, it is stored in the liver in the form of glucose (glycogen). Since the liver's capacity is limited, a daily intake of refined sugar (above the required amount of natural sugar) soon makes the liver expand like a balloon. When the liver is filled to its maximum capacity, the excess glycogen is returned to the blood in the form of fatty acids. These are taken to every part of the body and stored in the most inactive areas: the belly, the buttocks, the breasts and the thighs.
When these comparatively harmless places are completely filled, fatty acids are then distributed among active organs, such as the heart and kidneys. These begin to slow down; finally their tissues degenerate and turn to fat. The whole body is affected by their reduced ability, and abnormal blood pressure is created. The parasympathetic nervous system is affected; and organs governed by it, such as the small brain, become inactive or paralysed. (Normal brain function is rarely thought of as being as biologic as digestion.) The circulatory and lymphatic systems are invaded, and the quality of the red corpuscles starts to change. An overabundance of white cells occurs, and the creation of tissue becomes slower. Our body's tolerance and immunising power becomes more limited, so we cannot respond properly to extreme attacks, whether they be cold, heat, mosquitoes or microbes.
Most people consume far more sugar than their bodies can possibly use for energy. When this happens, the liver converts the extra sugar into molecules called triglycerides and stores it as fat, or else produces cholesterol from the by-products of sugar and deposits it in veins and arteries. Sugar is thus a major factor in obesity and arteriosclerosis as well.
Sugar is an addictive substance. In Sugar Blues, William Dufty writes; 'The difference between sugar addiction and narcotic addiction is largely one of degree.' Abruptly giving up sugar invariably brings on the sort of withdrawal symptoms associated with narcotic drugs- fatigue, lassitude, depression, moodiness, headaches, aching limbs. Its addictive nature is also reflected in current per capita consumption in the USA- an average of 130 pounds of sugar per person per year, or about 1/3 pound daily. That qualifies as 'substance abuse'. Most people don't even realize how much sugar they're taking every day because much of it is hidden in other foods.
A 12-ounce can of a typical soft drink, for example, contains about nine teaspoons of refined white sugar.
Here are words used to describe sugar in the ingredients of a food label:
• Lactose: Sugar from milk. "Lactose intolerance" - caused by the sugar in milk
• Maltose: Sugar from malt
• Fructose: Sugar from fruit
• Dextrose: Sugar from starch "corn sugar"
• Sucrose: Refined sugar from sugar cane or beats.
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Addiction
The refined product of sugar cane "sucrose" can be very addictive. The more our body has, the more it wants. If you raise your children limiting their sugar intake, you will be surprised how they do not crave sugar like other kids. As a matter of fact, they will taste the sugar in certain products and say the food is too sweet.
People addicted to substances like alcohol are also addicted to sugar. Many addicted people have strong withdrawal effects when they remove sugar from their diet. Researchers have found that there is a strong correlation between alcohol or other addictive drugs and a strong craving for sugar. Heroin addicts consumed staggering amounts of sugar while they were undergoing treatment and in fact the sugar seemed to diminish the withdrawal effects of heroin.
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Diabetes
It is absent in primitive communities. After 20 years of eating sugar, North American Indians, Eskimos, and populations in India and Africa develop diabetes. You do not suddenly become diabetic. It is a gradual build up over many years.
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Sugar and the Colon
If you are eating sugar without the fibre from cane or beet, you are creating constipation which can lead to diverticular disease, appendicitis, colitis, gallstones, peptic ulcers, all these problems. Incubation time for this condition is 40 years. There is continued evidence that there is a high incidence of gallstones with excess sugar intake.
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Infection
Studies show that sugar intake is related to a decrease in lymphocytes. It was demonstrated that 19 teaspoons of sugar increased insulin, which then competed for binding sites on lymphocytes and inactivated them. It jams up the lymphocytes and kind of paralyzes them. Other studies showed that sugar intake decreased antibody production and decreased macrophages which destroy foreign bodies and cancer cells. With rises in sugar intake, the antibody production decreases correspondingly.
In the USA, the population receives up to 25% of their calories from sugar. In the year 1870, diabetes was almost unknown. In 1880, the sugar and sweets intake were 18 kg; in 1927, 70 kg; in 1950, 101 kg per person/year.
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Why Sugar is Toxic to the Body
In 1957, Dr William Coda Martin tried to answer the question: When is a food a food and when is it a poison? His working definition of "poison" was: "Medically: Any substance applied to the body, ingested or developed within the body, which causes or may cause disease. Physically: Any substance which inhibits the activity of a catalyst which is a minor substance, chemical or enzyme that activates a reaction." The dictionary gives an even broader definition for "poison": "to exert a harmful influence on, or to pervert".
Dr Martin classified refined sugar as a poison because it has been depleted of its life forces, vitamins and minerals. "What is left consists of pure, refined carbohydrates. The body cannot utilize this refined starch and carbohydrate unless the depleted proteins, vitamins and minerals are present. Nature supplies these elements in each plant in quantities sufficient to metabolize the carbohydrate in that particular plant. There is no excess for other added carbohydrates. Incomplete carbohydrate metabolism results in the formation of 'toxic metabolite' such as pyruvic acid and abnormal sugars containing five carbon atoms. Pyruvic acid accumulates in the brain and nervous system and the abnormal sugars in the red blood cells. These toxic metabolites interfere with the respiration of the cells. They cannot get sufficient oxygen to survive and function normally. In time, some of the cells die. This interferes with the function of a part of the body and is the beginning of degenerative disease."
Sugar taken every day produces a continuously overacid condition, and more and more minerals are required from deep in the body in the attempt to rectify the imbalance. Finally, in order to protect the blood, so much calcium is taken from the bones and teeth that decay and general weakening begin
Excessive sugar has a negative effect on the functioning of the brain. The key to orderly brain function is glutamic acid, a vital compound found in many vegetables. The B vitamins play a major role in dividing glutamic acid into antagonistic-complementary compounds which produce a "proceed" or "control" response in the brain. B vitamins are also manufactured by symbiotic bacteria which live in our intestines. When refined sugar is taken daily, these bacteria wither and die, and our stock of B vitamins gets very low. Too much sugar makes one sleepy; our ability to calculate and remember is lost.
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Counting the Many Ways Sugar Harms Your Health
Contributed by Nancy Appleton, PhD
Author of the book Lick The Sugar Habit
In addition to throwing off the body's homeostasis, excess sugar may result in a number of other significant consequences. The following is a listing of some of sugar's metabolic consequences from a variety of medical journals and other scientific publications.
1. Sugar can suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.
2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body: causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
3. Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.
4. Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.
5. Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.
6. Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.
7. Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.
8. Sugar can weaken eyesight.
9. Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract including: an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.
10. Sugar can cause premature aging.
11. Sugar can lead to alcoholism.
12. Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.
13. Sugar contributes to obesity.
14. Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis.
15. Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections).
16. Sugar can cause gallstones.
17. Sugar can cause appendicitis.
18. Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.
19. Sugar can cause varicose veins.
20. Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.
21. Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.
22. Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes.
23. Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.
24. Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.
25. Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.
26. High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar molecules attaching to and thereby damaging proteins in the body).
27. Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.
28. Sugar causes food allergies.
29. Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.
30. Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.
31. Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.
32. Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.
33. Sugar can change the structure of protein and cause a permanent alteration of the way the proteins act in your body.
34. Sugar can make your skin age by changing the structure of collagen.
35. Sugar can cause cataracts and nearsightedness.
36. Sugar can cause emphysema.
37. High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.
38. Sugar lowers the ability of enzymes to function.
39. Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson's disease.
40. Sugar can increase the size of your liver by making your liver cells divide and it can increase the amount of liver fat.
41. Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.
42. Sugar can damage your pancreas.
43. Sugar can increase your body's fluid retention.
44. Sugar is enemy No. 1 of your bowel movement.
45. Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries.
46. Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.
47. Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.
48. Sugar can reduce the learning capacity, adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders.
49. Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves which can alter your mind's ability to think clearly.
50. Sugar can cause depression.
51. Sugar can increase your risk of gout.
52. Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease.
53. Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS, and decreasing growth hormone.
54. Sugar can lead to dizziness.
55. Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress.
56. High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.
57. High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration and is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.
58. Sugar is an addictive substance.
59. Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.
60. Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.
61. Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.
62. Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.
63. The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects.
64. Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
65. Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition.
66. Sugar can slow down the ability of your adrenal glands to function.
67. Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.
68. I.V.s (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to your brain.
69. Sugar increases your risk of polio.
70. High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.
71. Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.
72. In intensive care units: Limiting sugar saves lives.
73. Sugar may induce cell death.
74. In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior.
75. Sugar dehydrates newborns.
76. Sugar can cause gum disease.
There are a number of books available on the subject, but perhaps one of the most interesting ones is "Sugar Blues" by William Dufty. It is available from Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk).
The bottom line is that sugar can be detrimental to your health. Many people have developed diabetes, cancer and skin problems due to overdoses of sugar, all types. Due to many hours lapsing between meals and insulin dropping, your body begins to crave the nourishment, and usually sugar or "sucrose" is the outcome. Next time you get a craving and your first thought is sugar, remember this article, drink a big glass of water and reach for something healthy.
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Why not visit Alex at one of her clinics for a check-up?
Clinic times and locations are listed below.
Napiers Goodge St central London
Mondays 9.00am - 7.30pm
(Tel: 020 7637 1610),
Islington north London
Tuesdays and Thursdays 9.00am - 7.00pm
(Tel: 020 7609 1352).
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Further Resources of interest
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May I take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing interest, and I look forward to staying in touch with you regularly.
Yours in health,
Alex Christie
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