Did you ever read he or she died of sugar? I had a near death experience with sugar about a year ago so this is really the confession of a sugar addict like so many other sugar addicts out there in the sugar-laden sea. It is so hard for us sugar addicts to remember that sugar is a killer when taken in unnaturally high levels. No matter how much I have written on the subject it does not get through my thick brain that I am being hurt by my excessive sugar intake.
I can remember the Devil Dogs, Cupcakes and Ice cream in unlimited quantities since I was three. Now I am 62 and just last week again went through the humiliating feeling of no matter how much I have written about sugar I still have to quit and resist it and remain forever off of it no matter how good I get to feel. Since I never became a diabetic (just inflammatory vascular disease) I am not talking about no sugar, no fruit but a most moderate intake.
My problem in self-treatment is that as soon as I start feeling better I open up the sugar fountains. I do not give this much thought until I start feeling something wrong inside my belly. Even then, I will think and wonder of all the possible etiologies except for sugar. Like an alcoholic needing counseling and group support, sugar addicts are well—sugar addicts. They get confused when thinking about the sugar in their foods and remain confused about it until they are born again into a sugar disease free world.
Moderate carbohydrate restriction can reduce markers of chronic inflammation associated with atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes —both of which are linked to chronic inflammation. The same goes for cancer[1] since inflammation is a well-established driver of early tumor genesis and accompanies most, if not all, cancers. Chronic inflammation can both cause, and develop along with, neoplasia. There is evidence that chronic intake of easily digestible carbohydrates is able to promote such an inflammatory state in leukocytes and endothelial cells.
Inflammatory diseases are intensified in direct
proportion to the amount of sugar used.
Dr. Nancy Appleton wrote, “One of the biggest offenders of inflammation is ingestion of sugar. By sugar I mean table sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, turbinado sugar, honey (even raw), maple sugar, corn sweetener, dextrose, glucose, fructose and any other word that ends in an “ose”, barley malt, rice syrup, liquid cane sugar, concentrated fruit juice and others. Don’t be fooled by the name organic when it applies to sugar. Sugar is sugar, organic or not, and the following will explain exactly what can happen in the body when you eat as little as two teaspoons.”[2]
“Every time a person eats as little as two teaspoons [of sugar] we can upset our body chemistry and disrupt homeostasis, the wonderful balance in the body needed for maintenance, repair and life itself. One of the many changes this upset body chemistry causes is for our minerals to change relationship to each other. Sugar in the amount that we eat today (over 150 lbs, or over 1/2 cup a day) continually upsets our body chemistry, causes the inflammatory process and leads to disease. The less sugar you eat, the less inflammation, and the stronger the immune system to defend us against infectious and degenerative diseases,” Appleton concludes.
I have spent thousands of hours researching and writing about the toxicities of vaccines, mercury dental amalgam, mercury pollution, chemical poisons in foods, water and air pollution, radiation, flouridation and even micro-wave radiation from cell phones, cell towers and Wi-Fi and have lived a life with mercury exposure through massive amounts of dental amalgam, but what I believe brought me down after 60 years was the toxicity of sugar.
Dr. Robert Lustig, a leading expert in childhood obesity at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, which is one of the best medical schools in the country, makes a hard case for defining sugar as a toxin or a poison. Dr. Lustig is not only talking about the white granulated stuff that we put in coffee and sprinkle on cereal—technically known as sucrose—but also high-fructose corn syrup, which has already become what he calls “the most demonized additive known to man.”
Dr. Lustig thinks America needs to go to rehab for sugar addiction. According to brain scans, sugar is as addictive as cocaine, the California-based endocrinologist told CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” It causes a euphoric effect that triggers dopamine, the chemical that controls pleasure in the brain. The average American eats a third of a pound of sugar every day—130 pounds a year. Lustig says his research proves that the sweet stuff causes heart disease and cancer, as well as type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Sugar excess, mineral deficiencies and dehydration work powerfully to create inflammation in the body and this starts a long process that ends up with people facing major diseases. One of the biggest contributors to the cancer epidemic is the massive amount of sugar being consumed by the average person.
This Sixty Minutes video is clearly important. Recovering sugar addicts should watch it once a week until they are out of danger for insurance against forgetting. I must have seen it over a year ago and still I went through some hell with my own sugar consumption. I can say though it has been a few years since I had a can of Coke!
Dr. Luc Tappy says, “The equivalent of the fructose in 8-10 cans of Coke or Pepsi a day—is a pretty high dose leaving people to become insulin-resistant, and triglyceride increases in just a few days.”[3]
In 2005 a report by the Institute of Medicine acknowledged that plenty of evidence suggested that sugar could increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes—even raising LDL cholesterol, known as the “bad cholesterol.” Dr. Kimber Stanhope, a nutritional biologist at the University of California-Davis, believes that a calorie isn’t just a calorie and that overconsumption of high-fructose corn syrup increases risk for heart attack and stroke. According to her research, when a person consumes too much sugary food and drink, the liver begins to convert some of that fructose to fat. This fat can lead to an increase in dangerous LDL cholesterol that can form plaque in the arteries. Too much sugar is also linked to many kinds of cancers, including breast and colon cancer.
John R. Talbott, writing for the Huffington Post said, “I quit consuming almost all sugars and many starches last year and 1) lost 50 pounds, 2) lost my lifelong cravings for alcohol and for nicotine and 3) went through a nasty three-week withdrawal including headaches, body aches, nightmares and flu-like symptoms that convinced me that sugar is indeed addictive. I emerged from it feeling great, having conquered much of the anxiety and irritableness that is typical of people addicted to substances, and am now fit enough to surf the big waves of the Pacific every morning even at the advanced age of 57.
Many doctors hesitate to talk about sugar because they themselves are sugar addicts and do not have the courage to do what Talbott did. Complicating the issue is that western medicine does not officially recognize sugar, or diet in general, as a cause of diseases including cancer.
I have asked people I know going through cancer treatments and none are told to avoid sugar. In fact if they are losing weight because of the treatment, they are encouraged to eat it.
Wendy Dussault
Dr. Mark Hyman states, “We are all programmed to like sugar. New research shows some are genetically much more prone to sugar and food addiction than others. I have observed this in my patients, but now it is becoming clear why some have more trouble kicking the sugar habit than others. The science demonstrating that people can be biologically addicted to sugar in the same way we can be addicted to heroin, cocaine or nicotine is clear. Binging and addictive behaviors are eerily similar in alcoholics and sugar addicts. In fact, most recovering alcoholics often switch to another easily available drug: sugar.”
Sugar Moderation
You don’t have to avoid every bit of sugar in your diet. Nor should you avoid all carbohydrates. In fact, the best sources for healthy, complex carbohydrates such as vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and legumes (beans), are the very foods that appear to fight cancer best. However, if you have already been hurt by sugar and its constant spiking of insulin (excess insulin is toxic which makes sugar toxic for that very reason) then you need to go through a period of sugar detox to reset your pancreas back to the way it was before you abused it.
Sugar causes the most havoc when it is consumed all by itself, i.e., without (or with very little) protein, fat, or fiber. Eating sugar with some protein, some fat, or some fiber helps your body process sugar more slowly, and this means that your body does not overproduce insulin. In short, protein, fat, and fiber help your body process sugar in a more healthful way. Whole fruit is a much better choice than fruit juice because it contains fiber that helps balance out the sugar in fruit.
The point is that not all sugars are bad but too much sugar without enough protein, fat, and fiber to balance it out causes our body to make too much insulin, thus storing all the sugar as fat. Overproduction of insulin can be blamed for spurring cancer cell growth. Bottom line: Limit the simple sugars in your diet, the ones that, from an evolutionary standpoint, were not meant to be part of the human diet in the first place.
[1] Is there a role for carbohydrate restriction in the treatment and prevention of cancer?; Klement RJ1, Kämmerer U.; Nutr Metab (Lond). 2011 Oct 26;8:75. doi: 10.1186/1743-7075-8-75; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22029671?dopt=Abstract&holding=f1000,f1000m,isrctn
[2] Is Sugar the Sweet Suicide? – Nancy Appleton
[3] Q&A: “Toxic” effects of sugar: should we be afraid of fructose?
Luc Tappy;BMC Biology 2012, 10:42 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/10/42
I’m now Offering a Paid Subscription to Substack.
I’ve been working for years, freely sharing my writings with the world. Yet now I need your support for my work. Google lowered the censorship boom on us five years ago, and it has been a hard road ever since.
We will offer our basic paid subscribers a fifty percent discount on a one-hour consultation with me. Also, you will receive a free copy of my Hydrogen Medicine E-book, And in the future, we will have other offerings.
I have always envisioned a paid subscription area as a kind of club where I can be in direct contact with my readers and them with me. I am inviting all of you to join the paid subscription area in Substack. I certainly would appreciate it if you upgraded to a paid Substack plan.
comments