Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The Evils of Sugar.

I know I'm on a rant here about sugar and the whole G.I. thing....

I think its my mission to get more people to look at sugar as it truly is... A Drug.

Yes..... I said it... it is a drug.

Sugar does more then just sweeten our foods, its used as a pick me up to make us feel better and when we burn it all up... we head right back to the kitchen or the corner convenience store to get another fix.

Feeling depressed eat some chocolate, a candy bar, some hard candy any sugary food will work.

It actually works for most things..... hunger, feeling sleepy, feeling drained etc.

Sugar is not about nutrition its about getting a fix. Think about it...........

So whats up with corn syrup..... Let me rephrase that... High Fructose Corn Syrup....

That stuff is like high octane sugar. Now go to your pantry or your cupboard and read the labels on some of you favorite soups, canned goods or drinks.

You bet....

Corn syrup.

The thing that really gets me is how hard it is to find canned corn that doesn't have corn syrup added to it. Whats up with that????????????

High Fructose corn syrup is made through a complicated process of breaking down corn starch into glucose and then the glucose is broken down into fructose using a system primarily composed of three different genetically altered enzymes. The process involved in refining and distributing corn syrup is cheaper and more efficient then sugars refined from cane or beets. High fructose corn syrup is extremely soluble and mixes well in many foods. It is cheap to produce, sweet and easy to store. It’s used in everything from bread to pasta sauces to bacon to beer as well as in health products like protein bars and natural sodas. This brings to point my issue with corn syrup in all the foods we eat, in every can around every corner.

Every cell in our bodies has the ability to break down glucose but fructose is handled solely by the liver. In research involving rats as the primary subjects... the rats were feed diets high in corn syrup.

"The researchers wanted to know whether it was the fructose or the glucose moiety that was causing the problems. So they repeated their studies with two groups of rats, one given high amounts of glucose and one given high amounts of fructose. The glucose group was unaffected but the fructose group had disastrous results. The male rats did not reach adulthood. They had anemia, high cholesterol and heart hypertrophy—that means that their hearts enlarged until they exploded. They also had delayed testicular development. Dr. Field explains that fructose in combination with copper deficiency in the growing animal interferes with collagen production." (1)

Other research on sugars indicates that excess sugar depresses immunity, sours behavior, attention and learning.

Any sugars (glucose, fructose or sucrose) should be taken in moderation and anyone living a healthy life style should consider every morsel they put in their mouths.


Okay.....I'm done ranting now.

(1)Weston A. Price Foundation Board Member Linda Forristal is the author of Ode to Sucanat (1993) and Bulgarian Rhapsody (1998). Visit her website at www.motherlindas.com.

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