It helps the medicine go down and in the most delightful way! Did Mary Poppins  innocuously forge the path for our current food industry? Let’s round her up with the likes of Ronald McDonald, Slush Puppies, and the M&M guys, and say STOP IT!

Ah, but the story of sugar is more complex. And it doesn’t come with a snappy soundtrack.

There is a concern that sugar feeds cancer. Interestingly, a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan is an imaging test that uses radioactive glucose to detect cancer. Tumor cells light up more indicating that more glucose is being metabolized in these cells. This theory has led to many alternative approaches that starve tumors as a cure and, by default, starving the normal cells. I have issues with the “sugar feeds cancer” theory. It is misleading. It results in people becoming malnourished, often creates more stress, and diminishes quality of life. Cancer cells grow uncontrollably and so demand a lot of energy to do this. Just because these abnormal cells use sugar more robustly doesn’t necessarily mean sugar feeds cancer. Really all cells need sugar. Yes, on a cellular level, our bodies need sugar. So what’s the problem?

Disease doesn’t just happen from a single event. One doesn’t have cancer because they ate all of their kids’ Halloween candy. One doesn’t suffer from a heart attack because of that latte with whipped cream.  Most often, disease is a result of a life long pattern. The standard American diet (SAD) is a pattern that repeats the latte daily, combines it with bacon, forgets to add the veggies, and then adds sugar.

It’s SAD- sugar impacts disease over a lifetime.

So let’s get started by examining these two points about sugar:

1.  How it is delivered– it’s not by the spoonful, more like by the ton.
2.  How it affects our health– obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, GI disorders, hormonal imbalances, inflammation, metabolic abnormalities, etc.

Delivery

Too much and it’s chronic.

A typical American consumes about 80 pounds of sugar every year !!

Specific guidelines for sugar intake are not well defined (largely because we don’t want to hear it and the sugar industry is happy to give society a fix).

Here are some considerations:

• The World Health Organization (WHO)  recommends no more sugar than 5-15% of total calories consumed (example, typical 2,500 calorie diet would mean about ~25 grams per day….oh, FYI a can of soda is 40 grams of sugar)
• Our government does not offer specific regulations for sugar, BUT some interesting developments are on the horizon. After 20 years of the same nutrition facts panel on food labels, the FDA is proposing an update-  food products will provide information about added sugar! The nutrition facts panel is shaping up to be a useful tool for making informed decisions about health and diet. Check it out

Quickly absorbed

Carbohydrates are utilized by the body and brain as a energy source. Ironically, our body needs carbohydrates in it’s simplest form- in the form of glucose. Our health depends on a supply of glucose. Ideally, our carbohydrate sources need to be high fiber, nutrient-dense to provide a balanced, slow delivery to our system. Much of our food supply has been stripped from it’s natural packaging and processed into an IV drip of quickly absorbed carbohydrates. Since refined and processed sugar sources in our diet are absorbed too quickly into the bloodstream and are largely devoid of nutrients necessary for health, we are a malnourished obese population.

Our Health

This combination of quick absorption and constant insult isn’t what the human body is designed to tolerate. Our bodies are good at storing up energy for days of no food. We’ve adapted to survive the wait until we find another cache of berries or perhaps the need to run from saber tooth tigers. Our current lifestyle patterns clash with important physiological processes and our health suffers. I’d like to discuss all the implications, but will boil it down to a few for now.

1. Hormonal Imbalances- In response to a repeated, high sugar load, insulin levels remain elevated. Insulin is a major player in the body- when it talks the body listens! It stores fat, it feeds cells, it drives metabolism of energy, fats, and protein. And if insulin is always talking, cells develop a resistance. And then insulin keeps talking, louder. This chatter leads to diabetes, stimulation of insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) on tumor cells, derangement of other hormonal processes, etc. Really, there isn’t a tissue or organ that doesn’t listen to insulin. Insulin rules!
2. Obesity– Our bodies are designed to store fat. On a cellular level, we are programmed to cope with a scarcity of food. The body is very efficient at storing calories as fat to stave off hunger when food is scarce. Now, our diet is laden with calories (ahem, sugar). Simply enough, these two variables have driven the obesity epidemic. Then layer other factors of stress, environmental toxins, sedentary lifestyle and we’ve got a real mess. And as an added insult, stored body fat releases hormones that control insulin. Insulin still rules!
3. Gastrointestinal Health– A balanced gut is key to good health. The gut is a central player in health-  it digests and assimilates nutrients, screens microbes, signals immunity, supports an ecosystem of bacteria. Suboptimal gut health is not just digestive distress- it can be linked to most chronic diseases and symptoms (allergies, inflammation, depression, cancer, autoimmune disorders, skin issues, arthritis). A diet high in refined, processed carbohydrates wreaks havoc on your gut. Bad bugs, like yeast, love refined carbohydrates and will thrive if that’s what they are fed. Beneficial gut flora needs to be fed by prebiotics, largely supplied by fiber sources from diet.

Are you feeling calm? Take some deep breaths. Despite these challenges, our bodies are a beautifully designed, buoyant system! We have a huge capacity for good health.

So stay tuned for the next post Useful Tips for Less Sugar