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Refined Sugars.

During refining, sugar cane or beet syrup is separated into sucrose, which comes in many forms which are all equally refined:

White granulated sugar
White castor sugar
White icing sugar
White preserving sugar (jam sugar)
Brown granulated sugar
Light brown soft sugar
Dark brown soft sugar
Demerara sugar
Light muscovada sugar
Dark muscovada sugar

The beet or cane is refined three times leaving behind molasses, a waste product.

1st Refining - Light molasses - Golden syrup
2nd Refining - Medium molasses – Treacle
3rd Refining - Dark Molasses – Blackstrap molasses

Unfortunately this refining process removes all the proteins, vitamins and minerals to leave a substance that has no nutritional content whatsoever. All that is left are the sucrose crystals, pure refined carbohydrates that are nutritionally devoid and offering only empty calories.
The only exception is the Blackstrap Molasses, the dark liquid left behind after the 3rd refining. This substance contains all the important vitamins and minerals that have been stripped from the cane or beet.

The human body cannot completely metabolise this refined starch resulting in the formation of toxic metabolites such as pyruvic acid and abnormal, unnatural, unstable sugars containing five carbon atoms.

Pyruvic acid accumulates in the brain and nervous system and the abnormal sugars accumulate in the red blood cells. These toxic metabolites interfere with the respiration of cells. They cannot get sufficient oxygen to survive and function normally. These poisonous metabolites are constantly seeking to stabilise themselves by taking available oxygen from our healthy cells, this in turn, degrades those healthy cells.

Refined sugar drains and leeches the body of precious vitamins and minerals through the demand its digestion, detoxification and elimination makes on our entire system.

Highly Refined Sugars.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) - is made by treating corn with a variety of enzymes, some of which are genetically modified, to first extract the sugar glucose and convert some of it to fructose, since fructose is sweeter than glucose.

Nobody thinks of sugar when they see a field of corn. Most of us would be surprised to learn that the larger percentage of sweeteners used in processed food comes from corn, not sugar cane or beets.

You may be surprised to see just which foods contain HFCS: fizzy pop you would expect, but others like fruit juices, sweets, baked goods, biscuits, syrups, yogurts, ketchup, tinned baked beans, breakfast cereals, soups and pasta sauces may surprise you. It is also a favourite ingredient in many so-called health foods.

Fructose (or levulose) – is a simple sugar (monosaccharide) found naturally in fruit and often called fruit sugar. It is one of the three most important blood sugars along with glucose and galactose

But, commercially produced fructose is far from a safe, natural sugar. Fructose and high-fructose corn syrup have been aggressively promoted as natural sugars. Fructose is not from fruit, it is a commercial REFINED sugar.

Glucose - is also a simple sugar (monosaccharide) found in most plant and animal tissue. It is the principal circulating sugar in the blood and the major energy source of the body.

However, commercially used glucose is a different story. It is a syrupy mixture of dextrose, maltose, and dextrin’s containing about 20 percent water, used in confectionery, alcoholic fermentation, tanning, and treating tobacco.

In 1900, the average consumption of sugar was approximately ½ lb per person/year. Now, we consume an appalling 180lbs per person/year. Cardiovascular disease and cancer were virtually unknown in the early 1900’s. The consequences to the body speak for themselves. There are over 75 ways that sugar will ruin your health; here we look at the top 8.

1. Refined Sugars and Cancer

“Cancer has only one prime cause. It is the replacement of normal oxygen respiration of the body's cells by an anaerobic [without oxygen] cell respiration.” -Dr. Otto Warburg, Nobel Laureate for Medicine 1931.

Cancer metabolizes very differently to normal cells. Normal cells need oxygen. Cancer cells despise oxygen, this tells us that cancer metabolizes through a process of fermentation. If you have ever made wine or beer, you’ll know that fermentation requires sugar.

The reason food therapies for cancer exist today (beyond the fact that they work) is because of the connection between sugar and cancer. There are many different food therapies but not a single one allows refined sugar;

simply because SUGAR FEEDS CANCER.

2. Refined Sugar and the Immune System

The fact that diet is very important in developing the body’s resistance to infection has been recognized for thousands of years. The ancient scriptures of India documented the association between food and health in 5000B.C.

Intake of sugars adversely affects the immune system. Sugar suppresses the ability of white blood cells to sweep up and kill bacteria, viruses and fungi. Lowered white blood cell activity means your immune system and its ability to fight infection is greatly reduced.

The immune suppressing effect begins within 10 minutes of ingesting sugar. Sugar robs the body of key nutrients such as zinc, which is vital for the immune function. Sugar affects everyone, but it can have serious consequences for children. Many children that have a high intake of sugar suffer from recurrent infections, asthma, eczema and behavioural problems.

Think about the amount of sugars that are in the daily diet of the average person, its no wonder so many people are ill these days, their immune systems are constantly operating well below their optimum levels.

3. Sugar and Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and other signs, as distinct from a single illness or condition. All forms are due to the beta cells of the pancreas being unable to produce sufficient amounts of insulin to prevent hyperglycemia.
When sugar is constantly in the diet, the pancreas must constantly produce insulin. The pancreas eventually wears out and is no longer able to clear sugar from the blood and diabetes is often the result. Also, for some people, they have enough insulin but the cells have become insulin-resistant, so they do not absorb the insulin to allow the absorption of glucose.

Sir Frederick Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin, noted in 1929 in Panama that, among sugar plantation owners who ate large amounts of refined sugar, diabetes was common. Among native cane cutters, who only got to chew the raw cane, he saw no diabetes.

4. Sugar and Dementia

Recent research suggests that too much sugar causes dementia.

Dementia – is the loss of mental functions such as thinking, memory and reasoning that is severe enough to interfere with a person’s daily functioning.

There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia, which affect an estimated 28 million people globally.

A study at the National Academy of Sciences showed that middle-aged and elderly people with high blood sugar actually had a smaller hippocampus, the brain region so crucial for recent memory.

Hippocampus - is a part of the brain located under the temporal lobe (humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain). It forms a part of the limbic system and plays a part in memory and spatial navigation. The name derives from its curved shape in coronal sections of the brain, which resembles a seahorse (Greek: hippos = horse, kampi = curve).

In Alzheimer's disease, the hippocampus becomes one of the first regions of the brain to suffer damage; memory problems and disorientation appear among the first symptoms.

Blood sugar is a natural suspect because scientists have long known that diabetics have a higher-than-average risk for memory problems.

Dr. Antonio Convit of New York University conducted a study on 30 non- diabetic middle aged and elderly people. The slower those outwardly healthy people metabolized blood sugar, the worse their memory was, and the smaller the hippocampus was.

Unlike most other tissues that have multiple fuel sources, the brain depends on blood sugar for almost all its energy. The longer that glucose stays in the bloodstream instead of being metabolized into the body tissues, the less fuel the brain has to store memories.

5. Sugar and Mental Illness

In the Dark Ages, troubled souls were rarely locked up for going off their rocker. Such confinement began in the Age of Enlightenment after sugar made the transition from apothecary’s prescription to sweet maker’s confection. The great confinement of the insane began in the late 17th century, after sugar consumption in Britain had gone from a pinch or two in a barrel of beer here and there, to more than two million pounds per year. By that time, physicians in London had begun to observe and record terminal physical signs and symptoms of the “sugar blues”.

When the General Hospital was established in Paris, 1% of the city’s population was locked up. From that time until the present day, as the consumption of sugar increased – so did the number of people who were put away.

Orthomolecular Psychiatry - has been defined as the "study of the genetic metabolic, endocrine, immunological and toxic disturbances that are contributing to, perpetuating, exacerbating or even causing psychiatric symptomatology". It is a branch of orthomolecular medicine whose proponents argue that dietary supplements and other treatments may be effective in treating mental illness.

Today, Pioneers of orthomolecular psychiatry, such as Dr Abram Hoffer, Dr Allan Cott, Dr A. Cherkin as well as two-time Nobel Prize winner, and molecular biologist Dr Linus Pauling, have confirmed that mental illness is a myth and that emotional disturbance can be merely the first symptom of the obvious inability of the human system to handle the stress of sugar dependency.

The brain is part of the body; it is a physical organ and requires the proper molecular chemistry in order to work correctly. Since the brain houses our thoughts and emotions and it is the co-ordinator of our senses, a chemically imbalanced brain will express itself by disordered thoughts (delusions) and emotional upsets, as well as disturbances in sensory perception (hallucinations).

6. Sugar and Obesity

Obesity is quickly becoming a chronic health problem in the western world.

In the U.K about 46% of men and 32% of women are overweight (a body mass index of 25-30 kg/m2), and an additional 17% of men and 21% of women are obese (a body mass index of more than 30 kg/m2).

Sugar has not been considered when examining the issue of obesity. Now research scientists have said increased sugar levels are a major reason for soaring obesity rates in the U.K, particularly when it comes to sugar hungry children.

Ian Tokelove, spokesman for the Food Commission, which campaigns for healthier food, warned: “Most of us are eating too much sugar, but we are being swamped with it in our food. We naturally have a sweet tooth and manufacturers have been quick to use that to try to increase sales in a crowded market”.

Foods today have up to twice the amount of sugar in them compared to 30 years ago. European Union trade reforms leading to a reduction in the price of sugar and an increasing demand for sweeter products are being blamed for what health experts say is a worrying trend.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) wants food companies to reduce the amount of sugar in their products and is so worried about the trend that it is considering imposing legal limits. Two years ago the FSA launched a campaign to cut down salt, but one apparent result of this has been companies putting in more sugar to make up for the lower salt levels.

7. Sugar and Hyperactivity in Children

Sugar consumption is so high that it has caused a social problem through its effects on behaviour, especially in children who are displaying increasingly severe behavioural disorders and learning difficulties.

In a recent study conducted by Dr C. Keith Connors of the Children’s Hospital in Washington, DC, a ‘deadly’ link was established between the consumption of sugar with carbohydrates and violent behaviour, hypertension and learning difficulties.

Another possibility is that hyperactivity is an allergic reaction to refined sugar. Another suggestion is functional reactive hypoglycaemia, which causes increased motor activities at low blood glucose levels.

Chromium, necessary for the metabolism of sugar, is removed during the refining process and without it, insulin is less effective in reducing blood sugar levels, this in turn can lead to the symptoms of hyperactivity such as aggression and behavioural problems.

A recent study performed at Yale University School of Medicine provided a possible reason as to why sugar induces hyperactive reactions in some children. The investigation revealed that, when ingested by children, sugar releases twice the amount of the stimulant hormone adrenaline into the blood stream as it does in adults.

Could sugar be a factor in the increase of anti-social behaviour in children? Are parents today more likely to feed their children more processed food or take away food that is laced with refined sugars?

8. Sugar and Tooth Decay

Sugar consumption is a cause of bone loss and dental decay. Tooth decay occurs when the precise ratio of calcium to phosphorus in the blood varies from the normal ratio of four parts phosphorus to ten parts calcium.

Dr. Melvin Page, a Florida dentist, has demonstrated in numerous studies that sugar consumption causes phosphorus levels to drop and calcium levels to rise. Calcium rises because it is pulled from the teeth and the bones. The drop in phosphorus hinders the absorption of this calcium, making it unusable and therefore toxic. Thus, sugar consumption causes tooth decay not because it promotes bacterial growth in the mouth, as most dentists believe, but because it drastically alters the internal body chemistry.