Sugar Blues

[8L4YN3]

Sugar Blues is a book by William Dufty that was released in 1975 and became a commercial success.

In the book, Dufty makes the case that sugar is an addictive drug, that it is extremely harmful to the human body, and that the sugar industry conspires to keep Americans addicted to sugar.

The book's central argument is that a small dietary change, eliminating refined sugar, can make a huge difference in how good one is able to feel physically and mentally. Dufty even goes so far as to suggest that eliminating refined sugar from the diet of those institutionalized for mental illness could be an effective treatment for some.

- wikipedia

Now i havn't exactly read this book, but learning about it did prompt me to take a closer look into the history of refined sugar production and consumption, and its relationship to western society and this particular societies health issues.

I say it like that because it seems before the 1900's cancer was unheard of, and when you compare the average amounts of cancer, premature death(caused by health complications) in the west, to places like Sardinia in Italy or Okinawa in Japan, who dont consume sugar like we do, you find these places and even alot of eastern societies have hugely less health problems than we do and a much higher level of centenarians.

Before i get right into my talk about refined sugar, i want you all to take a quick look at this TED lecture, it isn't exactly directly related to my thread, but it is insanely interesting none the less and highlights alot of why our society is organised in the wrong fasion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-jk9ni4XWk

Now into the refined sugar discussion..

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.1,2
2.

Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body: causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium. 3,4,5,6
3.

Sugar can cause can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.7,8
4.

Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.9,10,11,12
5.

Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.13
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.14,15,16,17,18,19,20
7.

Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.21,22
8.

Sugar can weaken eyesight.23
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.24,25,26,27,28
10.

Sugar can cause premature aging.29
11.

Sugar can lead to alcoholism.30
12.

Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.31,32,33
13.

Sugar contributes to obesity.34
14.

Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis.35,36,37
15.

Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections).38
16.

Sugar can cause gallstones.39
17.

Sugar can cause appendicitis.40
18.

Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.41
19.

Sugar can cause varicose veins.42
20.

Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.43
21.

Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.44
22.

Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes.45,46,47
23.

Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.48
24.

Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.49
25.

Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.50
26.

High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar molecules attaching to and thereby damaging proteins in the body).51
27.

Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.52
28.

Sugar causes food allergies.53
29.

Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.54
30.

Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.55
31.

Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.56,57
32.

Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.58
33.

Sugar can change the structure of protein and cause a permanent alteration of the way the proteins act in your body.59,60
34.

Sugar can make your skin age by changing the structure of collagen.61
35.

Sugar can cause cataracts and nearsightedness.62,63
36.

Sugar can cause emphysema.64
37.

High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.65
38.

Sugar lowers the ability of enzymes to function.66
39.

Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson's disease.67
40.

Sugar can increase the size of your liver by making your liver cells divide and it can increase the amount of liver fat.68,69
41.

Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.70,71
42.

Sugar can damage your pancreas.72
43.

Sugar can increase your body's fluid retention.73
44.

Sugar is enemy #1 of your bowel movement.74
45.

Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries.75
46.

Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.76
47.

Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.77
48.

Sugar can reduce the learning capacity, adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders.78,79
49.

Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves which can alter your mind's ability to think clearly.80
50.

Sugar can cause depression.81
51.

Sugar can increase your risk of gout.82
52.

Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease.83
53.

Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS, and decreasing growth hormone.84,85,86,87
54.

Sugar can lead to dizziness.88
55.

Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress.89
56.

High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.90
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.91,92
58.

Sugar is an addictive substance.93
59.

Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.94
60.

Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.95
61.

Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.96
62.

Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.97
63.

The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects.98
64.

Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).99
65.

Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition.100
66.

Sugar can slow down the ability of your adrenal glands to function.101
67.

Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.102
68.

I.V.s (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to your brain.103
69.

Sugar increases your risk of polio.104
70.

High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.105
71.

Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.106
72.

In intensive care units: Limiting sugar saves lives.107
73.

Sugar may induce cell death.108
74. In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior.109

75. Sugar dehydrates newborns.110

76. Sugar can cause gum disease.111

The original page and list of sources can be found here

Keeping this in mind, i also want to bring something else to the readers mind, and that is the negative effects of consuming coca cola, pespi ect, all them bullshit soda, fizzy, soft drinks that are consumed in the millions each day by the western world.

In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.

20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)

40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.

45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.

60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.

60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.

60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

Original page can be found here

Our refined sugar consumption, along with our lack of adequete hydration, over consumption of soda drinks, poor lifestyle, culture of excess seem to have created the perfect environment for big companies to make a alot of money at our expense.

You never see this kind of shit being taught in schools or shown on tv, because the sugar companies want you to keep buying their product, the pharma and dentist companies want you to keep fucking up your teeth.

Or is it all total bullshit? Thats the point of this thread is to gather everyones opinions and what have you, and conjur up some form of discussion and or debate reguarding our over consumption of "bad" foods and poor lifestyle/culture.

Also i'm aware of the presense of sugars in fruit and what not, but i think there is a huge difference consuming the empty calories of refined sugar and bullshit heat treated honey, than eating good fruit and raw honey.

What does everyone else think? By the way, i dont exactly personally 100% beleive all of these claims although i'm quickly starting to, this isnt a 'omg all who eat sugar are going to hell, do as i say!' thread, i'm not trying to sway anyones beleifs or opinions, just trying to initiate some discussion and debate reguarding the topics i've presented you fine people.

Cheers for reading. (picture an aussie fella smiling and giving you a thumbs up as he says that)

 

[sdripper]

I'm a sugar baby and imo yes, it is all true.

i'm fucked because of sugar, I'm in pain all the time, and i ahve no idea if i'll ever get better because i still can't even get off the shit, let alone start treatment for recovery

 

[complacent orange]

As a matter of coincidence (synchronicity ) I searched this forum for this very topic earlier today. I had cut down on my sugar intake in the last few months and within the past few days relapsed majorly. It got me thinking why I had stopped eating sugar in the first place. Most of the changes in my diet are intuitive but I tend to relapse unless I have some intellectual/scientific basis as support. I found this post about the addictive properties of sugar. http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=410034

Mckenna also talks about this in Food of the Gods, and references a book by Janice Keller Phelps and Alan E. Nourse entitled The Hidden Addiction and How to Get Free

Thanks for the post!

 

[moonyham]

I use to eat alot, i mean ALOT of sugary things... lollies, chocolate, bread, and so on. That was when i was younger... but since i was about 16 i really dont care for sweet things, like, i can go weeks, months etc without craving anything sweet at all.. savory is what its all about for me.. cheese, bacon, onion, pasta, you name it.. i FIEND savory food, i LOVE it.

I use to have major concentration issues all my youth, and i was never very healthy, and i never really thought about it but it probably was because of my major addiction to sugar.

Now, i dont think refined sugar is bad for you... i think TOO MUCH refined sugar is bad for you, and i think the amount most people think is acceptable is WAY higher than how much you should be eating.

 

[debaser]

Yes sugar is a drug. That's why I like brown sugar better.

 

[Busty St Clare]

-

I say it like that because it seems before the 1900's cancer was unheard of, and when you compare the average amounts of cancer, premature death(caused by health complications) in the west, to places like Sardinia in Italy or Okinawa in Japan, who dont consume sugar like we do, you find these places and even alot of eastern societies have hugely less health problems than we do and a much higher level of centenarians.

The average life expectancy in 1900 was less than 40 years old. Today it is almost 80. So why can't we say that refined sugar is the cause of doubling our life expectancy? Trying to correlate random facts does not make good science. Perhaps the reason you didn't see as many deaths from cancer is the fact that most cancers are chronic diseases that require 40-50 years to develop. As we increase our expectant ages of course you will see more cancers as the cause of death.

Having said all of that there is no "sugar conspiracy". It is common scientific knowledge that too much sugar is not healthy for you. This poster has been around in nearly all medical rooms for at least 60 years...

Time to put away the tin foil hat for this one folks.

 

[8L4YN3]

^People have been living way longer than 40 years since WAY before 1900's, maybe you're only citing western world stats.

 

[Obelus]

ahhh, the white poison *insert Chinese fire-drill*

Does anyone know the effects of honey compared to the effects of refined sugar? I hear its somewhat medicinal, and have even heard people claim honey and cinnamon to be a cure all (dont believe the hype... but still)

-
Also i'm aware of the presense of sugars in fruit and what not, but i think there is a huge difference consuming the empty calories of refined sugar and bullshit heat treated honey, than eating good fruit and raw honey.

I eat raw honey like a pooh bear. I have some friends whose family are bee keepers, and in the summer we eat honey comb and roll occasional honey blunts. They've even made Mead. I don't chug down honey, but I hope I'm not reaping all the health benefits [sic] refined sugar has to offer. On that note, how does raw sugar compare?

 

[debaser]

^ I don't really understand your last question, but raw sugar is much better for the health than white sugar, of course. And the taste is better too (at least for me).
Sorry if I misunderstood your question.

 

[Busty St Clare]

^People have been living way longer than 40 years since WAY before 1900's, maybe you're only citing western world stats.

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/55/6/1196S.pdf

Average age means for every person who lives to 60, another will die by 20. Japan is the classic "healthy" society, but as you will see on the table on page 2, their expectant age in 1900 was 42.8. Today it is over 80. Maybe we should be saying watching anime and playing baseball will increase your life expectancy.

 

[BeckyLee]

For good reading on this subject, I recommend reading:
"Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" by Weston A Price. This book is a classic and basically gets at the same conclusions as the OP.

 

[complacent orange]

ahhh, the white poison *insert Chinese fire-drill*

Does anyone know the effects of honey compared to the effects of refined sugar? I hear its somewhat medicinal, and have even heard people claim honey and cinnamon to be a cure all (dont believe the hype... but still)

Honey is to refined sugar what coca tea is to crack.

 

[8L4YN3]

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/55/6/1196S.pdf

Average age means for every person who lives to 60, another will die by 20. Japan is the classic "healthy" society, but as you will see on the table on page 2, their expectant age in 1900 was 42.8. Today it is over 80. Maybe we should be saying watching anime and playing baseball will increase your life expectancy.

I dont get your point really though, sugar is much worse than a few beers or other things that aren't good for you. You only hear about sugar hyping up kids and fucking your teeth up, none of the information i provided is provided by mainstream sources.

 

[moonyham]

I dont get your point really though, sugar is much worse than a few beers or other things that aren't good for you. You only hear about sugar hyping up kids and fucking your teeth up, none of the information i provided is provided by mainstream sources.

I saw a documentary about sugar and whether or not it makes kids 'hyper'.

It held a kids party with a group of kids, then a week later another party with the same group of kids.

1st they used non-sugar based foods... sugar free cake and soda and lollies and so on.

2nd they did sugar based foods.

There was no difference in how crazy/hyper the kids were.

 

[Busty St Clare]

I dont get your point really though, sugar is much worse than a few beers or other things that aren't good for you. You only hear about sugar hyping up kids and fucking your teeth up, none of the information i provided is provided by mainstream sources.

I'm not arguing that sugar is not bad for you. I am more than happy to load my kids up with chocolate just before their mum picks them up just for that reason . It is just common sense that sugar is a poor nutritional choice. What I take offence to is bullshit pseudo scientific rhetoric that was sprouted in your first post.

Example......

I say it like that because it seems before the 1900's cancer was unheard of, and when you compare the average amounts of cancer, premature death(caused by health complications) in the west, to places like Sardinia in Italy or Okinawa in Japan, who dont consume sugar like we do, you find these places and even alot of eastern societies have hugely less health problems than we do and a much higher level of centenarians.

I would love to see evidence how glucose, a simple carbohydrate, is carcinogenic.

1+1=/= 7

 

[moonyham]

Yeah i agree many of the points in the first post pretty much looked like made up nonsense passed down from grandma herself.

Cancer was unheard of before the 1900's? Yeah, because we didnt have equiptment to verify what cancer was or if it even existed and so on before then. Hence why 'no one had cancer'... no, they didnt have cancer, they 'got sick and passed away'. Thats what cancer was, when you read books and stories from a while back, like before the 1900's, thats how it happened.. they simply 'got sick'.

 

[Obelus]

you know what's more terrifying than sugar?

muthafuckin ASPARTAME.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/sweet-misery-a-poisoned-world/

it more or less tops my list of terrifying consumables.

 

[SpelunkingTheMind]

wow, just watched that whole documentary on aspartame.. didn't really intend to but got hooked

i'm generally wary of expository documentaries, especially independent ones, because they're always so one-sided (if you care enough about something to put the time, effort, and money into a documentary, you care very much about ONE side of that argument, for better or worse), but that was quite persuasive and coherent...

and goodness gracious, the story of diane fleming at the end there is just heart-breaking.. poor woman..

 

[moonyham]

Wow that is absolutely frightening thank you for sharing this.




How to roll a blunt

Its just another conspiracy theory. Im not saying its not bad for you, but theres NO scientific evidence to suggest its bad for you let alone a super carcinogenic chemical.

 

[aanallein]

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener, an additive. And it’s a chemical. It’s not a natural product, it’s a chemical. The molecule is made up of three components. Two are amino acids, the so-called building blocks of protein.

We're supposed to take something that begins with this serious?