Sugar

It has been written: "No commodity on the face of the earth has been wrested from the soil or the seas, from the skies or from the bowels of the earth with such misery and human blood as sugar." Not too many are aware that the "Slave Trade" of 20 million Africans was in most part--at least two thirds--for providing workers for the sugar cane fields of the West Indies and the sugar plantations of Louisiana. For 300 years, following the consent of King Ferdinand of Spain in 1510, ruthless trafficking in human lives across the sea maintained the labor pool that plowed the fields for the growing production of sweet, white gold. Sugar in your diet--or in the diet of your parents and grandparents--may the single-most-important nutritional factor influencing how you feel and how you function. Sugar is truly an extraordinary substance that most of us have taken for granted for too long. The average American eats more than 40 teaspoons of added sugar every day, according to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. That's 305 cups of sugar a year. During one recent year, the world consumed over 92 million metric tons of sugar. The present per capita consumption of sugar in the United States is about 120 pounds per year; 77 pounds of refined sugar from the sugar bowl and another 45 pounds by way of corn sugar sweeteners added to processed foods and drinks. This is equivalent to an average of 5 ounces, or 30 teaspoons of sugar per day for every U.S. resident! Most persons now eat their body weight in sugar every year. It is no honor that the U.S. leads the world in the production and consumption of candy, nor that we lead the world in heart disease, arthritis, cancer and obesity.

Whether in cubes dropped in cups of coffee; in 100 pound sacks grandma had in the pantry for her cakes, pies, jellies and jams or; unseen in soda pop, ice cream, processed breakfast cereals and corporate candy, refined sugar has been a mainstay of the "civilized" diet for centuries. Only recently have sugar consumers become aware of health risks associated with its consumption. But this is only the beginning of the sugar story. The international sugar trade is a story of slavery—slaves planted and harvested the canes and addicted people became slaves to its sweetness.

Sugar taken every day produces a continuously over-acid condition, and more and more minerals are required from deep in the body in the attempt to rectify the imbalance. Finally, in order to protect the blood, so much calcium is taken from the bones and teeth that decay and general weakening begin.

Excess sugar eventually affects every organ in the body. Initially, it is stored in the liver in the form of glucose (glycogen). Since the liver's capacity is limited, a daily intake of refined sugar (above the required amount of natural sugar) soon makes the liver expand like a balloon. When the liver is filled to its maximum capacity, the excess glycogen is returned to the blood in the form of fatty acids. These are taken to every part of the body and stored in the most inactive areas: the belly, the buttocks, the breasts and the thighs.

When these comparatively harmless places are completely filled, fatty acids are then distributed among active organs, such as the heart and kidneys. These begin to slow down; finally their tissues degenerate and turn to fat. The whole body is affected by their reduced ability, and abnormal blood pressure is created. The parasympathetic nervous system is affected; and organs governed by it, such as the small brain, become inactive or paralyzed. The circulatory and lymphatic systems are invaded, and the quality of the red blood cells starts to change. An overabundance of white cells occurs, and the creation of tissue becomes slower. Our body's tolerance and immunizing power becomes more limited, so we cannot respond properly to extreme attacks, whether they be cold, heat, mosquitoes or microbes.

Excessive sugar has a strong mal-effect on the functioning of the brain. The key to orderly brain function is glutamic acid, a vital compound found in many vegetables. The B-vitamins play a major role in dividing glutamic acid into antagonistic-complementary compounds which produce a "proceed" or "control" response in the brain. B-vitamins are also manufactured by symbiotic bacteria which live in our intestines. When refined sugar is taken daily, these bacteria wither and die, and our stock of B-vitamins gets very low. Too much sugar makes one sleepy; our ability to calculate and remember is lost.

History

For thousands of years, refined forms of sugar were unknown to man: From the Garden of Eden to the New Testament and the Koran, there is no mention of what we now know as sugar. Sugarcane culture probably originated in what is now New Guinea. Its cultivation spread along human migration routes to Southeast Asia, India, and Polynesia. The technology for making sugar by pressing out the cane juice and boiling it down into crystals was developed in about 500 BC in India. Ancient Chinese medical texts make no reference to sugar; the Ancient Greeks did not even have a word for it. But, in 325 B.C., Admiral Nearchus, sailing in the service of Alexander the Great, described "a kind of honey" that comes from canes. Sugarcane cultivation did not reach Europe until the Middle Ages, when conquering Arabs brought it to Spain. Columbus carried the plant to the West Indies, where it thrived in the favorable climate and soil. Sugarcane cultivation began in what is now the United States in the middle of the 18th century, when cuttings were planted in New Orleans. The first American sugar refinery was built in New York City in 1689, and the industry was finally established by the 1830s.

William Duffy, in his classic #1 bestseller Sugar Blues (1975) identified the technological development that marked the beginning of the international sugar trade and sweet slavery. "The school of medicine and pharmacology at the University of Djondisapour, the pride of the Persian Empire, is credited with the research and development of a process for solidifying and refining the juice of the cane into solid form that would last without fermenting. Transportation and trade were now possible. This happened sometime after 600 A.D. when the Persians began growing the sweet cane on their own."

The fall of the Arab Empire

The Persians began exporting "loaves of stone honey," or "saccharum" to the Orient. When the Persian Empire was overrun by the armies of Islam and fell in the 9th century, A.D., Arabs took control of the saccharum trade. The Arab world discovered sugared food, sugared drinks and fermented sugar beverages. The Arab world also discovered many new diseases.

Duffy believes sugar played a key role in the decline of the Arab Empire. He interprets the notes of German botanist Leonhard Rauwolf as indicating he viewed the sugar addiction of the sultan's armies in the same light modern observers viewed American forces in Viet Nam who became addicted to heroin. The sugar-addicted Turks and Moors, "...are no longer the intrepid fighters they had formerly been," Rauwolf observed. Similarly, a Japanese philosopher told Duffy in 1965, "If you really expect to conquer the North Vietnamese, you must drop army PXs on them sugar, candy and Coca-Cola. That will destroy them faster than bombs."

Europeans wrestle for control of the sugar trade

The European sugar trade was largely controlled by the Portuguese by the mid-1400sbut the Spaniards were yapping at their heels. The Portuguese captured negroes from the west African coast and set them to slavery on sugar cane plantations in Valencia and Grenada. By 1510, the Portuguese had expanded their sugar production to South America and were importing negro slave labor to grow and harvest sugar cane in Brazil. Rather than keep lawbreakers imprisoned at home, they shipped them to the New World where they were encouraged to breed with natives and produce half-breeds capable of working the sugar cane plantations.

The Spaniards, following Christopher Columbus, had exterminated the natives in the West Indies by 1596 (per a 1555 decree by Emperor Charles V) and brought in African slaves to work their fields of cane. Sugar profits were largely responsible for the rise of the Spanish and Portuguese empires; sugar addiction and the diseases and immorality that accompany it, was also, arguably, a contributing factor in their fall. British and Dutch interests had control of West Indies sugar production by 1648. During this era, the rum trade began to flourish: Enough rum was being imported into the American colonies for the annual consumption of "every man, woman and child" to be "four gallons," wrote Duffy.

Ships loaded with rum were exchanged for blacks who were traded to British plantation owners in the West Indies in trade for molasses that was sold to rum makers in the colonies to satisfy the colonists' growing thirst for distilled spirits. Rum was also being traded to Indians for furs at tremendous profit to the white traders and at tremendous social and economic loss to the Indians.

Millions of slaves

The 1860 census population of negro slaves in the U.S. was 4,441,830; it is estimated that some 20,000,000 negroes survived the voyage to become slaves in the Western World. "It will be no exaggeration to put the tale and toll of the slave trade at 20 million Africans, of which two-thirds are to be charged against sugar," wrote British historian Noel Deerr in "The History of Sugar (1949)." Planting, tending and harvesting sugar cane is backbreaking work performed in the hot, humid climates cane prefers to grow. Negroes are the only human race able to survive under the yoke of sweet servitude. According to Deerr, it took some 13.2 million negro slaves to produce enough raw sugar cane to satisfy the western world's demand.

By the 1800s, France and Great Britain were wrestling for control of the international sugar trade. "No cask of sugar arrives in Europe to which blood is not sticking. In view of the misery of these slaves, anyone with feelings should renounce these wares and refuse the enjoyment of what is only to be bought with tears and death of countless unhappy creatures," wrote French Philosopher Claude Adrien Helvetius in the 1850s while his nation was profiting immensely from the sugar trade. On the eve of the American Civil War, sugar and slavery were as solidly linked together as two sides of the same coin.

Colonists could have had a sugar party

England was so addicted to sugar, as a substance and as a commodity of unparalleled profitability, it amended its Navigation Acts in 1660. American colonists were banned from trading sugar, indigo and tobacco with any other country except England, Ireland or another British colony. In 1664, the Acts were again amended so British colonies could only receive foreign goods via England. The Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a colonial response to the Navigation Acts.

The Queen's addicted subjects

When sugar was first introduced to Great Britain in the 1300s, only the upper class could afford the exotic treat. By the mid 1600s, the nation was importing 16 million pounds of sugar annually; 20 million pounds by 1700 and, by 1800, the British were consuming 160 million pounds of sugar 72 pounds per person each year. It was about this time that the British Empire began crumbling.

Sweet slavery in America

According to Dr. Nancy Appleton, author of "Lick the Sugar Habit," the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that, between 1970 and 1995, Americans increased their sugar and corn sweetener consumption by 22 percent. The USDA reported in 2000 that Americans consumed nearly 22 million tons about 151 pounds each of sugar and corn, glucose and dextrose sweeteners in 1999. Americans derive 36-40 percent of their carbohydrate intake from sugar. Since 1984, Americans have gotten in the habit of drinking more soda pop than water. The number of 12-ounce cans of soda produced in 1997 was 580 per person about 1.5 cans a day per persona figure that has doubled since 1974; seven-fold since 1942. Each 12-ounce can contains about 9 teaspoons of sugar.

Carbohydrate Metabolism

Because of Americans' habitual intake of excessive amounts of refined carbohydrates, sugar (carbohydrate) metabolism is a monumental problem in our civilization and diabetes mellitus is said to be the fastest growing disease in the United States. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1985, advised that each person, each day, should have 50-200 micrograms of trivalent chromium and that nine out of ten U.S. adults receive less than the minimum. The USDA found that the most effective form of chromium was chromium picolinate. Chromium picolinate has proved beneficial in persons suffering with diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and obesity. Chromium picolinate cooperates with insulin to aid muscle-building in athletes--an anabolic effect. Progressive chromium deficiency is the principal factor leading to "age-onset" diabetes.

Insulin

The distal tail of the human pancreas, within the islets of Langerhans, contains alpha, beta, C, and Delta cells. The beta cells, which constitute 60 - 80% of the total cells of each islet, secrete insulin. The alpha cells are the seat of glucagon synthesis, storage, and secretion. Glucagon is a polypeptide hormone which, among other functions, stimulates glycogenolysis in the liver. In other words, glucagon, when blood glucose is low, releases stored glucose (glycogen) by activating the enzyme liver phosphorylase. The diabetic liver is deficient in glycogen storage. Zinc is present in the islets of Langerhans in large amounts and is released from the beta cells along with insulin even though zinc is not an integral part of the insulin molecule. Normally, a rise in blood glucose stimulates insulin output, while a lowered blood sugar is associated with less insulin release. Oral diabetic agents, the sulfonylureas, cause insulin to be released from the beta cells whether the blood sugar is high or low. The chemical poison alloxan, from a chlorine reaction in drinking water and a residue from flour bleaching is cytotoxic to the beta cell--destroying same--but also interferes with insulin release. The higher the dose of alloxan, the more destructive to the beta cells.

Insulin, released from the beta cells of the pancreas, enter the pancreatic vein, which empties into the portal system. This means that insulin must pass through the liver for conjugation (final activation) prior to entering the systemic blood. In the human body, manganese is concentrated, relatively, in the following organs: (1) bone, (2) pituitary gland, (3) mammary gland, (4) liver, (5) pancreas, (6) kidney, (7) brain, (8) lung, (9) prostate, (10) spleen, (11) heart, and (12) muscles. Manganese deficiency contributes to glucose intolerance. Also, manganese affects glucose absorption, glucose uptake, and muscle glycogen and insulin homeostasis. Insulin-dependent diabetics, after supplementing the diet with nutritional manganese, generally require less insulin to maintain good blood glucose levels. The foods that have shown the highest activity with insulin are cinnamon, cloves, turmeric, and bay leaves; they actually can triple the activity of insulin. Cinnamon is the most potent. Volumes of information have been published which establish the benefits and necessity of vitamin B complex in carbohydrate metabolism. As a coenzyme--thiamine pyrophosphate or cocarboxylase--vitamin B₁ plays an important role in the intermediary metabolism of glucose in all cells of the body. The Journal of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, 1945, revealed: "All diabetics studied, with supplemental B complex administration, had striking improvement with total or partial reduction of insulin." Primary yeast is a good source of vitamin B complex.

Hypoglycemia

Too many people get a diagnosis of hypoglycemia because of a low serum glucose level found on a blood test. Hypoglycemia has become a catch-all diagnosis...the reason--many doctors don't realize how common it is for low blood sugar levels to develop in normal people during a glucose tolerance test. Symptoms unrelated to blood sugar are easily confused with true hypoglycemia. It is incorrect to diagnose hypoglycemia on the basis of a test-related drop in blood sugar. Hypoglycemia isn't a disease at all, but a symptom of a number of different, underlying health problems.

True hypoglycemia symptoms include most of the following:

1. excess perspiration

2. nausea to vomiting

3. anxiety

4. tremor

5. acute hunger pangs

6. tachycardia

7. sometimes hot flushes

8. sleepiness

9. confusion

10. subnormal temperature

11. convulsions to coma, with a rapid resolution or abatement of symptoms with ingestion of glucose or intravenous administration.

Causes of true hypoglycemia are; pancreatic beta-cell tumors, severe liver disease, pituitary or adrenal insufficiency, hypothyroidism, excess ethanol consumption preventing gluconeogenesis. If only acute and infrequent, the latter would constitute a functional, reactive hypoglycemia rather than true hypoglycemia.

Sugar

Chemically speaking, table sugar is sucrose. It is a disaccharide, meaning it contains two molecules--in this case, one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule. The primary sources of sucrose are sugar cane and sugar beets. Principles of Biochemistry, White, Handler, Smith & Stetten, 2nd. Ed., page 53, informs us that sucrose is: a -D-glucopyranosyl- -D-fructofuranoside, the common sugar of commerce and the kitchen; commonly called cane sugar. When sucrose is hydrolyzed by enzyme or acid, a molecule of glucose and a molecule of fructose are formed.

Fructose

Fructose occurs naturally in fruit, but the fructose used in products does not come from fruit, even though they are chemically identical. Commercial fructose is highly refined, even more so than the pure white crystals of table sugar. Nowadays, however, commercial fructose comes most often from corn, because the process is more cost-effective than using sugar cane or sugar beets. The end product is more highly processed than the other two sweeteners made from corn: corn syrup and dextrose. You'll see corn-derived fructose listed as high-fructose corn syrup on product labels. Some high-fructose corn sweetener is crystallized. This form goes by the name crystalline fructose and is used in powdered drinks, baked goods and other foods.

Glucose

Glucose is a monosaccharide, also called dextrose or grape sugar. It ranks third in sweetness, surpassed by fructose and sucrose. However, it ranks first in cheapness and first in pathology causation in human and animal physiology. There's nothing nutritious found in cornstarch. Corn syrup is prepared by the same process and contains a small amount of maltose and dextrins in addition to glucose.

Prison officials in Tennessee followed a trail of chewing gum wrappers that led to the capture of James Earl Ray (jailed as the alleged murderer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) and his fellow prison escapees. Candy wrappers were found littering the spot from which Lee Harvey Oswald presumably shot President Kennedy. Adolf Hitler, who was responsible for World War II and unparalleled amounts of human suffering, was a confirmed sweet addict. A correlation between sugar consumption and heart disease in fifteen countries revealed that the death rate was five times higher for persons who ate 120 pounds of sugar a year than for those who took in 20. For a consumption of 150 pounds annually, the death rate was over ten times higher! This rapidly absorbable carbohydrate, largely empty calories and fiber-free, stimulates the production of insulin, triglyceride fat storage, growth hormone, glucocorticoids and catecholamines.

Refined sugar is a beast. It tenaciously engages a human being and doesn't want to let go once it gains a foothold. One creates a need or craving for sugar by the very act of eating sugar. When the body is programmed to expect sweet in the diet every few hours, it's uncomfortable when it's not present. After a while, fat cells become overloaded with fat that is trapped and unable to be metabolized. Water may be retained. Overweight and sluggish physical activity occurs, and you feel increasingly a prisoner within your own body and to your own dietary habits. Starches are better than sugars as energy foods because they are assimilated slower and do not overload the pancreatic function of supplying insulin. Glucose is the quickest to diffuse through the intestinal wall; levulose the slowest. Because of its rapid absorption rate, glucose is the only sugar that definitely causes diabetes; at least in test animals. Glucose is the cheapest sugar, and therefore it is used as a filler or adulterant in foods. Dried fruits are often saturated with glucose to increase their weight. McLeod's Physiology tells us that four ounces of glucose are found in the bloodstream fifteen minutes after consumption. The same amount of levulose requires four hours. Levulose (4 ounces) has the same sweetening power, as 7 ounces of cane sugar, while 4 ounces of glucose (sweet taste-wise), would be equivalent to about 1 ounce of cane sugar. Soft drinks are an insidious source of glucose using much more glucose than cane sugar or sucrose.

Dr. Harold Lee Snow M.D. reported some blood chemistry findings with regard to refined sugar intake back in 1948, published in the Improvement Era Vol. 51, No. 3. He graphed serum calcium and serum phosphorus for 6 days following the ingestion of 4 ounces of candy. During the first six hours, useable (free) calcium dropped from 78% to 54%. By day 4 it had returned to 72% and was back to normal on day 6. Serum phosphorus availability dropped from 3.5 mg/dl to 3.1 mg/dl and required 5.5 days to return to normal level. The 4 oz. of candy ingested actually raised the serum calcium from a normal of 10.7 mg/dl to 11.3 mg/dl (abnormal) during the first 6 hours similar to hyperparathyroidism or excess vitamin D intake. That much calcium over the normal level would, after compensation, result in a lack of ionized calcium. There are two ways in which the body deals with excess glucose. It can spill the excess glucose over into the urine, and this is the most common symptom of diabetes. The body prefers to store the excess glucose it gets in times of feasting for future times of famine. This is a very smart thing to do, unless the body lives in the 20th century, in an industrialized nation, where feasting is followed by more feasting, and famines are largely avoided. High blood glucose triggers the pancreas to secrete insulin, which stimulates the conversion of sugars into fatty acids, three of which are then hooked to glycerol molecules to make fats (triglycerides). Fats are taken to fat tissues and stored, or deposited in various organs.

There are fatty acids of high quality and there are fatty acids of low quality. The former heal, and the latter kill. What kind of fatty acids are produced by excess sugars and starches in our body--the kind that kill--the sticky, saturated kind of fatty acid, the kind that increases the chance of stroke, heart attack and arteriosclerosis. But, while the human body can turn excess sugars into fats, it cannot turn these fats back in to sugars, but must "burn" off the fats through activity. Excess refined starches and sugars also increase the cholesterol level in the blood. Two-carbon acetate fragments, which are the building blocks for cholesterol, are also the building blocks for saturated fatty acids. When glucose is broken down to produce energy in the body, one of the steps involved is the creation of these acetate fragments. If these fragments are produced faster than they can be burned by the body into carbon dioxide and water, then the excess fragments put pressure on the body to make saturated fatty acids and cholesterol, in this way cutting down the metabolic problems that excess acetate fragments would cause, were they allowed to accumulate in our system. Excess acetate is more toxic than excess fat and excess cholesterol. Because refined carbohydrate lacks the vitamins and minerals required for their own metabolism, they draw on the body's nutritional reserve. When the stores are depleted, the body becomes unable to metabolize fat and cholesterol properly. This means that it cannot get rid of excess cholesterol (by changing it into bile acids and discarding some of both cholesterol and bile acids through the stool), and cannot burn off the excess fats as heat or increased activity, because vitamins and minerals are required for the biochemical reactions involved in these processes. As a result, cholesterol level rises; metabolic rate goes down; fat burns more slowly; the person feels like exercising less; obesity results.

Obesity increases the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Decreased metabolic rate is also involved in aging, arthritic diseases, cancer and cardiovascular disorders, and is another general symptom of degenerative diseases. Fatty degeneration can be defined as the deposition of visible fat in places where it is not normally found, and included in this definition are atherosclerosis, liver and kidney degeneration, tumors, obesity, rheumatism and diabetes. Sugar and starch play a considerable role in the cause of fatty degeneration, by their contribution to the fat and cholesterol the body must carry, by the depletion of the body's stores of vitamins and minerals, by interference with the functions of the essential fatty acids and by their lack of bulk and fiber. High blood sugar inhibits the release of the essential fatty acid, linoleic acid from storage in fat tissue and thereby contributes to essential fatty acid deficiency. Here, although LA is present in the body, it remains stored, unable to fulfill its functions.

Refined sugars are digested and absorbed into the bloodstream with unnatural speed. Insulin does its job of removing excess glucose from the blood stream with amazing efficiency. As a result, the blood glucose level rises very rapidly after the consumption of sugar, and then, by the action of insulin, may fall too rapidly or too low. The result is hypoglycemia, with mental symptoms ranging from depression, to dizziness, to crying spells, to aggression, to lack of sexual interest, to insomnia, to black-out. When blood glucose goes too low, the adrenals kick in and mobilize the body's stores of glycogen. They also stimulate the synthesis of glucose from proteins and other substances present in the body. On a diet high in refined carbohydrate, the pancreas and adrenal glands are caught in a "biochemical yo-yo," and are overworked. If the pancreas weakens, it secretes less insulin, the blood glucose remains high, and diabetes (hyperglycemia) results, with glucose in the urine, and cardiovascular complications. If the adrenal glands give out, adrenal exhaustionthe inability to respond biochemically to stress, and susceptibility to stress diseases, occurs.

Hypoglycemia becomes severe because the overworked adrenals fail in their blood sugar-raising function. Low blood sugar caused by the action of insulin gives rise to cravings for sugar, and the rapid absorption of the sugar eaten starts another insulin cycle which repeats the vicious hypoglycemia--sugar-craving circle. Finally, the lack of bulk and fiber in the refined carbohydrate slows down the speed at which foods pass through the digestive tract (bowel transit time). They sit around in the colon, and bring on constipation, inflamed (diverticulitis) and ballooned (diverticulosis) colon, toxin retention which weakens the liver, and causes bowel cancer, hemorrhoids and varicose veins. Complex carbohydrates are digested and absorbed slowly because they contain fiber and other materials, which slow down digestion, and because the starches they contain are only slowly converted into sugars. Many readers at this point may be saying to themselves, "If refined sugar is not necessary in the diet, why do I crave it so? It seems impossible for me to get along without it, because I'm so miserable when I don't have it." The matter may go far back to the eating habits of your mother--what she ate before your birth and what she offered you and allowed you to eat after your birth. The woman who eats sweets during her pregnancy may program the developing child within her to crave sweets after birth. A fetus will more avidly swallow sweetened amniotic fluid than it will the non-sweetened variety.

At a convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 1971, experts said: "Sucrose seems to have emerged as the prime villain in the dental caries story. From a great number of studies we know this is one of the prime factors in estimating the cariogenic challenge." Another top researcher Dr. Irwin Mandel, Division of Preventive Dentistry, Columbia University, revealed: "...that in Southeast Asia, the caries rate is 0.5%, which means that one tooth in 200 has a cavity. In the U.S., the caries rate is 50 times as much." He remarked, "The major cause of tooth decay is what doctors used to call galloping consumption--the galloping consumption of sugar." Dr. Weston Price, dental researcher and anthropologist, in his book: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, reported about his own personal examination of persons worldwide. His journeys and analyses of local natives included: Switzerland, Scotland, Outer Hebrides, Europe, Alaska, Canada, Fiji Islands, Samoa and Africa. Among persons eating natural foods--no refined or processed food items--the decay rate was 0.1%...but...in that same area, some people lived on "store grub" (white flour, jam, sugar and chocolate) and their decay rate was 18.9%. Among Canadian Indians who lived on moose meat, roots and berries, Dr. Price found that only 0.16% had tooth decay. At a nearby settlement, the pale-faces enjoyed a 25.5% tooth decay rate"240 times as much pathology, as those living in the "wild."

Young people often do not possess the wisdom to make wise choices, and they are easy prey for the nutritional information presented on television advertisements for snack foods in the form of charming commercials which encourage them to eat sweetened, refined "sugar-frosted junkies" and, in the case of breakfast cereals, they are covered with dead, pasteurized milk, which supplies empty calories and creates the production of excess mucous. Much of the kids' cereals taste excessively sweet--more like candy or cookies than cereal--with the heavy sweetness masking any grain flavor. Manufacturers add plain sugar, sugary substances such as corn syrup and sweet ingredients such as raisins. The more sugar in a serving of cereal, the less room for other nutrients. Sugar makes up as much as half the calories in some of the highly sweetened products aimed at children. They often contain three or four teaspoons of sugar per ounce of cereal. Dried fruit can boost the percentage of calories that come from sugar substantially, especially if the cereal part is high in fiber. The overconsumption of sugar also robs the body of the B-complex vitamins necessary for the synthesis of glutamic acid in the brain. A key to having good judgment is glutamic acid, a vital compound found in many vegetables.

By and large, sick kids are the ones who consume a heavy load of sugar, in one form or another, in their diets. The kids who get repeated colds; nose, throat and ear infections, are very often those whose diets are heavy in sugary snack and "convenience" foods. These foods are only convenient for the food processors. Our culture has rather quietly accepted this condition. Our children continue to watch charming T.V. commercials, which encourage them to eat, sweetened, refined cereals, which supply empty calories. Again and again, children change from being sickly to healthy when sugar is omitted from their diets. The fact that excessive sugar interferes with the ability of the white blood cells to engulf and kill bacteria has much to do with the frequent infections that plague sugar-eaters. In children, sugar creates hyperactivity, destructive and hyperaggressive behavior, infections, asthma, constipation, learning disabilities, and many other common problems for the parent and child alike. A common cause of migraine headaches is chocolate. Chocolate contains a high percentage of sucrose. Bleaching agents, colors, flavors and preservatives may all be responsible for adverse effects when foods containing them are eaten. Food and environment are primary in determining behavior. Both influence a person long before conception. They determine the quality and genetics of parental reproductive cells.

A person's constitution and condition are a product of diet and environment. Behavior is simply the expression of each person's constitution and daily condition. Cravings for sugar are induced. They're learned. Sweet craving is an acquired trait, not a physiological need. The sweet taste--from baby food to toothpaste--has been a regular part of our American heritage. In addition, as children, most of us have been rewarded for good behavior with some kind of sweet. No wonder we tend to turn to ice cream or candy when we're feeling low! It may be more than coincidence that smoking and sugar addiction are two of our major problems in public health. Next to food processing, the tobacco industry is the biggest sugar customer in our country. An average of 5% sugar is added to cigarettes, up to 20% in cigars and as much as 40% in pipe tobacco. Tobacco with a high sugar content produces a strongly acid smoke and high-sugar smokes are correlated with high rates of lung cancer--the leading cancer killer in the country. Because sugar is so abundantly present in the foods that we usually consume, one maintains a diet containing sugar (sucrose) even though he is not consciously aware of it. About 90% or more of the 8,000 or so items in the average super-market contain added sugar. Unless a person becomes knowledgeable about the many foods that have added sugar, he will be unable to eat a sugar-free diet. Reading labels is the only way to surely avoid sugar, and even then one can be fooled. Natural, raw, brown and all other descriptive words before the word sugar, or words that end in "ose", do not change the fact that sugar (sucrose) is sugar (sucrose). Elimination of sugar from the diet will thus promote health also because many other possibly injurious chemicals are simultaneously avoided. In addition, a sugar-free diet is more likely to include a wider variety of nutritious foods than a sugary diet. Sugar is even being put in salt to increase sales!

Honey

Honey, produced by the bee, is the reverse of sucrose, glucose, etc. Not only does honey include all of the most valuable nutrients, it is also practically immune from spoilage. Honey is a pre-digested food and ready for absorption and assimilation. Honey carries its own vitamins and minerals required for metabolism and utilization. Unlike refined sugar and other refined carbohydrates, honey doesn't draw upon the body's store of vitamins, minerals or trace elements.

Stevia

It's easy to grow, wonderful as a sweetener, contains medicinal properties, is non-caloric, safe to cook with, and has great potential in agriculture. It's widely used in South America and Asia. So why isn't stevia a household name in the rest of the world? Stevia rebaudiana bertoni is a herb native to Paraguay. It is also known as "honey yerba" and "honey leaf" and by other variations of these names. The mature plant stands from around 65 centimeters (26 inches) to as tall as 180 cm (72 in) when cultivated or growing naturally in fertile soil. Historical records show that the leaves have been used for hundreds of years by the Guarani Indians, who named the plant caá-êhê. The main use was as a sweetener, particularly in their green tea, known as maté. It was also used in medicine or as a snack. Stevia's leaf is estimated to be 150 to 300 times sweeter than refined sugar.

M. S. Bertoni, in the late 1800s, was the first European to document stevia. In 1931, French chemists extracted stevioside from the herb in the form of an intensely sweet, white crystalline compound. The herb was then considered for use as a sweetener during the food shortages experienced by Britain during World War II. However, interest waned when sugar again became available. Since this time, stevia has been used extensively in many Asian and South American countries, but the USA, Canada, Australia and Europe have not embraced the herb as a sweetener, opting either for sugar from readily available sugar cane or sugar beet, or for aspartame-based and other artificial sweeteners as a sugar substitute. More than 150 varieties of stevia exist, but stevia rebaudiana bertoni is the only sweet stevia plant. Carbohydrate-based compounds from the stevia leaf can be isolated to glycosides known as steviosides. Stevioside is a glycoside of the diterpene derivative steviol, and is a natural component of the plant. Stevioside is intensely sweet and is present at levels up to 13% in the leaves of stevia rebaudiana bertoni. Rebaudiosides and dulcosides are other sweet chemical constituents of the plant that can be extracted.

Stevia's Safe Historical Use

Many foods have not had to go through the process of being approved for GRAS status. Through historical use, it is assumed they are safe for human consumption. Supporters of stevia have put this argument forward to the FDA, but without success. Stevia.net contends that Celestial Seasonings was permitted to use stevia because the herb has had a long history of common use without adverse health effects. Furthermore, the 1991 Import Alert acknowledges stevia's use throughout history and is therefore an admission of its qualification as having GRAS status. The American Herbal Products Association maintains that stevia is a food, as it has had a long history of food use, hence it should fall into the safe category. Sunrider Corporation also tried this tack in 1995, stating that stevia was a "grandfathered" or "old" dietary ingredient, as it had been contained in their products before the DSHEA of 1994. However, this approach became problematic because the company had signed a consent decree in 1984 not to sell stevia, as "Sunrider decided it was not financially prudent to judicially contest this matter."

Stevia's Positive Health Effects

Studies have found some positive effects and possible medical uses of stevia. A University of Illinois, College of Dentistry paper, published in 1992, found that stevioside, though an intense natural sweetener, is not cariogenic, according to their data. A Japanese study from Nihon University, published in late 2002, revealed that the use of stevioside on skin tumors in mice inhibited the promoting effect of chemically induced inflammation. Taiwanese studies showed the possibility of stevia's use for blood pressure regulation. A study undertaken on rats at Taipei Medical University, and published in 2002, showed that stevioside lowered blood pressure. The other study, published in 2000, was undertaken on humans by Taipei Medical College and concluded that "oral stevioside is a well-tolerated and effective modality that may be considered as an alternative or supplementary therapy for patients with hypertension."

Two recent studies by Jeppesen et al., from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, have found after tests on rats and mice that stevioside could have potential in the treatment of type-2 diabetes. Natural therapists have been using stevia for many years to regulate blood sugar levels. According to a June 28, 2002, report on Australia's national broadcaster ABC (http://www.abc.net.au), the herb can be taken in droplet form with meals, bringing blood glucose levels to "near normal." Users of stevia have also reported lower incidence of colds and flu. The herb can aid in weight loss by reducing appetite and can be used to suppress tobacco and alcohol cravings. Stevia leaf also contains various vitamins and minerals including vitamins A and C, zinc, rutin, magnesium and iron.

Stevia has been used in South America for years as a treatment for diabetes. It has also been suggested that it can aid people to get off insulin. It has been used topically on skin cancers and to treat candidiasis. The Healthfree.com website also espouses stevia's use for skin care. It can be applied to enhance the skin's appearance or to heal acne and other blemishes and skin disorders including dermatitis, eczema and seborrhoea. The website also reports that stevia can be used to heal cuts and scratches quickly and without scarring.

Brian Morley is a natural therapist with a biochemistry background, working in Brisbane, Australia. Morley uses stevia on patients as he says it "assists the liver in controlling blood sugar levels in the body." He says that refined sugar has a negative effect on the liver and can cause chronic fatigue and immune deficiency syndrome. Combined with bilberry, stevia can also aid sugar cravings. Morley uses stevia in a "nectar form" that has been vacuum distilled, nitrogen dried and crystallized so as not to destroy any goodness.

Stevia's Uses in Food Preparation

Stevioside is suitable for cooking purposes as it is heat stable, unlike artificial sweeteners such as aspartame. However, it is unsuitable for certain confectionary such as fudge or icing as it lacks bulk. Stevia is used in Japan to sweeten soy sauce, pickles and soft drinks. Brazil almost followed suit in 1988 when the Minister for Health proposed that only stevia should be allowed for sweetening diet drinks. However, Big Business opposed the idea, according to a report in Earth Island Journal (Northern Winter 1997-98 issue). Apparently Monsanto had made a substantial financial commitment in the construction of a NutraSweet plant in São Paulo. It was then agreed that manufacturers would undertake studies by 1989 to incorporate stevia. However, nothing further was heard regarding the matter.

Stevia's Potential in Agriculture and Healthcare

One of the advantages of stevia is that it can be grown almost anywhere. Its native conditions are sub-tropical, but it has been grown in areas as far north as St Petersburg (60°N). The herb also grows well in tropical areas. Stevia seedlings can be purchased from nurseries. The plant has the added bonus of having certain insecticidal properties; for example, it is aphid resistant. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada notes that "Stevia represents a new opportunity for researchers and farmers alike," but that more information is required to "optimize annual transplant production for Canada."

Stevia could be utilized to benefit research, as "production of remarkably high levels of one class of secondary metabolite is of significant interest for chemists, biochemists and geneticists and may prove to be a foundation for the production of new metabolites in the future." It also noted that because of safety concerns surrounding stevia, "there is clear need for further experimentation with respect to the metabolic fate of steviol glycosides." Stevioside is not legal in Canada, and the only legal way of obtaining stevia is by purchasing it as a herb. In Australia and New Zealand, the situation according to Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is that stevia leaf may be sold as a food. However, extractable components of the plant, such as stevioside, are not legal.

The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) was set up by the Australian government "to work closely with Australian rural industries on the organization and funding of their R&D needs." Professor David Midmore and Andrew Rank put together a report for RIRDC in 2002 on the possibility of "a new rural industry--Stevia--to replace imported chemical sweeteners." The study was jointly funded by RIRDC and Central Queensland University. The report refers to Canadian researchers' findings that 50 hectares of stevia could produce sweetener equivalent to one million dollars' worth of sugar. This "in Australia would require 240 hectares of cane to grow, i.e., productivity in terms of sweetness equivalent per hectare is high." It notes it will be necessary to "develop production and processing practices that result in acceptable financial returns to growers" yet a competitively priced end-product.

Environmental considerations are also positive in regard to stevia as an industry in a dry continent like Australia. Primary producers could benefit because the crop would offer "greater diversification opportunity and returns per megaliter of irrigation water." Insects do not appear to be of concern to stevia. There are some possible diseases "which do not appear to be a major problem," according to the report, and "spraying for control is sometimes undertaken."

David Midmore says that Australia is ready for stevia. "The time is right for large-scale production, provided we can ensure that production practices are suitable (e.g., mechanical harvesting) and that it will be grown in the correct locations (weather-wise)." According to the report, it is expected that "consumer demand for natural sweeteners will escalate" as Australians become more health conscious and as "the incidence of diabetes in Australia and abroad" grows. It is also suggested that stevia could be marketed "in conjunction with sugar" to produce low-calorie products. However, input from other organizations and agencies will be required to ascertain if "the constraints to production and acceptance of steviosides will be manageable in the near (2-3-year) future." Currently there is an application with FSANZ for consideration of stevia as a sweetener, and according to Professor Midmore a decision "should be announced by FSANZ in a short while." A possible obstacle to the FSANZ acceptance of stevia could be the same concern expressed by JECFA: that the breakdown of stevioside into steviol can exhibit some toxic and mutagenic activity. However, David Midmore stresses that "such breakdown is not known to happen in situ in the human body."

A Sweet Future for Stevia

Stevia has had a long history of use as a natural sweetener and a medicinal aid. It is heat stable, non-caloric and can be used by diabetics. However, the US FDA has had a questionable relationship with the herb, and issues have been raised over the safety of the stevioside extract. Yet, no adverse health effects have ever been reported or documented, including in Asia where the herb is used extensively as a sweetener. Stevia shows great potential for the future, in agriculture and as a food.

	Tuberose.com Information for Transformation
This self-help alternative medicine site offers extensive educational information on the topics of natural healing, holistic and biological dentistry, herbal medicine, cleansing and detoxification, heavy metal detox, diet, nutrition, weight loss, and the finest, tried and tested health equipment and products available for the natural management of health.