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SUGAR HIGH

Question: "I read your column about the risks of coffee and caffeine with interest and was wondering what your thoughts were on sugar - how addictive/dangerous is it and is it directly related to high blood sugar?"

Answer: Sugar is not instantly addictive, but its addictive qualities grow in a cumulative effect. The more sugar you consume, the more sugar you crave. As with any other addiction, if you suddenly stop eating sugar, you will crave sugar (but after awhile of not eating sugar, you will no longer have a strong desire for it).

Sugar is so addictive in western society that candy manufacturers have hijacked many of our major holy days, and created holidays that are pretty much devoted to sugar. All Hallows Eve is now about trick or treat and how much candy kids can get in one night. Easter has become more about chocolate eggs and bunnies than about Resurrection. Valentine's day is all about chocolate, Christmas about sweets. In North America, sugar has become the way to celebrate, the way to reward, the way to appease. How many parents give their kids candy to quiet them down, which only serves to rile them up? Sugar has become our drug of choice. (It is refined from sugar cane to produce a white powder not unlike cocaine.)

In many European countries, sugar is used quite sparingly, and baked goods are often not very sweet. Although people in these countries often consume a lot of breads, pastas, carbohydrates and fats, people in most European countries are not fat. In North America, sugar is consumed in massive quantities: over 150 pounds of sugar per person per year! Most people are aware of the high dose of sugar in most soft drinks, but hidden sugar is added to almost everything: there is sugar in juices, cereals, sauces, condiments, in prepared foods and soups, and even in canned vegetables! There is no need for sugar in many of these foods, but manufacturers add sugar because it makes people want more of their product.

These manufacturers start training their customers to be addicted to sugar right from the beginning by adding sugar to baby food. Children who are raised without sugar usually do not develop a strong taste for sugar, but most children in North America are hooked on sugar and sweets at an early age, and are even rewarded for good behavior with sugar-laden candies and pops. Parents are outraged when a drug dealer moves into the neighborhood, but a convenience store is no less a menace for children.

For me, sugar was my sweetest friend and my greatest enemy. When I was a child, my father used to take me to the corner store every Sunday to give me my allowance in candy. It was our weekly ritual, and I would take my time choosing my drugs for that week. My parents also said that I was a moody child - any connection?

Sugar changes the chemistry of the body, and is a mood-altering drug. People get high on sugar, especially children, and what goes up must come down, so sugar highs lead to sugar lows where the body craves sugar to make it feel high again. Riding the sugar rollercoaster is a major contributor to depression, ADD, ADHD, mood swings, migraines, weight gain, and a whole slew of other disorders, not to mention the epidemic of diabetes in North America.

The body burns sugar as fuel for energy, and calories measure of the amount of energy that a particular food provides. The body needs calories, but it does not need additional sugar, because it produces sugar from the carbohydrates that we consume. Carbohydrates produce quick energy for the body, but unrefined carbohydrates take longer to digest, and therefore give energy in a more prolonged and steady fashion, which does not cause extreme spikes in insulin levels and reduces the risks of high blood sugar.

Eating refined carbohydrates, like white sugar or white flour, is like sticking a needle in your arm and injecting drugs into your blood stream. White sugar directly affects blood sugar, and highs in blood sugar over prolonged periods of time lead to diabetes. Sugar substitutes are not the answer, and recent research has shown that they may be linked to Alzheimer's in young women from drinking diet sodas.

The difference between coffee and sugar is that coffee and caffeine can be avoided, while one has to be diligently aware that sugar can be in anything, and goes by many different names, like sucrose, glucose, fructose, cane syrup, etc. There is nothing wrong with having a little sugar, but a lot can go wrong with eating a lot of sugar. Sugar may be a choice, except when it has become an addiction. For those who are addicted, just thinking about sugar makes one crave sweets (I'm headed to the kitchen right now).

FYI, someone sent me the following information by email which you may find interesting:

About Coke / Coca Cola:

#1. In many states the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

#2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days.

#3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

#4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

#5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble; away the corrosion.

#6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Apply a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

#7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

#8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into the load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:

#1. the active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. It will dissolve a nail in about four days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase of osteoporosis.

#2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial trucks must use a hazardous Material place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.

#3. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean engines of the trucks for about 20 years!

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