Friday, March 25, 2016

Why Sugar Is Called "The White Death" and the Sugar Cancer Connection

As good as it may taste, sugar is NOT your friend. It may “feel” like your friend when it comforts you (due to the beta-endorphin rush in your brain), but sugar is really your ENEMY.
Truth be told, regular consumption of sugary foods is one of the worst things that you can do for your health. Modern scientific research has shown us, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that sugar in your food (in all its myriad forms) is taking a devastating toll on your health.
Take a look at the sugar consumption trends over the past 300 years:
  • In 1700, the average person consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year.
  • In 1800, the average person consumed about 18 pounds of sugar per year.
  • In 1900, individual consumption had risen to 90 pounds of sugar per year.
  • In 2012, more than 50% of all Americans consumed 1/2 pound of sugar per day — translating to a whopping 180 pounds of sugar per year!
In 1890, only 3 people out of 100,000 had diabetes. In 2012, almost 8,000 out of every 100,000 people was diagnosed with diabetes!

Creating Our Addiction to Sugar

The “sugar rush” has been targeted at our children. American children are consuming about 10 times as much sugar as they were in 1900, especially in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is the average American’s greatest source of calories! Highly addictive HFCS contains fructose and glucose, but they are NOT bound together (as they are in table sugar) so the body doesn’t need to break it down. Therefore, the fructose is absorbed immediately, going straight to the liver, which turns it into fat (VLDL and triglycerides).

According to Dr. Joseph Mercola: 
“Fructose also tricks the body into gaining weight by fooling your metabolism (it turns off the appetite-control system). Fructose does not appropriately stimulate insulin, which in turn does not suppress ghrelin (the “hunger hormone”) and doesn’t stimulate leptin (the “satiety hormone”), which together result in your eating more and developing insulin resistance.” This process also suppresses the immune system.
But just because you avoid HFCS doesn’t mean that you’re in the clear. Excess intake of ALL processed sugars results in compromised immune function (decreasing the white blood cells’ ability to destroy bacteria), obesity, and diabetes.
And if that’s not enough, keep in mind that sugar is HIGHLY addictive! That’s right! Dr. Serge Ahmed of Bordeaux, France, has been working with rats and giving them the choice between cocaine and sugar. Guess which one wins, time and again?
That’s right… sugar!
It turns out that the sweet taste of sugar is more rewarding than the high of cocaine.
You see, sugar produces dopamine − a happy, feel-good chemical − in the brain. People get addicted to eating sugar, whereby they need it to feel “normal” and they undergo “withdrawal” if they cut sugar from their diets. If they go “cold turkey” for a few days, their brain will begin to produce dopamine on its own, but the discomfort of the withdrawal process keeps many “sugar addicts” trapped in their addiction.
sugar-cancer-connection

What is the Sugar Cancer Connection?

Due to the anaerobic respiratory mechanism exhibited by ALL cancer cells, sugar is cancer’s favorite food! And since half of the white sugar in the USA comes from sugar beets, you should remember that most beets are now genetically modified. This is another reason to stay away from the “White Death,” isn’t it?
I personally recommend that you avoid white sugar, brown sugar, agave, and all artificial sweeteners such as aspartame/AminoSweet, sucralose, and saccharin. If you have a sweet tooth, it’s best to stick with 100% pure stevia, xylitol, raw honey, pure maple syrup, molasses, and coconut sugar.
The bottom line: if you want to be and stay healthy, you MUST take control of your sugar intake so that it doesn’t take control over you.

Ending the Sugar Confusion

It’s easy to become confused by the various sugars and sweeteners, so here is a basic overview:
  • Saccharide = sugar
  • Glucose (aka “dextrose” or “grape sugar”), galactose (“milk sugar”), and fructose (“fruit sugar”) are all “monosaccharides” (i.e. single sugar molecules), known as “simple sugars.” The primary difference between them is the way your body metabolizes them.
  • Glucose is a form of energy you were designed to run on. Every cell in your body uses glucose for energy.
  • High amounts of fructose are very damaging to the body if it isn’t burned immediately for energy because it travels directly to the liver where it’s converted to triglycerides (fats). Excess triglycerides increase insulin resistance (and insulin production), thus contributing to diabetes in a “back door” fashion.
  • The simple sugars can combine to form more complex sugars, like sucrose (“table sugar”) which is a “disaccharide” comprised of 50% glucose and 50% fructose.
  • “Refined” white sugar (pure sucrose) is washed with a syrup solution, then with hot water, clarified (usually chemically) to remove impurities, decolorized, concentrated, evaporated, re-boiled until crystals form, centrifuged again to separate, then dried. By this point, any remnants of “natural goodness” and “nutritional value” have completely disappeared! Quite frankly, white sugar should be considered an “industrial product” rather than “food.”
  • “Brown sugar” is white sugar mixed with molasses.
  • “Raw” sugar is not really raw. It has been cooked, and most of the minerals and vitamins are gone. But it’s probably a little better than refined white sugar because it has a little of the molasses remaining.
  • Aspartame or AminoSweet is a neurotoxic rat poison… need I say more?
  • Splenda (sucralose) is NOT a sugar, despite its deceptive marketing slogan, “made from sugar.” It’s a chlorinated artificial sweetener in line with aspartame, though not quite as harmful.
  • Honey is approximately 50% fructose, but in natural (raw and unpasteurized) form contains many health benefits. Buying honey that is local and unpasteurized is best.
  • Stevia is an extremely sweet herb derived from the leaf of the South American stevia plant, which is completely safe (in its natural form). Green stevia is the whole plant, while white stevia is processed and can often contain other ingredients like natural flavors or dextrose − a form of sugar. 100% green stevia in its natural state is what you want.
  • Agave nectar is made from the agave plant, which is a cactus. Sounds natural, right? Like maple syrup from a tree, or honey from a beehive. Only it isn’t. Agave is HIGHLY processed while the end product does not even remotely resemble the original agave plant. Furthermore, agave is approximately 80% fructose (much higher than honey and maple syrup).
  • HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is 55% fructose and 45% glucose. It is mostly genetically modified. Stay away!
  • Rapadura is the pure juice extracted from the sugar cane (using a press), which is then evaporated over low heat, whilst being stirred with paddles, then sieve ground to produce a grainy sugar. It has not been cooked at high heats or spun to change it into crystals, and the molasses is maintained in the sugar. “Sucanat” is the USA trade name for Rapadura.
  • Coconut sugar is made from the sweet watery sap that drips from the cut flower buds of the coconut palm. It has a low glycemic index (GI) and is rich in amino acids. It is typically less than 10% fructose, with sucrose being the primary component.
  • Xylitol is a sweetener known as a “sugar alcohol” (or polyol). Sugar alcohols are neither sugars nor alcohols − they are carbohydrates (with structures that happen to resemble sugar and alcohol). Xylitol is extracted from corn or birch cellulose. Unlike sugar, Xylitol is slowly absorbed, does not cause a rapid blood sugar increase, and does not require an immediate insulin response from the body to be metabolized. Moreover,  many studies have shown that it actually helps prevent dental cavities, ear infections, and some evidence suggests that it helps prevent gum disease because Xylitol is anti-bacterial. However, Xylitol does have some potential health side effects (most notably gastrointestinal issues) and should be used with caution.
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About Ty Bollinger

Ty Bollinger is a happily married husband, the father of four wonderful children, devoted Christian, best-selling author, medical researcher, talk radio host, health freedom advocate, former competitive bodybuilder and also a certified public accountant.After losing several family members to cancer (including his mother and father), Ty refused to accept the notion that chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery were the most effective treatments available for cancer patients. He began a quest to learn all he possibly could about alternative cancer treatments and the medical industry. Ty has now made it his life mission to share the most remarkable discovery he made on his quest: the vast majority of all diseases (including cancer) can be easily prevented and even cured without drugs or surgery.Ty speaks frequently to health groups, at seminars, expos, conferences, churches, and is a regular guest on multiple radio shows and writes for numerous magazines and websites. Speaking from personal experience and extensive research, Ty has touched the hearts and changed the lives of thousands of people around the world.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I lost my right kidney to renal cancer in 2002. I had stopped using sugar in my coffee and changed to Splenda. In 2013 I had knee replacement surgery on my left knee. The hospital did a routine x-ray of my chest before discharging me and spotted a very small spot on my left lung. In 2014 I collapsed and they found a tumor in my stomach area and performed a Whipple on me. After the surgery I couldn’t stand the thought of Splenda, so switched back to sugar in my coffee. The spot in my lung started growing. I stopped using sugar and went with just cream in my coffee. The spot stopped growing. I have no doubt in my mind that sugar does indeed promote cancer.
  2. I personally KNOW how addicting sugar can be! After years of slowly cutting back, I have finally come to a place in my life where I can live almost totally sugar-free. Praise the Lord! However, those bad nasty cravings still haunt me… just about every night. It’s not easy but it’s not impossible. Eating the right foods and exercising has been an enormous benefit and change in my life and my husband’s. Now…. time to work on our adult children who make their own decisions.
  3. Please remind folks that xylitol is toxic to dogs…not that anyone should be giving dogs sweetners, but, just in case, it might be good to emphasize this. Excellent, excellent info…thank you for all the work you do!
  4. One of my new year’s resolutions was to cut back on sugar, but I knew to do that I had to quit it for awhile. “They” say it takes about 30 days for a habit to form, so I figured it would take around the same amount of time to break one. I avoided foods with any man-made sugars (tricky at first) for January, and then decided to do it again this month. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I sometimes really wanted something sugary, but would sate it with a something naturally sweet (fruit, honey). You don’t have to quit sugar forever, but it’s definitely worth it to take a temporary break and then makes cutting back in the future easier. Oh and I’ve lost 10lbs and have around 10-15 more to go to get back to a normal, healthy weight.
  5. Re-educate your taste buds like I have done. There are days when I fall off the wagon and cheat but my sugar intake has dropped 90%. If I need to take the bitterness out of a smoothy, I add a small amount of raw honey. Stick with it. It is a mind thing and can be done. Try self hypnosis, which I use for other reasons.
  6. Andy, a smoothie should require NO additional sweetening, especially if you’re using fruit! Try adding a banana! I like to add dates sometimes, very sweet, yet all natural and very healthy!
  7. @jeans – It depends what you’re adding it to. For cold drinks I love Stevia, for hot, I like honey, in smoothies, add bananas or grapes, or even dates! Eventually your taste buds will no longer demand “sugar”, believe me. I can’t stand candy or cakes or even cookies anymore, just taste sickening to me. I do love fruit though!
  8. @Dale – Yes, Splenda is one of the worst things anybody could ever “switch” from sugar to! The best way to get your head around what you should be putting in your body is the closer to nature its is, less processed, the BETTER it is for you! Hope you’re doing better now.
  9. Could you Please provide references to primary literature for the statements that you have made? Much of the information provided doesn’t fully coincide with the vast amounts of literature I had read about sugar metabolism in vivo.
  10. Date sugar wasn’t mentioned. I have used dates in different things. And I have used date sugar. If you like oatmeal but don’t like it bland, cut up a couple medjool dates and put in while cooking. You will have the natural sweetness plus the added nutrition and fiber. You can check out Chef AJ on youtube. That is the only thing she uses for sweetener.
  11. You can purchase 100% Erythritol from Amazon without any added ingredients. It comes in a bag. Dr. Michael Gregor has recommended using this if you need a sweetener. You can check him out and his articles on nutritionfacts.org.
    Or read his book, How Not To Die.
  12. Linda,
    A smoothie with a ripe banana is highly fructose laden food. It may be nutrient dense, but sweeteners of any kind are a slow chronic poison in the long term. The question is: what did this fructose load do to your insulin level? Life-long elevated (even non-diabetic < 90 mg/dL) insulin levels lead to body-wide vascular degeneration. This is seen eventually as heart disease, kidney failure, dementia and Alzheimer's, heart arrhythmia, blindness. Anywhere in the body that requires fine capillary communications and oxygenation find that oxygen and nutrients are less and less available as the years progress and cellular function slowly shifts to anaerobic methods (cancer) to survive. Pathology reports of nearly all Korean war dead showed degradation of the fine capillaries is the septum of the heart. These were 19-22 year old's who were well on there way to modern day disease manifestation. Cancer is a response by our cells to mutate to anaerobic processes. These mutations for many are due to the withdrawal of robust capillary networks from the cell areas all over the body.
    Other poisons that lead to vascular and direct cell failure come from smoking, air and water pollution. The point I am trying to make here is that elevated insulin over a lifetime is also one of those poisons and that glucose and fructose raise insulin to toxic levels. Your brain is the only organ that actually requires carbohydrates, and those can be generated by your liver. So you really have no need for exogenous carbohydrates (sugars) at all except in the form of fibrous vegetables and related unprocessed foods.
    Regards,
    Bill
  13. I wanted to second the person that said to be sure and warn people how deadly xylitol can be to dogs. I don’t use it because I’m clumsy and my dog is fast. All it takes is one dropped bowl of something with xylitol to kill my pup.
  14. Thank you SO much for all the info. I changed my eating habits after Christmas 2015 & went back to eating The Hay Diet for purely health reasons. It’s all healthy food…lots of veg, fruit & each meal only 20% carbs OR protein (don’t mix them tog at same meal) Sugar cravings vanished after a week or so..& I have lost 14 pounds of fat slowly over the past 10 weeks. Fat just ‘slipped’ off. If I indulge, VERY rarely in a piece of birthday cake for example, sugar cravings jump into action & the brain goes into overdrive to satisfy the craving! Keeping eating wholefoods etc has made me feel so much better & healthier & it’s SO good to read that your articles confirm what Dr Hay was saying in the 1800s! I read on the internet that people in Okinawa in Japan look upon food as ‘medicine’ for the body! I agree!! Such a pity that its more difficult these days to get truly organic food. Tangerines/satsumas are sprayed with fungicides etc to keep them from rotting in transit. Something I only found out weeks ago! We are just NOT aware of what is in the soil our foods are grown in or what they’re sprayed with these days. Its a battle! Anyway, thank you for all the positive info your e-mails give. Many Blessings..PJ in the UK:)
  15. Way to go, Julia! Sugar definitely is addictive – but we can overcome the cravings and be so much healthier. It’s tough with our adult children – but we can lead by example and feed them nutritious foods when they are in our homes. Blessings to you and yours!

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