The Sugar Disaster

Although processed white sugar has been added to prepared foods since canning first began, its use as a preservative has long since been eclipsed by its use as a primary flavor enhancer.   In the last 3 decades there has been a dramatic shift towards using high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), because farm subsidies make it less expensive than than using table sugar in food processing.

According to Department of Agriculture statistics, the average American consumes 142 pounds of sugar EVERY year, along with an additional 61 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup. [26] That's an astounding 203 pounds of sugar, per person, per year.

Now, let’s compare that to our yearly (average) vegetable intake:

In 2003, the average American ate:

All told, that only adds up to 126 pounds, or 77 pounds LESS than the sugar
we consume.   Are you beginning to see the problem???

If we were to also factor in the average of 91 pounds of French Fries consumed by every American, EVERY YEAR, it should be pretty apparent that more than half of the American diet provides non-nutritious (unhealthful) calories from all those hidden pounds of sugar in our food and drink. [Data recently removed]

Research from the 1970s first demonstrated that sugar has a significantly depressing effect on neutrophils (the most common white blood cell). [28] This pioneering study at Loma Linda University revealed that various forms of carbohydrates (including glucose, fructose, sucrose and honey) all dramatically decrease the capacity of neutrophils to engulf and destroy bacteria.   [29]

This is a disaster in the making, because besides destroying bacteria, neutrophils are also the first step in the immune process that leads to antibody production. [30] Antibodies are our “ace in the hole” for the NEXT time we are exposed to a given germ or virus that we have been exposed to in the past.   If your neutrophils are sleeping on the job, enjoying that soda or energy drink you just chugged, you may not have developed antibodies for the next time you are exposed to that same germ or virus. [31]

Besides depressing immune function, sugar also depletes important nutrients, including all eight of B vitamins. This is quite significant because low levels of the Bs are associated with metabolic syndrome [32], diabetes, kidney disease, and disrupted blood sugar management.   [33]

Even worse, high-fructose corn syrup and other simple sugars readily attach to cellular proteins (a process called glycation) causing them to malfunction, [34] and the resulting advanced glycation end-products (or Age Proteins) are associated with onset of diabetes, [35] reduced cell function, cell death, [36] and many other age-related diseases.   [37]

Please don’t misunderstand ... we NEED to have sugar in our blood at all times to fuel our muscles and brain. However, it ought to come from foods that have a low glycemic index (GI scores below 50). The GI Index is a measure of how quickly, and for how long a particular food releases sugar into your blood stream.

A low-GI food is ideal, because it releases small amounts of sugar over a prolonged period of time. This is why Shaklee’s various soy products (with a GI in the mid-30s) are preferable to a bag of French fries, with a GI score of 75.

High GI foods flood your system with “fast sugar”, dramatically elevating your insulin levels, and setting you up for diabetes and other debilitating diseases.

NOTE:   This does NOT mean you MUST stop eating higher GI foods... it simply means you need to adjust your portion sizes down for foods with a higher GI rating.

Please refer to the following GI charts for fruits, vegetables, and grains, so that you can make healthier dietary choices.   [38, 39, 40, 41, 42]






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