food is not toxic but commercial or household sucrose is. To advertise and promote sucrose as a pure energy-producing food is fraudulent. Sucrose ought to be barred from human use.
These monosaccharides and disaccharides are processed into highly refined sugars, as they do not commonly exist in this pure form in nature. One exception is honey, which contains large quantities of glucose, fructose, and sucrose. In the spring, when there is insufficient pollen for the foraging bees, some beekeepers feed them sucrose syrup. This is then deposited into the honey. Later during the year, as more pollen becomes available, less and less sucrose is fed. If one is allergic to beet or cane sugar, it would be as reactive in the honey as in the pure state. For this reason, late summer and fall honey are preferable, but this means getting honey from a beekeeper and not from the supermarket. In areas where sucrose is never fed, this would not be a problem. Honey is somewhat safer than sucrose because it is sweeter due to the fructose content, so that less is needed, and because it is not as pure and as refined as sucrose, it contains very small quantities of vitamins and minerals. If used to replace sucrose in the same quantity, it is just as toxic.
The complex saccharides are composed of very long chains of glucose molecules attached to each other, which vary in length from the rather short-chain carbohydrates, such as glycogen, to the very long, fibrous foods such as fiber. These carbohydrates are called polysaccharides. They have different properties: they are not sweet but tend to be bland, like potatoes; they are not easily dissolved in water, as are the simple sugars; and they have structural properties not found in simple sugars. They are, therefore, not as toxic as are simple sugars. Because of their bulk, it takes more time to eat them, and because they are hydrolyzed slowly in the digestive system, the sugar (glucose) released does not enter the blood as quickly, producing a more even flow of sugar, compared to the water-soluble sugars. For example, it would take a while to eat five apples (or potatoes or carrots) one after the other. The mechanical problem of chewing and swallowing slows down the rate of consumption, and there is a natural process of becoming satiated. On the other hand, the same amount of glucose or sucrose can be dissolved in a few ounces of water and swallowed in ten seconds. Furthermore, since these complex polysaccharides are not sweet, they do not pervert one’s palate, as do the sweet sugars.
Pure complex carbohydrates are also artifacts, as they are not found in a refined state in nature, where they are surrounded and mixed with protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals. For this reason, the foods naturally rich in carbohydrates are good food, not dangerous. These are called natural, unrefined, or unprocessed carbohydrates. The processed carbohydrates are substances such as starch. They are toxic but not as bad as the mono- and disaccharides. The unprocessed carbohydrates also contain very complex polysaccharides that cannot be hydrolyzed in the body and there are no enzymes that can process them. These substances are the celluloses like wood, husk, or bran. As they are not hydrolyzed, they soak up liquid as they pass through the digestive tract, playing a very useful detoxification role.
In general, unprocessed (unrefined) carbohydrates are safe and processed (refined) foods are not. The degree of toxicity depends on the degree of refinement. Whole wheat is nontoxic unless one is allergic to it. During processing, it is cracked and ground and the central portion, the endosperm, is sifted out. The outer coats, bran, germ, and the layers next to the bran and germ are taken away for other uses. When the whole kernel is used, the flour is called a 100 percent extraction flour. If the middle or inner endosperm is used, it is called a 60 or 70 percent extraction. Thus, the higher the percent extraction, the more germ and bran are present and the more nutritious is the wheat flour. The wheat kernel’s main function is to grow a new plant. Growth starts from the germ, so it is, therefore, logical for the essential nutrients of the germinating plant to be as close to the germ as possible.
THE SUGAR METABOLIC SYNDROME
Surgeon-Captain T. L. Cleave, M.R.C.P., argued that much disease results from an enormous increase in the consumption of refined or processed foods, especially sugar and white flour. The natural carbohydrates, such as whole-grain cereals, are not harmful but rather they are very essential. Cleave had considered using the term “refined carbohydrate disease.” This syndrome, by any name, is defined as a single root cause of disease that afflicts many different organs, including the brain.
White bread has been used for several thousand years, but it did not become cheap enough for general consumption until about the end of the eighteenth century. In terms of evolution and adaptation, we have had only a moment in a very long history in which to develop any biological adaptation. In Britain in 1815, about 15 pounds of sugar were consumed per person per year—today, it is close to 125 pounds. The total amount consumed is still rising. There have been two interruptions in this trend. During World War I (1914 to 1918), sugar consumption dropped to about 65 pounds, as it did again during World War II (1939 to 1945). This was due to the blockade that prevented shipments of sugar from overseas. In England during the wars, there was a significant improvement in the general health of the nation, something that was very surprising and perhaps even disappointing to the psychosomatic theorists who had predicted that the increased psychosocial stress of the war would increase the incidence of the so-called psychosomatic diseases. But after the wars, the consumption of sugar rose rapidly until it reached its present level. There is no reason to suspect that the consumption has reached its maximum, since the massive intake of sugar produces a form of addiction that drives the intake up and up. This phenomenon has been specific for the industrial nations, but the drive to export has expanded it to the entire globe. Just as bad money drives out good money, so does bad (sweetened) food drive out good food. Many nations who can ill afford to do so are importing increasing quantities of high-sugar–content foods and decreasing their intake of nutritious natural foods.
If you enjoy Mexican food, you know that a traditional breakfast consists of a corn tortilla covered by two fried eggs, with a side order of beans. It is a very inexpensive, filling, and satisfying meal that will keep you from being hungry until evening. We have also observed the ordering habits of the Mexicans in similar restaurants, frequently selecting an American breakfast consisting of pancakes (white flour) covered with syrup, white toast covered with jam, and coffee containing ample quantities of sugar. A Mexican public health official, speaking at a medical meeting, lamented that up to 40 percent of the tested population of Mexico were prediabetic (probably hypoglycemic). It was obvious that the American food was considered more nutritious and valuable since it cost twice as much. It certainly was twice as sweet.
We live in an industrialized culture permeated and saturated with sugar. For an excellent analysis of the toxic effects of sugar, see the book Sweet and Dangerous by John Yudkin, M.D., Ph.D., professor emeritus at Queen Elizabeth College, London. Professor Yudkin recommends that it be banned, and anyone who reads his work carefully must agree, even though it seems almost impossible for this to happen. However, if we were to decrease our consumption to about half of what it is today—to about the level forced upon England by the two wars— there is little doubt that there would be a major improvement in our national health.
As with refined flour, there has been no time to adapt to this newer diet. We do not see how one could ever adapt, unless a few humans develop a gastrointestinal system and bacterial flora that will be able to synthesize vitamins, protein, and fat from the sugar. But this system could not make the minerals that are required. Even if such a development were possible, it would require many hundreds of thousands of years. During this time, the toll on human life and the degree of disease will have been enormous. We do not think we should wait for nature; we should instead use our intelligence and our knowledge of nutrition. By simply reverting to the type of food to which we have been adapted, we can immediately begin to save humanity from a very large fraction of the diseases it will otherwise continue to suffer.
Excessive Consumption of Carbohydrates
Unprocessed—Excessive consumption of carbohydrate foods such as potatoes, wheat,
