Sugar v.s Sweetener - Truth Be Told

Take a seat. This is a sugar related science lesson for all you non-believers, and those of you whose lackluster attention in grade nine science class has led to some ignorance on this topic.

Most people think that sugar is bad for you. Well in truth, it is.

In its refined state, the most common form of sugar retailed in North America.. oh heck, let's be honest here... worldwide, it has absolutely NO nutritional value WHATSOEVER! Refined sugar is in everything. Take a look around your kitchen and try to find ten products that don't contain refined sugar. I bet most people can't find five. It's in your bread, breakfast cereal, crackers, and yes it's hiding in your junk food. Sugar, to some, is like a drug. You eat it, you love it, you want more!

What exactly is sugar? Well, in its most pure form, it is the juice of the sugar cane or sugar beet plants. A plant- that can't be so bad right? Well in it's raw form, and of course in moderation, it's not THAT horrible. But everything good goes out the door during the refining process: the enzymes, fibre, vitamins and minerals are all essentially washed away.

So what is the sugar refining process you ask. First, the sugar cane is pressed to remove all the natural sweet sugar syrup. The sugar is then washed and passed through filters to remove any non-sugar bits and to remove the natural brown colour. Essentially all that remains is the pure, concentrated carbohydrates which the human body has a hard time digesting without the presence of the now depleted proteins, vitamins and minerals. Once all those good properties are stripped away, the sugar is dried and packed ready for your enjoyment. Oh and just so you know, sugar filters are sometimes made of charred animal bones!

So refined sugar is really just a useless, simple, incomplete carbohydrate. YUCK! Incomplete carbohydrate metabolism often results in the formation of a 'toxic metabolite' such as pyruvic acid and abnormal sugars that contain five carbon atoms. Pyruvic acid has a tendency to hang around and accumulate in your brain and nervous system and the abnormal sugars in the red blood cells. These toxic metabolites essentially mess around with how your healthy red blood cells metabolize oxygen. This means they cannot get enough oxygen to survive and function normally. Don't forget red blood cells carry that most valuable oxygen throughout your whole body. In time, some of the cells will inevitably die. This can and WILL interfere with the function of any part of the body reliant on oxygen (a.k.a all of you) and is the beginning of degenerative diseases. So in essence refined sugar can be linked to an array of medical problems like hypoglycemia, mental and emotional disorders, increase of uric acid in the blood, and an increase of neurotransmitters in the brain. But lets not scare ourselves too much... Yet.

Do you ever wonder how sugar works is pound-packing, butt enlarging, thigh popping magic? Or why you seem to need a new bra another cup size larger after christmas? When you consume refined sugar only an extremely small amount is fully metabolized. The rest is stored in the liver in the form of glucose (glycogen). Since the liver has a very limited capacity, a daily intake of refined sugar (above the required amount of natural sugar) soon makes the liver blow up up up like a balloon. But even your liver knows when enough is too much. When the liver is filled to its maximum capacity, the excess glycogen is returned to the blood stream in the form of fatty acids. These are taken to every part of the body and stored in the most inactive areas: your belly, your butt, your boobs and your thighs. No if's and's or.. Butts!!

High fructose corn syrup is just as bad. Manufacturers love to use it.. in EVERYTHING: yogurt, juice, beer, cookies, candy... the list goes on. It's unbelievably cheap to produce and it's processed even more than sugar, therefore more concentrated, and as a result, even sweeter than sugar. By extension, food manufacturing companies can produce all the fructose corn syrup they like and they need to use less of it to make your sweets sweet! It's a money grab really. Pennies to produce and yet a 2 Lt bottle of Pepsi or Coke sells for over TWO DOLLARS! Imagine the profits there!

So all that doesn't mean that if you eat refined sugar, your gonna die a horribly painful, mentally altered, butt enlarged death, but you should probably look into alternatives. NATURAL alternatives. Not the commercially touted artificial sweeteners you probably have in your pantry or you grandparents carry around religiously.

ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS ARE THE DEVIL! This means diet soda, sugar-free foods and basically anything with Nutra-Sweet, Equal, Sugar Twin, and I'm sure there are more I don't know of. I've actually recently discovered I have a severe allergy to sodium cyclamate ( Sugar Twin) and a lesser allergy to oh yes wait for it.. Aspartame.

Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by scientist James M. Schlatter at the G. D Searle Company ( since purchased by Monsanto). In 1970 Aspartame was put before the FDA for approval. DENIED... EIGHT TIMES! The G.D Searle Company tried again in 1973. But. alas, the FDA's researchers found it to be dangerous and it's use in foods should not be permitted. But somehow, in 1974, the G.D Searle Company got it approved for use in dry food. The following year, the FDA got a bunch of science geeks together to do some more research and found that Searle's Company's research and testing methods weren't up to par and the results varied greatly and were inaccurate as well as slightly manipulated. So just before Aspartame actually made it into dry foods, the request was denied again. A few more years of trying later, in 1981 actually, when a new FDA commissioner, Arthur Hull Hayes was appointed, Aspartame was approved for use in dry foods. In 1983, Aspartame made it's way into a multitude of drinks. That same year Arthur Hayes was forced to leave the FDA amid charges of impropriety and, oh yeah accepting gratuities from FDA-regulated companies... A.K.A he was taking bribes! Anyway, another lump of years later in 1996, Aspartame had it's final victory, having all restrictions lifted for use in, well anything (despite the 90-some proven symptoms resulting from ingesting it). Aspartame can be linked to problems such as memory loss, nerve cell damage, Alzheimer's, bloating, nervous symptom disorders, hair loss (look out ladies and gents), joint pain, mental confusion, and many more I'm sure I've forgotten due to ingesting this crap.

So how is it that one little product such as Aspartame can do this much damage? Well chemically aspartame is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen atoms. Here's the kicker. It's part methyl-alcohol compound, when digested in the stomach converts into a methyl aldehyde, better known as Formaldehyde. We used that stuff to preserve dead piglets in grade 10 science, we didn't have it in our tea at lunch! Formaldehyde is a deadly neurotoxin. Equal, also contains an ingredient called phenylalanine which, yes, does occur naturally in the brain, but increased levels can result in seizures, depression and schizophrenia. Nutra-sweet really is the devil too. It contains saccharine, a coal-tar compound. Saccharine in its basic substance form is benzoic sulfilimine which has effectively no food energy and is much sweeter than sucrose. Yummy!

Now for my favorite bash of the evening. Splenda (commercial name for sucralose). It is true that the Splenda molecule is comprised of sucrose (sugar) — except that three of the hydroxyl groups in the molecule have been replaced by three chlorine atoms. Chlorinated sugar! Delicious! Chlorine is a powerful oxidant and is used in bleaching and disinfectants. As a common disinfectant, chlorine compounds are used in swimming pools to keep them clean when little kids, the elderly, or the just plain lazy individuals decide to use it as their personal lavatory. In the upper atmosphere, chlorine based molecules have been implicated in the destruction of the ozone layer. Do you really want that in your morning cup of java or pot of tea? Sucralose, by the FDA's definition is 98% pure. What they won't tell you is that the other 2% is comprised of small amounts of heavy metals. No, not ACDC or Alice Cooper lol...Mainly methanol and arsenic. Hey, your food my be potentially poisonous, but it's low in calories!

Clearly refined sugar and artificial sweeteners are bad for us. But just in case you still don't see that, here's one last reason why. Our bodies do a delicate balancing act everyday- it's our pH balance (pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution in our bodies) and everything we put into our body has it's own pH balance. When our bodies digest food, an acid or alkaline "ash" is left behind, depending on the foods' mineral content. And guess what? Refined sugar and artificial sweeteners are highly acidic! When our bodies get too acidic, we are prone to more illness, i.e the flu, colds, skin problems, allergies, headaches, and those are the minor maladies we notice right away. Severe thyroid gland damage, liver damage, or adrenal gland damage can occur over time, and unless you can see your insides, good luck noticing those before it's too late. When there is too much acid in our body, it will begin neutralizing its self, taking alkalizing minerals from reserves. If reserves are low, our body takes minerals from our bones and muscles which could lead to osteoporosis. And if that doesn't freak you out, consider this: it's been proven that cancer cells thrive in acidic environments!

I believe that sugar or unnatural alternatives are unavoidable where all commercially prepared food is concerned. But purchasing organic products that use unrefined sugars are the best. And remember moderation is the key. You may not see the harm in one can of Coke a day, but that is still a lot of sugar. Try one can a week.