The Scoop on Sugar - It's Killing Us

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Created on Monday, 06 February 2012 10:50

Written by Maria Tadd

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The Pendulum Doth Swingeth

Just 30 years ago, in the early 1980s, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was considered to be the “good” sugar. HFCS was portrayed by the food industry as a healthful alternative to sugar. It replaced sugar in sodas and other products in part because refined sugar then had the reputation as a generally noxious nutrient. And to boot, it was also cheaper, which made many food producers very happy. And now the pendulum is swinging back and refined sugar is making a commercial comeback as the supposedly healthful alternative to HFCS. Manufacturers of thousands of products have removed HFCS and display large labels to aid the scrutinizing public looking for HFCS-free products.

Today cane sugar or beet sugar is again the preferred sweetener. But I have bad news – the reality is that sugar and HFCS are effectively identical in their biological effects. They are equally bad, equally poisonous.

For the purposes of this blog, sugar means both sucrose such as beet and cane sugar (white or brown) and high-fructose corn syrup.

We Are Sugar Addicts 

In 2009, Americans on average consumed:

HFCS:  1.4 oz/day – 9.8 oz/wk – 4 gal/year

Sugar:   11.9 tsp/day – 1.7 cups/wk – 45.3 lbs/year 

Robert Lustig is a specialist on pediatric hormone disorders and is the leading expert in childhood obesity at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. His research over 30 years links our excessive consumption of sugar to an increase in obesity and diabetes AND links sugar as the likely dietary cause of several other chronic ailments that plague individuals living a Western lifestyle — heart disease, hypertension and many common cancers.

He claims that sugar has unique characteristics, specifically in the way the human body metabolizes the fructose in it, and that may make it singularly harmful, at least if consumed in sufficient quantities.   Lustig has coined the phrase, “isocaloric but not isometabolic” meaning that foods that are identical in calories are metabolized differently. For example, we can eat the same number of calories from a potato, bread or other starch or from sugar but how the glucose from the starch and the combination of fructose and glucose from sugar are metabolized will have a different effect on the body. Fructose is metabolized primarily by the liver, while the glucose from sugar and starches is metabolized by every cell in the body. Consuming sugar means more work for the liver. Sugar laden sodas and fruit juices are the greatest offenders as the fructose and glucose taken in liquid form reach the liver more quickly. The speed with which the liver has to do its work will also affect how it metabolizes the fructose and glucose.

In laboratory rats and mice, it’s clear that a rapid infusion of a high concentration of fructose results in the liver converting much of it to fat. This then creates a condition known as insulin resistance, which is considered to be the fundamental problem in obesity, and the underlying defect in heart disease and Type 2 diabetes commonly seen in obese and overweight individuals. It might also be the underlying defect in many cancers.

If lab rats are accurately depicting what is also happening in humans, for those of us who are eating large quantities of sugar, we should be very concerned.

Metabolic Syndrome

The term metabolic syndrome has been around for a while. But what does it really mean? It is a cluster of conditions including increased blood pressure, a high blood sugar level, excess body fat around the waist or abnormal cholesterol levels that occur together, increasing one’s risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. It is linked to a condition called insulin resistance.

Insulin, a hormone, is made by the pancreas and helps control the amount of sugar in the bloodstream. When food is consumed, the pancreas secretes insulin to keep blood sugar levels in control.

Once glucose has been broken down, it enters the cells with the help of insulin. In people with insulin resistance, cells don't respond normally to insulin, and glucose can't enter the cells as easily. As a result, glucose blood levels rise even though the pancreas increases its output of insulin. Eventually the pancreas can no longer keep up with the demand or it gives in to what is referred to as “pancreatic exhaustion.”

Once the pancreas can no longer keep up with demand, blood sugar levels can no longer be maintained. An elevated glucose level that is below the diabetes threshold can still be harmful. In fact, some doctors refer to this condition as "prediabetes." Increased insulin increases triglycerides and other blood fats. It also interferes with kidney function and leads to higher blood pressure.

The Insulin/Cancer Connection

Studies have shown that the incidence of cancer increases in the presence of obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. This connection was first reported in 2004 in large population studies by researchers from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.

These findings support two other observations that have led to the well-accepted idea that some large percentage of cancers are caused by our Western diets and lifestyles. This means they could actually be prevented if we could pinpoint exactly what the problem is. 

So what is the insulin/cancer connection? As stated above, metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance results in the production of more insulin which has been linked to promoting tumor growth. If sugar causes insulin resistance, then it is hard to avoid the conclusion that sugar causes cancer — some cancers, at least.

The research is not conclusive, but interestingly, many cancer researchers studying metabolic syndrome  have eliminated sugar from their diet.

Out of curiosity, I did a little research into honey and maple syrup hoping to find that they are metabolized differently, but sadly they aren’t. Honey has some nutritional value, but one should still probably consume it in moderation.

The big unanswered question is how much sugar does it take to send us over the edge, into an unhealthy prediabetic state, into insulin resistance?  That is the $64,000 question.

If you want to learn more about the dangers of sugar, watch Robert Lustig’s YouTube Video – Sugar, The Bitter Truth.

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