Episode 015 | Sugar – The Sweet Poison

Transcript:

Hello again and a warm welcome to episode # 015 of Elmar´s Tooth Talk – The missing link to total health. I am Dr Elmar Jung.

So, before we start, let me tell you What’s in it for you in this episode:

We talk about:

• The true history of sugar
• Why HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP is toxic
• How badly sugar affects your body
• Alternatives to Sugar
• Nursing bottle syndrome
• Worse than sugar: Artificial sweeteners – Aspartame
• Alcohol too is a sugar

Let´s be honest. Most of us have a sweet tooth. Whether it is chocolate, ice cream or cake. It gives us pleasure. It boosts our energy. It gives us a temporary “high” and it is quickly absorbed in our digestive system. 

It works wonderfully! Unfortunately, when the “high” wears off, you experience another dip in energy and look for a second sugar hit to return you back to what you believe is normal.

Sugars have become a part of our modern diet. They are here to stay, especially if you have children, so if you can’t fight them; learn to work around them instead.

We use it for gratification. We use it to keep kids quiet, to satisfy customers or as a replacement for “love”. 

Unfortunately, often we don´t know when to stop because sugar doesn´t give us feeling of satiety and even worse, most people are unaware of the detrimental consequences their sugar consumption has on their overall health.

History

Let’s have look back in time. Until 200 years ago sugar was a real luxury and didn´t play a role in people´s diet. This changed with the industrial revolution in the 19^th century when sugar could be mass produced. 

Seems a bit like a bad running gag. Whether it is sugar, grains, soy, meat, milk, dairy, vegetables, fruit you name it. In the very beginning produced by hand for personal consumption and in its unaltered forms they have all been ok. It is only when mankind starts to fiddle about producing quantity instead of quality, growing & breading faster and cheaper than it becomes a problem.

Let us have a closer look at the effect that sugar and artificial sweeteners have on your body. 

The reason we eat sugar is apart from tasting good and giving us psychological highs, we usually use it to gain energy. However, it has hidden consequences and sugar is known to be very addictive. 

On average we consume 150 pounds of sugar per person per year. That means many of us eat their own weight in sugar EVERY YEAR.

The sugar industry is turning over a 100 billion dollars per year.

Sugar comes in different forms and is not just associated with the white sugar in your sugar bowl. These include brown sugar, raw sugar, fruit sugar, corn sugar/syrup, milk sugar, beet sugar.

All nutrients have been stripped off due to the manufacturing processes. That is why we call sugar an “empty calorie”. By the way the same is true for brown sugar, which contains some colouring, but they are negligible in regards to nutrients.

How is sugar made?

The original sugar cane plant is a complex whole food containing all the goodies such as vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Then it gets refined that means a process which ivolves many chemicals.

Therefore, white sugar, the one that ends up in your sugar bowl, does not contain any nutrients from the original plant instead it is actually a fractionated artificial de-vitalised by-product.

The refined sugar that comes from beets and cane plants is sucrose which was the predominantly used sugar until the mid-1970s. Then man became clever again and found a cheaper source in the name of corn. They managed to change the natural fructose from corn into glucose and by adding a bunch of chemicals, change the glucose into an artifiacal, synthetic type of fructose called high fructose.

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP

Let me repeat this:

Although fructose is known as a fruit sugar, do not get confused with high fructose sugar which has nothing to do with fructose but is actually a corn sugar that has gone through many chemical processes and has a lot of synthetic chemicals added to it making it an artificial synthetic type of fructose called high fructose corn syrup. 

This high fructose corn syrup has become the preferred sweetener in most soft drinks and processed foods due to it being cheaper to produce. 

Worldwide production is close to 10 billion kilograms!

Of all the sugar choices, high fructose corn syrup is more harmful or more likely to cause obesity than ordinary sugar. Some bands even contain added Mercury!

Even worse, High fructose corn syrup cannot be well digested, it actually inhibits digestion, it is addictive and it causes numerous biochemical problems.

Natural sugar from fruit

Whilst fructose can be easily digested by the body as it is a natural sugar from raw fruit and vegetable, high fructose corn syrup does the opposite and triggers chemical reactions within the digestive system and is an artificial food.

Just remember, natural fructose as it is contained in raw fruits and vegetables is a natural food. Eating moderate amounts of natural fructose is normally easily digested by the body with no stress or depleting of mineral stores. 

Natural fructose does not cause rollercoaster blood sugar, unless obviously you overdo it. And natural fructose is not addictive.

So what does sugar do for you?

If for example you have a drop in energy mid-afternoon and then overcome it with a chocolate snack, it feels exactly the right thing to do. What the body asked for was an energy push to alleviate the tiredness, which was fed by the sugar, but this boost of energy is very short-lived resulting in the desire for another. 

An excessive sugar consumption results in a shift of your alkaline acid balance and to overcome this your body or more correctly your blood, needs minerals to buffer the consequential acidity. 

Minerals like calcium and phosphorus are extracted from bones and teeth which de-mineralises them. Teeth then become more susceptible to tooth decay, your bones more brittle and osteoporosis can develop. 

A plant based multi-mineral supplement and Vitamin D-3 and Vitamin K are required to substitute the lost nutrients through this depletion. 

As well as the alkaline/acid balance, the fluid flow that we discussed in one of the previous episodes is reversed. 

Just a reminder this fluid flow which Dr. Steinmann and Dr. Leonora discovered runs from inside the tooth into the mouth. Therefore, the tooth is attacked from two sides. 

Firstly, by demineralisation because the blood has removed minerals from the tooth to keep its alkaline / acid balance and secondly due to its vulnerability to bacteria and toxins because the defence mechanism of the tooth has diminished through excessive sugar intake.

A diet high in fructose and excess sugar makes your body weak. 

Simple sugars cause food cravings, ages your tissues, disrupts hormone function, zaps your brain of energy and dopamine our feel good hormone.

And it raises triglycerides levels which lead to leptin resistance, insulin resistance, Diabetes and obesity.

According to Nancy Appleton’s book “Suicide by Sugar”, sugar suppresses the immune system, causes hyperactivity in children, damages the kidneys, depletes the body of minerals especially chromium, copper, calcium and magnesium, makes the body acidic, causes tooth decay, advances aging, causes digestive disorders, arthritis, asthma, candida albicans, osteoporosis, food allergies, eczema and the list goes on and counts 144 reasons. 

All the symptoms, she goes on to say, are due to one main factor: sugar cannot be digested.

Alternatives to Sugar

There are natural sugars that go ok with most people such as Raw local honey, Stevia Leaf, dates, Coconut nectar or Xylitol.

Stevia is a herbal plant with approximately 200+ species which grow in South America. Research showed Stevia can support blood sugar, diabetes, obesity, weight loss, heart disease and even cancer.

However, not all Stevia products are the same!! The least processed form of Stevia is Green Leaf Stevia which is already 30-40 times sweeter than sugar. 

Stevia extracts have the bitter part of stevia removed. This type is about 200 times sweeter than sugar. 

The altered stevia products which you want to stay away from are produced using a 42-step process to get to the final product plus it has added ingredients which are toxic to liver and they are GMO based. 

One of these products is the one Coca Cola uses as “Truvia”. This product is 400 times sweeter than sugar.

There is also a hype going on about Xylitol. As well as Stevia Xylitol might be beneficial for oral health because it is believed to inhibit the growth of bacteria responsible for tooth decay and gum disease.

Xylitol was originally used for intravenous infusions with diabetic patients due to its safety and non-interference with the blood sugar level.

Xylitol is believed to help with absorption of calcium into bones, stimulating of healthy saliva, reducing of dental plaque and infections in nose, mouth, throat, ears and lungs. And bacteria will not develop resistance against Xylitol.

Again, the problems lie in the process of manufacturing it. At present most Xylitol products are made by hydrogenating. 

This poses the problems all hydrogenated foods do as they are known to be co-factors in diseases such as Alzheimer´s, Diabetes, Behavioural irritability and the nickel used in the process is known to be linked to e.g. Asthma, Allergies and Kidney problems.

So, despite some advantages of those sugars mentioned you should still keep your sugar consumption as low as possible and aim for high quality products. And as always: Read the label.

NURSING BOTTLE SYNDROME

Mothers of small children have been shocked to find that by putting sweetened water or undiluted fruit juice in a baby’s bottle, the child’s first teeth start to decay before they are two years old. Causing what is called the nursing bottle syndrome.

This may be obvious to some but, when sweetened drinks are actively promoted for babies, how do we know who to trust? 

The process of tooth decay starts in childhood, long before people even reach their teenage years.

What about artificial sweeteners. 

Take for example, Aspartame, which has the E-number E951. It is said that it was originally formulated by Chemist Jim Schlatter who was working on a new treatment for gastric ulcers. 

When he accidently spilt some on his hand and later licked it by accident, he discovered its sweet taste. As a result, he and his colleague decided to test some in coffee, and both agreed the chemical had a sweet taste. 

Aspartame was then changed on the FDA paperwork from drug to food additive but the substance itself did not change. 

Meanwhile research has discovered that it can be carcinogenic. There are over 92 different health side effects associated with Aspartame consumption and some of these include: headaches and dizziness, mood changes, vomiting, abdominal pain, change in vision, diarrhoea, seizure, memory loss, rashes and other neurological problems. 

Aspartame contributes to over 75% of the adverse reactions to food additives. According to many researchers, some chronic illnesses can be triggered by ingesting Aspartame such as brain tumours, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s disease, mental retardation, Diabetes and birth defects.

Aspartame –  the silent killer ? 

There are so many dangers relating to Aspartame that in 1997, Janet Starr Hull wrote her book “Sweet Poison: How the World’s most artificial sweetener is killing us”, where she provides a deep insight into the abyss of the sugar industry. 

Aspartame allows too much calcium into the brain cells and thereby prevents the transmission of information from neuron to neuron. Too much calcium triggers excessive amounts of free radicals which then kill the cells.

Aspartame is the number one food additive on the market. It is also a component of thousands of prescription and non-prescription drugs. 

Did you get that? It is a component of thousands of prescription and non-prescription drugs

We’re talking billions and billions of dollars every year.

Sugar Blues

In his classic book from the mid-1970s “Sugar Blues” William Dufty provides a fantastic insight into the world of sugar from the 15^th century to the present.

He shows how the sugar taxes brought great wealth to the kings of England, France, Spain and Holland as well as to the slave traders, shipping merchants and plantation owners.

And Dufty makes an incredible comparison between the drug opium and sugar saying:

“Both we don’t need, both became sources of huge revenue and taxes, both have some dark history involving immense human suffering and both can cause physical degeneration and death after long periods of dependence”.

Dufty proves that modern mankind is degenerating, devolving as a race, becoming sicker and weaker decade by decade. Certainly, nothing in the 50 years since Sugar Blues came out can dispute that idea: Just look around you. 

Seems like half our school kids are either on Ritalin, inhalators, some kind of allergy medicine most of the time or are obese or a combination of it. 

And look at the rise of degenerative disease.

This brings me to a man I have mentioned frequently in previous episodes: Dr Weston Price.

Dr Weston Price had come to the exact same conclusions in his ground-breaking book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. 

In the 1930s, Weston Price travelled around the world examining the teeth and skulls of every primitive race he could find – American Indians, Swiss Alps villagers, Eskimos, aborigines, Scottish primitives, Fiji islanders, and others.

Price’s conclusions proved when a people would become exposed to western foods – mainly white sugar and white flour – within only a few years, they would be experiencing rates of tooth decay, tuberculosis and arthritis equal to the “civilized” nations. 

Price found that as long as a group of people could remain isolated and eat their ‘primitive’ simple foods, the rates of tooth decay and degenerative disease were practically zero.

Price’s work has never been challenged.

How much sugar do we need?

Well, we actually don’t need any white sugar. 

For a moment imagine pouring a teaspoon of sugar in 12 ounces empty bottle. And another one, and another one until you have 10 teaspoons of sugar in the bottle. It’s a lot isn’t it? That is exactly the amount a 12 ounce soft drink contains. 

To put this into even more perspective. 

In your bloodstream, you have about 5 litres of blood. In those 5 litres there are approximately 2 teaspoons of glucose circulating at any one time. 

That means that one bottle of coke raises the blood sugar to 5x its normal level. And this level is raised for at least four hours.

Do see where I’m getting at?

Now take a deep breath. This is only one soft drink. I bet you know people who drink more than one soft drink per day? How about per hour? Do you need a calculator?

But that’s not all. 

Add to this the sugar in desserts, ice cream, cakes, and candy. 

And we haven’t even looked into the hidden sugar found in ketchup, processed meats, baby food, cereals, and most other processed foods.

And by the way, did you know that alcohol is a sugar? 

So, add wine, beer, liquor. 

I trust you are getting the picture. Do you think you know anyone with only 2 teaspoons of glucose in the blood?

How do we absorb sugar?

All sugars break down to glucose. Glucose is easily absorbed through the digestive tract and goes immediately into the bloodstream. We need glucose for proper cell function, especially in the brain. 

However, too much glucose and we become diabetic, too little and we pass out. And our body is pretty good in keeping a healthy level. Pancreas and adrenal glands work finely tuned together.

A fantastic system that has evolved over 10 of thousands of years. It is perfectly capable of balancing blood sugar, with a diet of natural foods. 

Then man started to fiddle around again thinking it can improve nature and manmade sugar  came on the scene – a compound that nature would have invented a long time ago if would be deemed beneficial. 

This new chemical, offering monstrous amounts of refined glucose to the bloodstream without the benefit of any of the usual accompanying fibres, minerals, vitamins and enzymes – was an assault on our human biochemistry. 

All these precious stores of nutrients which the body had other plans for, must now be mobilized and used up in order to deal with 150 pounds per year of a devitalized artificial dead, non-food. 

This leads to the malnutrition of the Western so-called civilised people.

What about alcohol?

Let’s have a brief look into alcohol. Alcohol is a sugar. Full stop!

Even worse, it is a fermented sugar. Alcohol is super-refined.

Alcohol enters the body with no vitamins, minerals, or enzymes to support in its breakdown. 

At least sugar products must pass through the digestive system before they enter the bloodstream. 

Alcohol, however is absorbed into the bloodstream immediately, right through the stomach. 

Alcohol creates an immediate assault on all the body’s stores of enzymes, insulin, vitamins, and minerals, which seek to break it down and maintain the blood’s delicate pH. 

That’s how alcohol ages the body so fast – that’s why many alcoholics look so old. They are chronically dehydrated. 

What does refined sugar do to your body?

The symptoms are sheer endless.

It suppresses your immune system, causes hyperactivity in children, damages your kidneys, depletes you of minerals, vitamins and enzymes, advances aging, causes arthritis, asthma, tooth decay, migraines and the list goes on and on and on.

In her excellent book “Lick the Sugar Habit”  Nancy Appleton lists a plethora of symptoms related to sugar consumption. ALL symptoms documented with a different study!

Sugar just cannot be digested. 

Sugar inactivates your digestive enzymes. Sugar remains in the digestive tract, fermenting. 

Some of sugar’s toxic load gradually seeps into the bloodstream where it acidifies the blood. 

The body tries desperately to maintain the normal pH of the blood. The above symptom list shows the end-results of those efforts, the signs of their failure, or else the degeneration of a tissue that has become the final resting place for fermenting debris in an overloaded system

I would like to end on a positive note with a citation from a very famous Swiss doctor, alchemist, Mystic and philosopher who lived from 1493 to 1541 under the name of Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim – rings a bell – probably better known as Paracelsus.

He once said, “All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dosage makes a thing not poison.”

However, this was centuries before food processing was even invented and therefore doesn’t hold true for sugar. Sugar, like arsenic or opium is a poison.

You think you can quit? Great!!

Make the test! Can you quit?

Everyone addicted to anything for the past 300 years has said “I can quit anytime”. 

Prove it.

Do it now.

If you think you aren’t addicted to white sugar, prove it. For 72 hours. 

No coke, no artificial fruit drinks, actually best no fruit drinks at all, no donuts, no ice cream, no bananas best only berries, no dried fruit, and think of everything you eat and drink such as condiments, sauces, alcohol as well as aspartame and the like. 

For 72 hours.  Read the labels!!

Let me know how you got on.

That’s enough challenge for today. Go and do it!

Until next time, this is Elmar’s Tooth Talk – The Missing Link to Total Health. 

Bye for now.

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