From the Desk of Carolyn Dean MD ND
Exposing Sugar Toxicity: a Clinical Perspective is now available! I started talking about this book in the early 1990’s when I was speaking publicly about the dangers of sugar consumption that go far beyond tooth decay. You know I’ve published nearly a hundred books since then so why did it take me thirty years to get this book about sugar to you?
My original book about the dangers of sugar was put on the back burner when a sugar lobby group complained to my licensing board that I was saying bad things about sugar on national television in Canada. The result was an underhanded attack by the board in Ontario several years AFTER I’d left Canada to do AIDS research. It seems that all they wanted to do was publicize my case in the Ontario doctors’ quarterly bulletin serving as a warning to others who might have the nerve to warn their patients about the health threats of sugar.
Patients believe that your doctors will warn you about any dangerous substance you may be ingesting. But your doctor won’t tell you anything that could result in them losing their medical license. Let’s see what Dr. Google typically says when I search “medical opinion about sugar”.
What Dr. Google or an MD might say about sugar:
The first thing that stands out are the words “high in added sugar”. Nobody in the medical establishment is saying that all sugar should be avoided, but diets high in added sugar can lead to weight gain and obesity which can, in turn lead to heart disease and type 2 diabetes. One site says that high added sugar intake does not cause heart disease but can lead to obesity which can lead to heart disease. (Even Dr. Google won’t criticize sugar).
The WHO (World Health Organization) suggests that all sugar intake, included added, and naturally occurring in honey, syrups and juices should make up no more than 10% of your total daily caloric intake. Furthermore, the WHO suggests that 5% of your calories from sugar would provide health benefits.
The WHO made this recommendation in 2003 and if it had been strictly supported and followed, I’m sure that the current health crises of obesity, diabetes and heart disease would have fewer casualties.
What is 10% of calories from sugar?
Let me do the math for you. If the average diet is about 2000 calories, the WHO is saying that you should try to take in less than 200 calories of sugar each day. That’s the rough equivalent of one or two sugar laden sodas per day. Obviously (to me) that’s still too much sugar, and the WHO further recommended that 5% of calories from sugar would be safer.
But critics argue that this WHO recommendation “is not well supported by available evidence,” and calories from sugar are no different from calories from fat and protein.¹
So, depending on what you want to hear, you can easily and dangerously surmise that you can consume as much sugar as you want without ill effects.
What I say about sugar
I just published Exposing Sugar Toxicity: A Clinical Perspective, which is 400 pages of information about the realities of sugar, so you know I have a lot to say! One of the foundations of my work as a medical researcher is the history of current policies in the health and food industries.
For example when the WHO recommended in 2003 that 10 percent, and preferably 5 percent of daily calories should come from added sugar, they acknowledged the dangers of sugar in an independent expert report titled “Diet, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases”. What Dr. Google doesn’t tell you is that in the US, the sugar industry and the soft drink industry fought tooth and nail to have this WHO policy removed, and to raise the allowable sugar levels.
In fact (yes, fact) the sugar industry actually lobbied the U.S. Government to withhold its $400 million funding from the UN and WHO if it went ahead with its recommendations. Chaos ensued as different government agencies and ethical health organizations fought these recommendations to reduce chronic disease!
You can read details about this history in Exposing Sugar Toxicity, but in the meantime be shocked that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended that 25 percent of calories from added sugar can be taken without adverse effects.
Just know that for an average diet of 2000 calories, a quarter of that, or 500 calories, is equivalent to 125 grams of sugar, which is almost 30 teaspoons of sugar a day. I’ve often made the point that at any one time there are only two teaspoons of sugar in the blood stream. Therefore, ingesting 30 teaspoons daily can lead to insulin resistance and result in obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
In the US, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans only advise that sugar should be used in moderation, which gives no indication to the public that excess sugar is dangerous.
What do you mean sugar is dangerous?
Again, I wrote a whole book on this topic, (and you can get if for $0.99 on Amazon Kindle) but here is one of the main things about sugar which is at the root of its chronic overconsumption and its link to serious health issues. Sugar is wildly addictive! In fact, according to addiction researcher and author, Janice Keller Phelps, sugar addiction is the first that most people experience and that paves the way for further addiction to alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, opiates, prescription drugs and other substances.
In her treatment of people addicted to alcohol and heroin, for example, she found that during treatment they consumed a massive amount of sugar in attempt to replace the feelings associated with their drug or drink of choice. In her work she concluded that sugar addiction is lifelong and that those addicted to sugar early on may be at higher risk of drug and alcohol addiction.
Here is a snippet from Exposing Sugar Toxicity:
We have four taste senses: sweet, sour, bitter, and acid. If we influence the sweet and salt taste senses by including fast foods and snacks in our diets, we will develop a preference for sweet and salty foods. This is facilitated by our natural preference for sweetness, which is well known and worldwide.
In my practice, I had patients who freely admitted that they felt addicted to sugar and that they really needed to have something sweet every day. With patients that have a condition requiring them to limit their intake of sugar, I recommend that they avoid it for a minimum of three weeks. Their reactions – bargaining, anger, tears – strongly suggest a sugar addiction, the same as an addiction to coffee, tobacco, or drugs.
At the end of three weeks’ time, the majority of patients find that:
- They feel immeasurably better in their overall health.
- If after about ten days to two weeks they stray from the diet and eat a sugared dessert or drink a soft drink, they will find, to their surprise, that it tastes excessively sweet. They will also report feeling much worse in their symptoms after eating the sugar.
- At the end of the three weeks, they usually feel they can now take sugar in moderation, thereby keeping their symptoms under control.
Here’s another shocker: people report experiencing withdrawal symptoms. I’ve heard this repeatedly during my 45 years of urging people to drop sugar from their diet. On top of a deep craving for sugar, folks experience irritability, insomnia, itchiness, stomach upsets (either constipation or diarrhea).
I share this information about sugar addiction as foundational to an understanding of the dangers of sugar. If you’re addicted to the substance, you’ll be less inclined to limit your intake and therefore more inclined towards illnesses that are associated by over consumption of sugar.
What you can do
Stop eating sugar and call our wonderful Customer Experience Team to help build a healthy protocol that you can depend on. That protocol will often include our picometer magnesium, multiple mineral, methylated, food-based Bs and vitamin C.
More Sugar Blogs to come! But in the meantime, be sure to pick up your Kindle copy on Amazon.
Carolyn Dean MD ND
The Doctor of the Future
