Want To Know The Secrets On Sugar?

For the purposes of this article post, I did a bit of investigative research.

I began my adventure into the world of sugar and found some interesting and quite shocking things that lead me down a multitude of different directions that all seem to point to one common denominator, sugar is killing people each and every minute.

That might seem like a big claim to make, and let me preface I am not a medical doctor nor am I giving you medical advice. This is post is purely for informational purposes.

This is simply, one person’s commentary on the subject of sugar and it’s link to some of the leading causes of death worldwide.

During my investigative research I discovered some alarming common denominators, which really would be best described with some visual cues.

This is a graph from the World Health Organization showing the top 10 leading causes of death worldwide. (Note: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive lung disease that makes it difficult to breathe.)

After seeing the above diagram, I decided to explore a little further, and I came across this site called World Life Expectancy which its name pretty much sums up what it is all about.

On the site, there is a world health ranking displaying the top 20 causes of death by country.

Taking into consideration that my ancestors are from China, and I am a fourth generation American, born and raised in the states, currently living in Spain, with a girlfriend that is from Bolivia, I thought I would compare and look at each of these four countries side by side: Bolivia, China, Spain and USA.

This comparison covers four countries in four separate continents, North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.

What I uncovered was quite interesting.

In each country, the top three causes of death are identical, of course in varied order but nevertheless the same:

1. Coronary Heart Disease
2. Stroke
3. Lung disease/cancer

Lung disease/cancer shows up in three of the four, whereas Influenza & Pneumonia shows up in only one, however Influenza/Pneumonia has to do with the lungs; and it is essentially inflammation and/or infection of the lungs, i.e. respiratory infection. So it’s basically in and around the same area of the body, the lungs.

The remaining other seven top causes of death in each country; center around diseases of the organs and seem predominantly shared among all four countries, with Diabetes and Hypertension being in three of the four countries, and liver and cancer being common among all four countries.

Note: There has been links between High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) and Diabetes.

So the question, now is, how can four completely different countries, in four separate parts of the world, with their own distinct culture and languages, share some of the top causes of death?

I am no rocket scientist, nor do I think that one is required to figure this one out. Instead, I will defer the question to William of Ockham and his trite but often precise contribution to problem solving known as Occam’s razor which states that, “The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely correct.”

Could it be possible that diet is the guilty party?

I can tell you this, that even in the most remote locations on the planet, you will be sure to find a can of your favorite chemically laden and artificially flavored sugary soda wherever you go.

When I backpacked throughout Northern and Southern Spain, I visited some of the smallest villages, consisting of 20-30 people, and even there I found sugar ridden and artificially flavored soft drinks.

Did you know that there are over 100 names for sugar?

I had no idea, here is a list that I found:

102 Names for Hidden Sugar

That borders on ridiculous. Seriously over 100 names?

Other sources I found came up with 50-57 names, the list above was one of the most exhaustive and detailed lists that I could find.

I want to clarify that when I am speaking about sugar, I am not referring to naturally occurring sugar that is found in fruits, vegetable and whole grains.

The sugar that I am referring to is the added refined white sugar that is found in processed foods.

For the purpose of brevity, let’s look at just the top leading cause of death (Heart disease) and see if there is a connection or not with sugar.

In a study published in January 2014.

According to a 15 year study published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) : Internal Medicine, those who got 17 to 21 percent of calories from added sugar had a 38 percent high risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to those who consumed 8 percent of their calories from added sugar. The risk was more than double for those who consumed 21 percent or more of their calories from added sugar.

According to Laura Schmidt, a health policy specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. She wrote an editorial accompanying the study in Monday’s JAMA Internal Medicine, “Too much sugar does not just make us fat; it can also make us sick.”

According to William Dufty in his article, Why Sugar Is Toxic To The Body:

In 1957, Dr. William Coda Martin tried to answer the question: When is a food a food and when is it a poison? His working definition of “poison” was: “Medically: Any substance applied to the body, ingested or developed within the body, which causes or may cause disease. Physically: Any substance which inhibits the activity of a catalyst which is a minor substance, chemical or enzyme that activates a reaction.”1 The dictionary gives an even broader definition for “poison”: “to exert a harmful influence on, or to pervert”.

Dr. Martin classified refined sugar as a poison because it has been depleted of its life forces, vitamins and minerals. “What is left consists of pure, refined carbohydrates. The body cannot utilize this refined starch and carbohydrate unless the depleted proteins, vitamins and minerals are present.

Refined sugar is lethal when ingested by humans because it provides only that which nutritionists describe as “empty” or “naked” calories. It lacks the natural minerals which are present in the sugar beet or cane.

In addition, sugar is worse than nothing because it drains and leaches the body of precious vitamins and minerals through the demand its digestion, detoxification and elimination makes upon one’s entire system.

Sugar taken every day produces a continuously over-acid condition, and more and more minerals are required from deep in the body in the attempt to rectify the imbalance.

Obviously, statistics and research findings can massaged to help one’s position either way, and as you probably guessed, I am somewhat biased when it comes to sugar, which can lead to confirmation bias.

I think the thing that is worth noting, is that as a country, we are not getting healthier, we are in fact leading the world in obesity.

I can only think that the climbing obesity rates are some how connecting to the increased incidences of heart disease, diabetes, lung disease, and a host of other maladies including cancer.

One only has to stop and see the data, and ask what’s going on here?

What’s the correlation?

I suspect, and this is just one guy’s opinion, that the problem is two-fold.

On one side, I think we are not being told all the facts when it comes to refined sugar and it’s saccharin, and on the other side it is my belief that the so-called experts really have no idea about the dangers of sugar.

In both cases, education, or lack thereof, is really at the cause.

Refined sugar and artificial sweeteners are some of the most additive and potent substances on the planet.

Could it be that sugar and other artificial sweeteners are more addictive than cocaine and heroin?

I think time will only tell, but I don’t think we can wait too long, as it just might be a ticking time bomb counting down to its last few seconds.

The health crisis worldwide has reached epic proportions and we must change the way we eat and our relationship to food and above all sugar.

Here are some more videos on the subject of refined sugar: