The Truth about Sugar
By: Dr. Skip Hellen ND, CNC (Health Doctor)  Rev. 11/13/2013

Sugar
An avalanche of scientific evidence shows us that sugar in food is devastating human health. It comes as no surprise that both sugar in the standard American diet (SAD) and the current epidemic of degenerative diseases. The largest source of calories in American diets comes from sugar, specifically high fructose corn syrup. Below are the sugar consumption trends over the past 300 years. These numbers represent the average personal sugar consumption per year.

Chronic over Sugar Consumption
Excessive sugar consumption leads directly to hyperglycemia, a serious condition of systemic biochemical imbalance. Hyperglycemia leads to a wide range of ill health problems, including rapid biological degeneration (aging), illness, disease and premature death. In the late 1800’s, there were less than three cases of diabetes per 100,000 people in the United States. Today, 8,000 out of every 100,000 people suffer from diabetes. The most recent 100% increase in the past ten years has resulted in a correlating double of diabetes disease which is in direct proportion to the amount of sugar consumption. All the while the medical community maintains that diet or consumptive habits have little or nothing to do with illness and disease.

Currently more than 30% of Americans are obese and another 1/3 is overweight. This represents 2/3 of the American population with a health compromising weight problem which is a direct result of consumptive habits. It is painfully obvious that not only is the amount of sugar consume on average sky rocketing, but the associated ill health effects. What’s more devastating is much of the sugar consumed is in the form of liquid (sodas and high fructose corn syrup loaded beverages), which enter the bloodstream with even more devastating, health destructive impact than solid sugars. Most understand that being chronically overweight significantly increases the risk of the current epidemic of degenerative conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis the four biggest killer diseases in America today.

Glucose is the chemical energy the body is designed to use
Fructose, sucrose and other simple sugars metabolized much differently by the body than glucose making them much more dangerous to the human body especially in massive doses such as currently being consumed by average Americans.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
HFCS is a sweetener made from corn and is found in alarming quantities in most foods and beverages on grocery store shelves today. HFCS is perhaps the single most health damaging food additive commonly consumed. If you take the time to carefully read the labels, you will find that HFCS is one of the top additives in most processed food widely marketed producing enormous profits at the expense of unsuspecting consumers who are driven mainly by taste in their food consumption habits.

It may come as no surprise that HFCS is in processed foods because the manufactures know what increases sales (good taste). Sugar is the added ingredient that generates the most profit when added to processed foods. It is relatively cheap and exponentially increases profits. No wonder it is in almost all processed foods, it is great business. When the bottom line is profits not public health this is what happens.

Are we being mislead about the health dangers of sugar in our diet by authorities for power and profit?
The following are published opinions by so called reputable sources.

How does excessive sugar consumption affect human health?
Refined sugar contains no fiber, no minerals, no proteins, no fats, no enzymes, only empty calories. For this reason it has been accurately described as a negative food, essentially all bad for health.

When excessive refined carbohydrate like sugar is consumed, the body must borrow vital nutrients from healthy cells to metabolize this negative, incomplete food. Vital health generating nutrients like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium are scavenged from other parts of the body to utilize the sugar. Over time so much calcium is scavenged to neutralize the acidic effects of sugar consumption that the bones become osteoporotic due to calcium loss. In addition this calcium loss frequently leads to jawbone degeneration and tooth loss.

Because refined sugar is void of healthy nutrients, it causes depletion of stored health generating nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. Chromic sugar consumption leads to over-acidification (acidosis), requiring more minerals which are already in short supply resulting in serious systemic biochemical imbalance. This systemic biochemical imbalance causes significant biological malfunction which impairs the bodies ability to rid itself of poisonous residues (detoxify). The bloodstream rapidly becomes over-loaded with waste products and symptoms of carbonic poisoning result (toxemia). This condition of toxic accumulation through the body speeds up cellular degeneration (aging), biological damage, and death.

Insulin Response
The body has an automatic response system to deal with sugar consumption (insulin). Insulin is a hormone; its main purpose is to regulate blood sugar. When excessive sugar is consumed, the pancreas releases insulin to counter the destructive properties of sugar in the blood.

Insulin, Biological Damage & Aging
Perhaps the most damaging effects of insulin are it encourages cellular proliferation and division. Unfortunately, these actions accelerate the rate of cellular aging and in doing so, shorten human life span.

The question one must ask is if sugar wasn’t so devastating why would the body have a regulatory system designed specifically for its regulation? The answer is obvious; sugar is dangerous to human biochemistry. In fact, some health experts have labeled sugar a drug because of its powerful and potentially destructive effects on health.

Aging
Human aging can divide aging into two major categories, one being the genetic or heredity factor causes of aging. Genetically cells have a limited capacity to divide, the more rapidly cells divide, the more rapidly they age. The second is biological damage resulting from behavior, environment, and how we maintain internal biochemical balance (homeostasis) optimal health. The closer we stay to internal biochemical balance, we not only live healthier, we live longer.

Many studies have found in animal studies that the rate of aging can be largely controlled by insulin. Because the amount of insulin is governed by the presence of sugar, a direct relationship between sugar and aging is assured. In short, lower sugar consumption results in lower insulin release reduces the rate of aging in humans.

The two major causes of accumulated biological damage (aging) are oxygenation and glycation.

Oxidation
Whenever oxygen combines with something, it’s called oxidation. Oxygen is not only vital for human life it can be poisonous in high concentrations as well. Advanced life on earth has always startling a fine line between life and death with oxygen. To much results in rapid oxidation (aging) and not enough results in unhealthy biological imbalance, spontaneous pathogenic proliferation and a wide range of degenerative disease lead by cancer and heart disease, currently the two top human disease killers.

Glycation
Most know that oxygen causes damage, but unfortunately few are aware of the damaging effects of glycation. Glycation is similar to oxidation as it relates to health. Glycation refers to the process of combining with glucose. When glucose combines with anything it becomes very biologically sticky.

Glucose prefers to stick to proteins. These glycation proteins are called advanced glycated end products (A.G.E.s). This acronym is not an accident. It refers to the turnover rate of proteins. Rapid protein turnover is best to avoid toxic accumulation (toxemia). Glycation damages the protein to the extent that they become a stress on the ability to repair and maintain body tissues. When old protein can’t be removed promptly, and A.G.E.s accumulates, biological damage (aging) accelerates.

When A.G.E.s accumulates, inflammatory reactions occur. A diet that promotes elevated glucose produces increased glycated proteins and A.G.E.s. This will increase the rate of inflammation. Interestingly, when changing to a diet low in sugar and protein all the symptoms associated with runaway glycation rapidly vanish.

Glycated proteins make a person very pro-inflammatory, age rapidly, and increase the accumulate damage of oxidation. Another way to reduce rapid aging and glycation is reduce the consumption of fats (lipids) in the diet; they tend to turn rancid (glycate).

Obvious Symptom of Chronic Toxemia
Chronic systemic toxic accumulation (toxemia) becomes painfully obvious with degenerative dental problems (bone, tooth and gum disease).

Most Important Fact about Sugar
Perhaps the most important fact to understand is that sugar promotes biochemical acids. Biochemical acids promote an environment idea for spontaneous microbial proliferation leading to toxemia. Chronic acid and toxemia cause biochemical imbalance which is the main causes of not only most biological degeneration (aging) but most illness and disease.

Relatively Healthy Natural Sweeteners
While sugar in any form causes health negative biochemical reactions, natural sugars are far less damaging than highly processed or refined sugars like HFCS. The other thing to remember is sugar in liquid form can be far more damaging than condensed sugar although both are relatively unhealthy.

Stevia
Is a very sweet herb plant from South American. In its natural (unprocessed) form, has none of the negative health properties of sugar, containing health producing chlorophyll and many feel tastes as or more sweet than sugar. While I use no added sugar to my blends or foods, I do use fruits to sweeten things, especially blended drinks and smoothies. I’m not partial to the taste of stevia but use it occasionally in my blended smoothies.

Honey
Contains around 50+% fructose however in its natural, raw form contains many health benefits when used in moderation, including antioxidants comparable to spinach. Bee pollen is another natural healthy bee product.

Summary
Sugar is a natural compound, however in its highly processed form can be devastating to human health. Its consumption has increased by 100% in the past 10 years alone which is in direct proportion to the amount of refined sugar consumption. This increased sugar consumption is encouraged by commercial food processors lead by the development of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), the consumption of which correlates with a wide range of degenerative illnesses and diseases now at epidemic levels. The powers that be (AMA, ADA, and FDA) are not only promoting untruths about sugar, they are actively misrepresenting and counseling the facts presumably for power and monetary gain. Refined sugar consumption causes an automatic insulin response. Insulin triggers rapid cellular aging from oxidation and glycation. In addition to insulin, sugar tends to imbalance internal biochemistry, encourage acid production and accumulation (acidosis) which establishes an ideal environment for pathogenic proliferation, illness and disease. The best way to manage the toxic effects of sugar is to reduce or eliminate it from the diet.

"Illness and disease are optional, choose not to participate" ~ Dr. Skip Hellen

Important understanding
It’s important to understand that optimal health can only be achieved and maintained when nutritional, physical, and mental requirements are met resulting in systemic biological balance (homeostasis).

The following are the cornerstones of success with anything in life, make these qualities an important part of your life strategy and you will achieve excellence in anything you do. 

   Personal responsibility encourages excellence,
character requires personal excellence,
commitment advances positive action,
discipline strengthens personal power,
tenacity promotes success ~ Dr. Skip Hellen 

OPTIMAL HEALTH ACTION STEPS
1. (Develop) a strong sense of self respect and discipline
2. (Pledge) Take the "Declaration of Health Independence" pledge
3. (Test) Complete the health assessment test (establish a personal health baseline)
4. (Decide) Set a goal to achieve personal health excellence (optimal health)
5. (Education) Learn health principles how to achieve optimum health
6. (Heath Compass) Buy a pH litmus test kit, start testing frequently – keep a test result log
7. (Manage/Adjust) Change behavior habits for best results
8. (Commitment) Stay the course until achieving personal health excellence
9. (Mentor) Help another achieve personal health excellence

Since behavior habits and nutrition are critical components of human health and longevity, denial, shortcuts and misguided beliefs can be very costly not only in terms of lost monetary wealth but in compromised health leading to rapid aging, illness, disease and death. DON’T TAKE YOUR HEALTH FOR GRANTED. IF YOU DON’T TAKE PROPER CARE OF YOUR HEALTH, WHO WILL?

The important thing to remember is consumptive habits (foods) will form the foundation of either optimal health or illness and disease. The old saying "you are what you eat" is absolutely true when it comes to health.

Developing strong personal character (respect, belief, knowledge, discipline, commitment) are the cornerstones of all personal excellence accomplishments. Taking the "Declaration of Health Independence" pledges and adopting the behavior principles solidifies a vital first step on the road to optimal health success. These pledge commitments not only help develop the skills required to accomplish the goal but better define the path to personal health excellence. The second step is purchasing a litmus test kit to accurately monitor health progress. (see below for event test kit sale)

Perhaps the hardest part of achieving optimal health is changing unhealthy behavior habits to healthy habits.

YOU provide the Courage, Dedication, Commitment and Action,
UHRI will provide the EDUCATION/KNOWLEDGE and DIRECTION

To get health help and learn more about “Mastering the Secrets of Ultimate Health” and achieve personal health excellence goals, log onto the web site below. UHRI is ready, willing, and able to help everyone achieve optimal health.

Litmus test kits are on sale for $10 (Events Only)
(A litmus test kit is an absolute must for those who are serious about ultimate health)

To learn more information on how to resolve health problems or achieve personal health excellence, refer to UHRI at www.uhealthri.com. Educational classes, programs, mentors and consultants are ready to help you achieve all your health goals including optimal health. Contact UHRI Office at - 714-969-1681

Live long, happy, ultimately health and wise

Dr. Skip Hellen