Related Books:

Taste for Life, Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman November 09, 2009

The average American ingests, on average, about 180 pounds of sugar a year-or approximately half a pound of this nonnutritive substance a day. Over the past 30 years alone, our total calorie intake has jumped 70 percent. Is it any wonder we're in the midst of an obesity-and diabetes-epidemic?

Another culprit is the overuse of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a concentrated sweetener the brain doesn't even recognize as sugar. By replacing sugar with HFCS, manufactured cakes, candies, cereals, cookies, juices, salad dressings, sodas, and syrups override our natural ability to feel full-so we don't know when to stop eating. Not only does HFCS make it easier to gain weight, but this sweetener is metabolized differently in the liver, easily adding to the accumulation of body fat.

More Problems with Sugar
As far back as the late 1960s, nutrition experts were already warning us about the dangers of eating too much refined sugar. Even earlier experts wrote about the insulin connection to disease, resulting from too much sugar in the diet. Today we know that both fructose and sucrose raise triglycerides, while sugary foods and drinks increase inflammation and oxidative stress. High insulin levels also negatively impact aging and life span. Eating sugar and its relatives (particularly HFCS) is like pushing a fast-forward button on cellular age. Some of the most profound instruments of aging are advanced glycation end products (AGEs). The result of a complicated chemical reaction involving crosslinking of sugar and protein when your tissues are exposed to excess glucose, the glycation process impacts collagen, the connective tissue that holds your blood vessels, muscles, and skeleton together. The first organs to show the effects of AGEs are your eyes and your skin with age spots and wrinkles.

The more sugar you consume, the more sugar your body must metabolize and the greater the amount of destructive AGEs and free radicals are produced. Researchers began connecting sugar to heart disease in the 1970s, although it took the American Heart Association (AHA) another 30 years to recommend significant cuts in our consumption of this refined sweetener. Recently, AHA advised women to consume no more than 100 calories (approximately 5 teaspoons) of added sugar per day and men to eat no more than 150 calories (approximately 9 teaspoons) per day.

Sugar is also a known immunosuppressant. This is frightening considering that our ability to withstand all disease depends on an active, healthy immune system. No matter what form it takes, sugar has been proven to reduce the germ-killing ability of white blood cells for up to five hours after consumption. Sugar also reduces the production of antibodies that inactivate foreign invaders in the body, interferes with the transport of vitamin C (important for all facets of immune function), and causes mineral imbalances and sometimes allergic reactions. This further weakens the immune system and neutralizes the action of essential fatty acids, thus making cells in the body more permeable to allergens and pathogens.

The list of sugar-related ailments goes on and on-from acne and arthritis to candida and fatigue to PMS and tooth decay. I've found that the human body needs only about two teaspoons of sugar in the bloodstream at anyone time. And that's easily achieved from fruits and veggies.

Try Natural Sweeteners Instead
Fruit (fresh and dried) are, naturally, one of the best options for sweetening foods. Mashed banana, chopped apple, and raisins are just some of the ways you can satisfy your sweet tooth. Remember, though, that while a little fruit may be healthy, too much can cause all the problems that sugar causes.

Common ingredients in goodies available at health food stores, fruit juices and their concentrates can also be used in your own baked goods and desserts. Consider some of the new juices from "exotic" fruits like goji (containing 18 amino acids, up to 21 trace minerals, carotenoids, vitamin C, and natural fiber), acai (with four times the antioxidant activity of grapes), and mangosteen (loaded with xanthones, which may reduce inflammation and lower the risk of heart disease). While these natural sweeteners contain the nutrients found in fresh fruit, most lack the fiber that helps balance blood sugar, so use juice sweeteners judiciously as well.

Date "sugar" comes from pulverized dried dates, offering the consistency of sugar without being refined. One tablespoon counts as a fruit exchange in the diabetic exchange system, plus this fruit contains fiber and many minerals. Rice syrup powder, or DevanSweet, can be substituted for sugar in equal amounts to create a less sweet version of any recipe. This sweetener contains some complex carbohydrates and minerals too. If you have a real sweet tooth, dehydrated cane juice crystals, or Sucanat, can be substituted equally with sugar in any recipe.

Agave syrup or nectar comes from the fruit of a cactus-like plant. It ranks low on the glycemic index but tastes 75 percent sweeter than sugar, so you need much less to sweeten almost any food or drink. Similarly, aguamiel (also from cactus) is a thick, dark, distinctive-tasting sweetener, reminiscent of molasses, which can be used in small amounts to sweeten bean recipes.

Other natural liquid sweeteners to consider? Amasake, rice syrup, barley malt, and sorghum syrup are made by fermenting the grains from which they come; they contain both complex and simple sugars as well as some of the nutrients in whole grains. Blackstrap molasses is the residue after sugar crystals are removed from beet juice or sugarcane. Although this oldfashioned sweetener is 65 percent sucrose (simple sugar), it also contains antioxidants and minerals including calcium and iron.

Maple syrup is best used in small amounts; it contains a full complement of minerals (particularly calcium and potassium). Because it's sweeter than sugar, honey has more calories and raises blood glucose even more. But natural honey has some medicinal benefits and contains enzymes and minerals. It also keeps baked goods fresher longer than other sweeteners.

Never give honey to an infant under 18 months, as this sweetener sometimes contains trace amounts of botulism spores, which are dangerous in the developing digestive tract. Known as "nature's sweetest
bacteria-buster," manuka honey contains phytonutrients that are especially effective against E. coli and H. pylori bacteria.