Breaking Your Sugar Addiction
By Dr. C.M. Curtis
01/30/2024
I am not alone in my belief that the two biggest health destroyers; the main culprits in the horrific plague of obesity, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune disease, and other destructive health conditions we are experiencing, are the substances found in the sugar and seed oil categories. (The seed oils are discussed in another article) The substances I include in the sugar category are as follows:
Sugar (sucrose)
High fructose corn syrup (worse than sucrose)
Agave (also bad)
Chemical (artificial) sweeteners. These are not sugars, but, because they are used as sugar replacements, and because I do not consider them to be safe, I include them on the list.
Everyone knows that sugar is harmful to the body. It causes too many diseases to list, including the obesity mentioned above, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, and it is my intention in writing this article, to motivate you to get off it and provide information that will help you to do so.
Do chemical sweeteners work?
First, let’s discuss the chemical sweeteners, because most people, when abandoning sugar, turn to them as alternatives. These artificial sweeteners are sold under many different names and maybe even more harmful than the other criminals on the list of common sweeteners. The first question is, do they work? Do they help avoid the obesity and disease caused by sugar consumption? After all, that is why people exchange their sugar for artificial sweeteners.
The short answer is no. They do not prevent obesity. In fact, they appear to cause more obesity and more insulin resistance (the basis of type ll diabetes) than sugar does. In May of 2023, the World Health Organization recommended against the use of artificial sweeteners for the control of body weight.
What does the research say? Ugh. The research is all over the board (depending upon who is paying the researchers, I suppose). The World Health Organization (WHO) lists aspartame as a chemical that possibly causes cancer. The FDA says it’s safe, but, given their dismal track record, their credibility is, well, they have no credibility at all.
In the largest trial so far conducted on the effects of aspartame (also known as Nutrasweet, Equal, and Sugar Twin), in which over 100,000 people participated, researchers found that people who consumed aspartame had much higher rates