Sugar is the Enemy of Your Health
Sugar is the Enemy of Your Health
By Dr. C.M. Curtis
10/21/2024
The historical and statistical information I will present here was taken from an article published on PubMed, entitled, Perspectives: A Historical and Scientific Perspective of Sugar and its Relation with Obesity and Diabetes.
In this article, the word sugar will refer to sucrose (table sugar), or fructose. Sucrose is a disaccharide, meaning it is composed of 2 simple sugars. 50 percent of the sucrose molecule is glucose and the other 50 percent is fructose. It is this fructose portion that harms us. In this article, the words fructose and sugar will be used interchangeably.
Prior to the twentieth century, obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure were extremely rare. In 1892, obesity was reported to affect only one in thirty adults, and diabetes affected only two individuals per 100,000 population. In 1906, high blood pressure was reported to affect less than one percent of the population under 65 years of age.
The above diseases, along with cancer, autoimmune disease, and other degenerative diseases, were about to begin a very rapid rise.
Around the time mentioned above—the late 1800s and early 1900s—doctors in various parts of the world began observing a link between sugar (sucrose) intake and an increase in the rate of diabetes.
In fact, as early as the 6th or 7th century B.C., the great physician Sushruta linked obesity and diabetes with the consumption of sugary beverages (yes, apparently they had them back then too), and in the 12th century, a physician named Maimonides, who spent much of his life in Spain where sugar had not yet been introduced, noted that diabetes was nonexistent there. However, when he went to Egypt, where sugar had entered the diet, he found 20 cases of the disease.
Later, sugar was introduced to Europe, but it was extremely expensive, so only royalty could afford to eat it. The result was that many kings became severely obese. William the Conqueror was so obese, he was accused of being pregnant.
In 1907, a British physician named Sir Richard Havelock Charles was stationed in India, where he observed a rapid increase in type 2 diabetes among the wealthy citizens of Calcutta. He also observed that the disease was very rare among the poor. He linked this with the increasing consumption of sugar by the wealthier people.
In the United States and England, per capita consumption of sugar rose from 4 pounds (1.8 kg) per year in 1700 to more than 150 pounds (68.2 kg) in the year 2000. In 1975 high fructose corn syrup was introduced and things very quickly went from bad to worse.
Today, we have a human tragedy in the form of obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and cancer.
Lying on my desk, as I write these words, is a stack of reports on scientific studies that have been published in PubMed and medical and scientific journals. These reports all discuss different diseases that have been shown to be caused by sugar. Of course, sugar is not the only factor in these diseases; there are other things that modern humans put in or on their bodies, like seed oils, chemical sweeteners, MSG, glyphosate (roundup), and many others that have been shown to cause diseases. My point is not that sugar is the only cause of obesity and disease, but that it is a major factor in the plague of degenerative diseases that currently afflicts our society.
And, little to nothing is being done about it.
I will reference below, just a few research studies reporting on diseases caused by sugar.
Frontiers in Immunology. 2022 Aug 31. Title: Excessive intake of Sugar: an accomplice of inflammation.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2020 Nov 11. Title: Total and added sugar intakes, sugar types, and cancer risk.
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) 2023 Aug 8. Title: Sugar-Sweetened and Artificially Sweetened Beverages and Risk of Liver Cancer and Chronic Liver Disease Mortality.
International Journal of Molecular Science. 2021 Oct 15. Title: Insulin Resistance and Cancer: In Search for a Causal Link. (Note: Sugar causes insulin resistance)
There are many other published studies, connecting sugar intake with an alarmingly long list of diseases.
A crime against humanity
In the November 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, an article was published discussing a hoax perpetrated by the sugar industry in the 1960s and 70s. The article states, “Together with other recent analyses of sugar industry documents, our findings suggest the (sugar) industry sponsored a research program in the 1960s and 1970s that successfully cast doubt about the hazards of sucrose while promoting fat as the dietary culprit in CHD (coronary heart disease).”
In view of the fact that sugar has undoubtedly killed millions more than tobacco has, this damning information ranks the sugar industry above the tobacco industry in terms of crimes against humanity.
Fructose is the culprit
Remember, sucrose is a disaccharide, made up of glucose and fructose. It is the fructose portion that harms us. That’s why high fructose corn syrup is so harmful to the body.
What about fruits? They contain fructose.
That’s true, but consider this statement from the study referenced at the beginning of this article: “. . . a single, natural fruit is usually limited in fructose content (4–8 g) and contains fiber that may slow absorption and a variety of antioxidants and flavonols that may counter the effects of fructose. Indeed, a low-fructose diet that included fruits provided greater benefits than a low-fructose diet without fruits. Having said this, the intake of fruit juice, which contains high concentrations of fructose, should be limited according to the American Academy for Pediatrics because fruit juice is associated with an increased risk of obesity in children.”
I would add, (and common sense would dictate) that if fruit juice causes obesity in children, it can cause it in adults too.
During most of the twentieth century, many health professionals believed that the harm caused by sugar was solely due to the calories it contained. That myth has been completely destroyed, but still, there are a few uninformed die-hards who hang on to the antiquated notions set forth in a book written before 1920. Unfortunately, there are even health professionals who continue to make nutritional recommendations based on these disproven concepts.
Running counter to this flawed information, there have been studies conducted (on mice) in which calories were restricted, but sugar intake still caused the above diseases. It’s not the calories. It’s just not that simple.
The scientific study referenced at the beginning of this article makes the following statements:
“We have found, for example, that fructose (or sugar) will induce fatty liver and insulin resistance (or diabetes) even in calorie-restricted rats.”
2 “. . . studies suggest that fructose-induced obesity is driven by engagement
of a “fat switch” . . .”
3 “The reason fructose is distinct from other foods in its ability to cause fat
storage was shown to be a unique enzyme (fructokinase C) in fructose
metabolism . . .”
4. “Thus, fructose activates a process that leads to fat storage, and indeed
fructose (or sugar) intake is strongly linked with the development of
obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, and heart disease.”
In summary:
It’s not about