The white crystalline substance we know of as sugar is an unnatural substance produced by industrial processes (mostly from sugar cane or sugar beets) by refining it down to pure sucrose, after stripping away all
vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes and other beneficial nutrients. What is left is a concentrated unnatural substance which human body is not able to handle, at least not in anywhere near quantities that is now ingested in today's accepted lifestyle. Sugar is addictive. The average American now consumes approximately 115 lbs. of sugar per year. This is per man, woman and child. The biggest reason sugar does more damage than any other poison, drug or narcotic is twofold:
(a) It is considered a "food" and ingested in such massive quantities, and
(b) The damaging effects begin early, from day a baby is born and is fed sugar in its formula. Even mothers milk is contaminated with it if mother eats sugar, and
(c) Practically 95% of people are addicted to it to some degree or other. Sugar is eaten to excess It has been said that criteria as to whether a substance (any substance) is harmful or medically beneficial is quantity in which it is used in human body. To point to a dramatic illustration: we all know that venom of a rattlesnake, a cobra, water moccasin, coral, and other venomous snakes is deadly to human system. There are some snakes whose bite is so deadly it can cause death within a matter of seconds. Nevertheless, even snake venom, deadly as it is, has been used for therapeutic, medical purposes when used in minute quantities. History of sugar Whereas sugar had been around in minute quantities for several thousand years, it was practically unknown and formed an insignificant part of average diet in Classical civilizations of Egypt, Greece and Rome. The Greeks (who had a word for nearly everything!) did not even have a word for it. Even in medieval Europe it was practically unknown and then only a rare delicacy in royal courts. During last major Crusade that ended in 1204 some of Christian Crusaders were introduced to sugar freely used by Saracens. The Moors when invading and colonizing southern part of Spain grew sugar cane on Spanish soil and refined sugar. When Spain drove out Moors, it inherited some of cane plantations. It was during this time that Christendom took its first big bite of forbidden fruit and liked it. Sugar is addictive A second reason that sugar is so harmful is that like heroin it is addictive, and being delectable and seductive to taste, it is also habit forming. Starting with sugar in baby's formula, people not only develop a strong taste for sugar but an insatiable craving for it so that they never seem to get enough of this poison. Sugar is an unnatural chemical Why is sugar so devastating to our health? One reason is it is pure chemical and (like heroin) through refining has been stripped of all natural food nutrition that it originally had in plant itself. Heroin and sugar are arrived at by very similar processes of refinement. In producing heroin, opium is first extracted from poppy: The opium is then refined into morphine. The chemists then went to work on morphine and further refined it into heroin, proclaiming they had "discovered" a wonderful new pain-killer that was non-addictive. So they said.
