Sugar Addiction - A National Problem

Of all the animal species, the human race has a very high proclivity to sugar addiction and sugar dependence. Doctors will issue a bag full of prescription drugs and not once say, "avoid all sugar."
America’s latest epidemic is most certainly in direct relationship to sugar consumption. According to the U. S. Surgeon General, 61% of adult Americans are clinically overweight. Furthermore, being overweight is very often a precursor to more serious health problems: including death, says the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in an article titled, "The Glycemic Index."
The American Diabetes Association reports that 18.2 million Americans have serious blood sugar conditions. Shockingly, only about 13 million have been diagnosed while another 5.2 million are unaware that they are victims. Of those afflicted, seniors are at greatest risk.
Scientific evidence points to abnormally high levels of insulin in your blood (hyperinsulinemia) as a leading cause of today’s weight problem. What this means is that your pancreas is making too much insulin in an attempt to regulate your blood sugar.
What most people don’t realize is that insulin is the "master hormone" of our metabolism. It not only controls blood sugar levels and many other aspects of carbohydrate breakdown and storage, but it also directs much of the metabolism involving fat, protein and energy (calories).
Sugar and its Effects on You!
What is sugar? Sugar is any substance that has a glycemic index. Any food or substance that has a glycemic index can disturb insulin balance in the body. The glycemic index is simply a way to measure how quickly the body’s blood glucose levels rise in response to different foods. A food that has no effect on the body’s glucose level would have a glycemic index of zero while pure glucose has a glycemic index of 100. Higher glycemic foods cause a higher release of insulin because the pancreas is stimulated to metabolize the sudden surge of glucose into the blood.
People fighting their weight are constantly trying to cut down on their consumption of high glycemic foods and carbohydrates, yet all the while their weight worsens every year. One problem is that many foods induce excess insulin production, making it impossible to avoid meals that result in added pounds. High glycemic foods cause weight gain by causing the body to overproduce insulin.
There are many ways to disguise sugar or divert one’s attention from sugar. Most supermarket-manufactured foods are loaded with sugar, usually noted in small print. The big diverter, "low fat" or "no fat" is nearly always in bold or set out in a box or different color on the label. Manufacturers know that the public has been thoroughly programmed against fat consumption. So if they print "no fat," the customer is drawn to the product most often loaded with sugar.
Few people know this, but commercial food producers know that sugar in any form is addictive and that’s why sugar today goes beyond the old white sugar used for 200 years. Sugar and the manufacturing of sweeteners now is a science of its own. There are dozens of forms to feed the American addiction. Sugar is now not only used as a sweetener but as a filler to build volume in "food product." High fructose corn syrup is an example (an extremely sweet filler) that is widely used—and deadly to insulin imbalance. And what do you know about fillers? They are extremely cheap and a low-cost scheme of "food" production. Anything that tastes sweet is considered food in America.
But sweeteners are not the only insulin offenders. High carbohydrate diets are definitely associated with high levels of insulin in your blood. One saltine cracker will take the blood sugar to over 100. And in many people, one saltine cracker will cause blood sugar to skyrocket to 150 for a variety of reasons, not just the sugar in the cracker. This is extremely high when the ideal insulin level should be below 10.
The body’s overproduction of insulin is likely to cause constant hunger, which can lead to a vicious cycle of overeating, causing more and more weight gain, and thus higher amounts of insulin secretion by the pancreas. The effects of eating high glycemic foods and the subsequent hunger and weight gain can quickly lead you down the road to poor health.
Paying attention to what you put in your mouth will have a profound effect on your body’s blood sugar levels.
Pay attention to the glycemic index of the foods you eat and try to stay away from sugar as much as you can.
It is time for people to become more aggressive toward their healthcare providers. Insist on copies of all "blood tests" by preparing in advance a release of your test-results to you first and then include the names, addresses, fax numbers and phone numbers of all the doctors involved in your health care. Your primary-care physician, your cardiologist, your nutritionist and any other person you trust to give you feedback. Reading blood test results is not rocket-science. The norms are indicated on the report and simple letters: H for high, and L for low are there for you to use in questioning your healthcare specialists at your next appointment.
Put together a notebook of plastic sheet protectors and accumulate information on your health tests. Your doctor may die or purge your records, but you will need this information for the rest of your life and for the future generations of your family tree. We can no longer trust the government, the FDA, the AMA or our physicians to be candid with us–regarding our health.
Money and possessions, power and affluence are far greater incentives than trying to improve the health of the general public. Doctors need to research the most recent approaches to health problems. Integrative Medicine is necessary to change the dangerous environment Americans find themselves in. Fifteen minutes of HMO attention is not going to improve the fact that we are now in 25th place when it comes to longevity of all the industrialized nations of the world. We do not have the best health care only the most powerful military and the greediest Corporate Global Governance. Start today taking control of your records.

Ask your doctor for a copy of the report he sent to your insurance company and insist on his advice on improving your health without the easy route of just writing you a prescription.