Author: Lance

By Dr. Joseph Mercola

Story at-a-glance

• Splenda (sucralose) may dampen your immune system at high doses, according to a research team from the Francis Crick Institute in London.
• Sucralose consumption lowered the activation of T cells, which play an important role in immune function, in response to either a bacterial infection or cancer in mice.
• When the mice no longer consumed sucralose, their T cells began to work normally again.
• The study also casts more doubt on claims that sucralose is inert, with researchers concluding, “our study adds to the evidence that sucralose is not an inert molecule and may affect human health.”
• Past research has found sucralose disrupts your gut microbiome, harms heart health and contributes to metabolic dysfunction.

Consuming artificial sweeteners may seem like the perfect way to have your cake and eat it too — a sweet taste to satisfy your cravings without the health risks of sugar. But artificial sweeteners like sucralose, marketed as Splenda, aren’t a safe sugar alternative.

There have been many red flag safety signals in the past — from increased heart risks1 to interfering with your liver’s detoxification process.2 Now a research team from the Francis Crick Institute in London revealed another reason to stay away from Splenda — it may dampen your immune system at high doses.

Sucralose Suppresses Immune Response

In a study on mice, published in the journal Nature,3 the team found sucralose consumption had immunomodulatory effects.4 Mice with either a bacterial infection or a tumor were fed sucralose at “levels equivalent to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) recommended by the European and American food safety authorities.”5

This lowered the activation of T cells, which play an important role in immune function, in response to either the bacterial infection or cancer.6 The dampened T-cell function was related to the way sucralose affected the release of intracellular calcium.

Previous studies also suggested the artificial sweetener may influence cell membrane fluidity, possibly interfering with T-cell communication.7 When the mice no longer consumed sucralose, their T cells began to work normally again.8 According to the study:9

“[T]he intake of high doses of sucralose in mice results in immunomodulatory effects by limiting T cell proliferation and T cell differentiation. Mechanistically, sucralose affects the membrane order of T cells, accompanied by a reduced efficiency of T cell receptor signaling and intracellular calcium mobilization.”

While stating that humans would be unlikely to consume the levels of sucralose used in this study with “normal” or “moderately elevated” intake, the researchers attempted to spin the immune system suppression as a good thing.

They largely brushed off the concerning finding that mice eating sucralose were less able to fight off infection and cancer and noted, instead, that the artificial sweetener could perhaps be developed into a drug for autoimmune disease.

“If found to have similar effects in humans, one day it could be used therapeutically to help dampen T-cell responses. For example, in patients with autoimmune diseases who suffer from uncontrolled T cell activation,” the team wrote in a news release.10

Sucralose Is Not Inert; It Bioaccumulates in the Body

One of sucralose’s key marketing claims has long been that it neither metabolizes nor bioaccumulates in the human body, thus making it a basically inert substance. Yet, in 2018, an animal study published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health11 found that sucralose is, in fact, metabolized.

The finding prompted consumer group U.S. Right to Know (USRTK) to ask the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate whether some of sucralose’s marketing claims are deceptive. In a letter to the FTC, USRTK wrote, “[S]ucralose is being advertised and marketed as not metabolized or bioaccumulated by humans. The claim may well be deceptive … given research suggesting that sucralose metabolizes and bioaccumulates in rats, and perhaps it does so in humans as well.”12

The featured Nature study again casts doubt on claims that sucralose is inert. In fact, the study noted, “In conclusion, our study adds to the evidence that sucralose is not an inert molecule and may affect human health.”13 Speaking with Nature, Susie Swithers, a behavioral neuroscientist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, who was not involved with the study, added:14

“There has been this world view that these sweeteners would just wash through our bodies — our tongues would taste them and nothing else would happen. This study is yet another piece of evidence that that’s profoundly untrue.”

Not only is sucralose biologically active, but it appears it also accumulates in the human body. The Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health study15 found that even though sucralose had disappeared from urine and feces two weeks after the administration stopped, it was still detected in fat tissue.

“Thus, depuration of sucralose which accumulated in fatty tissue requires an extended period of time after discontinuation of chemical ingestion,” the researchers explained, adding:16

“These new findings of metabolism of sucralose in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and its accumulation in adipose tissue were not part of the original regulatory decision process for this agent and indicate that it now may be time to revisit the safety and regulatory status of this organochlorine artificial sweetener.”

Sucralose Alters Your Gut Microbiome

Even though sucralose has zero calories, your body isn’t fooled. It knows you’ve consumed a chemical toxin and biochemical distortions result, including to your gut microbiome.

In 2022, a study published in Microorganisms revealed that consuming sucralose — in “amounts, far lower than the suggested ADI”17 — for just 10 weeks was enough to induce gut dysbiosis and altered glucose and insulin levels in healthy, young adults.18

The bacteria most affected by sucralose appeared to belong primarily to the phyla Firmicutes, which are centrally involved in glucose and insulin metabolism. However, it doesn’t end there. Animal studies suggest the sucralose-altered gut microbiome could be involved in inflammation of the gut and liver, as well as cancer. According to the Microorganisms study researchers:19

“A study in mice showed that sucralose ingestion for six weeks increases the relative abundance of bacteria belonging to the phylum Firmicutes, such as Clostridium symbiosum and Peptostreptococcus anaerobius.

Notably, sucralose-induced intestinal dysbiosis also appeared to aggravate azoxymethane (AOM)/dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis and colitis-associated colorectal cancer in these animals.

Likewise, sucralose ingestion resulted in gut dysbiosis and pronounced proteomic changes in the liver of mice, where most of the overexpressed proteins related to enhanced hepatic inflammation.”

Artificial Sweeteners Put Your Heart Health at Risk

A nine-year study involving 103,388 people linked the artificial sweeteners aspartame (Equal), acesulfame potassium and sucralose to cardiovascular disease and stroke.20 Total artificial sweetener intake was associated with increased risk of overall cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cerebrovascular disease, the study found.

Among the specific artificial sweeteners, aspartame was associated with an increased risk of stroke (defined in the study as cerebrovascular events), while acesulfame potassium and sucralose were associated with increased coronary heart disease risk.21

“Our results suggest no benefit from substituting artificial sweeteners for added sugar on CVD outcomes,” the study found.22 “The findings from this large scale prospective cohort study suggest a potential direct association between higher artificial sweetener consumption (especially aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose) and increased cardiovascular disease risk.”23

Expect Metabolic Dysfunction if You Consume Sucralose

Metabolic dysfunction appears to be a hallmark of artificial sweetener consumption, which is particularly disturbing since they’re often marketed to people already at risk, such as those with Type 2 diabetes and obesity. In 2014, researchers found artificial sweeteners altered microbial metabolic pathways in ways that increased susceptibility to metabolic disease.24

Nearly a decade later, they’re still being widely consumed and are found in more than 23,000 products worldwide.25 In a 2013 paper, Swithers also explained that people who consume artificial sweeteners frequently may have an increased risk of weight gain, metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. She suggests:26

“[C]onsuming sweet-tasting but noncaloric or reduced-calorie food and beverages interferes with learned responses that normally contribute to glucose and energy homeostasis. Because of this interference, frequent consumption of high-intensity sweeteners may have the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements.”

Concerns for Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women

Consuming sucralose while pregnant or breastfeeding may cause unknown risks to infants. What is known is that this chemical can be found in breast milk two hours after consumption.27 According to USRTK:28

“Since the study assessed breast milk after just a single diet soda ingestion, researchers note that concentrations reported ‘may underestimate true infant exposure via the breast milk.’

Future research should determine concentration after repeated exposures, and whether chronic ingestion of artificial sweeteners via breast milk has clinically relevant health consequences including ‘alteration of taste preferences, gut microbiota, metabolism and weight trajectory’ of infants.”

An animal study revealed in 2020, however, that consuming sucralose during pregnancy inhibits intestinal development and induces gut dysbiosis in offspring, while exacerbating fatty liver disease in adulthood.29 The research team concluded:30

“These data strongly support … that MS [maternal sucralose] intake may be a potential threat for NAFLD [nonalcoholic fatty liver disease] in adulthood. As sucralose is widely used around the world, our findings may remind the pregnant women that more caution should be given to excessive sucralose consumption.”

Heating foods that contain sucralose at high temperatures may be particularly problematic, not only for pregnant women but for anyone. When foods containing sucralose are cooked or baked, toxic chlorinated compounds, such as chloropropanols and dioxins, may be created,31 raising concerns about carcinogenicity.

“Consumption of these hazardous substances and toxins could lead to diseases such as cancer, the skin disorder chloracne, as well as liver and kidney damage,” USRTK explained.32 In 2019, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) warned:33

“Until a conclusive risk assessment is available, the BfR recommends not to heat foods containing Sucralose to temperatures that occur during baking, deep-frying and roasting, or to add Sucralose only after heating. This applies to consumers as well as to commercial food manufacturers.”

How to Give Up Artificial Sweeteners

I’ve been warning about the dangers of artificial sweeteners like sucralose since 2006, when my book, “Sweet Deception,” was released. While artificial sweeteners are found in many products, including beverages, dairy products, ketchup, salad dressing, baked goods and medications, the good news is that you can largely avoid them by focusing on a whole food diet and reading labels.

If you’re intentionally consuming artificial sweeteners to satisfy sweet cravings, I highly recommend using a psychological acupressure technique called the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to control your cravings, as demonstrated in the video above.

For a healthier sugar substitute while you work on your cravings, stevia and lo han kuo (also spelled luo han guo) and pure glucose, also known as dextrose, are safer options to consider.

Sources and References

1, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25 BMJ 2022;378:e071204

2 SciTechDaily April 10, 2022

3, 9 Nature volume 615, pages 705–711 (2023)

4, 5, 6, 10 The Francis Crick Institute March 15, 2023

7, 8, 14 Nature March 15, 2023

11, 15, 16 Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health August 21, 2018

12 U.S. Right to Know November 19, 2018

13 Nature volume 615, pages 705–711 (2023), Sucralose mitigates autoimmune T cell responses

17, 18, 19 Microorganisms 2022, 10(2)

24 Nature volume 514, pages 181–186 (2014)

26 Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Sep; 24(9): 431–441

27 J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2018 Mar; 66(3): 466–470, What Is Known

28, 32 U.S. Right to Know, Sucralose: Emerging science reveals health risks July 6, 2022

29 Gut Microbes. 2020; 11(4): 1043–1063., Conclusions

30 Gut Microbes. 2020; 11(4): 1043–1063., Discussion

31 Food Chem. 2020 Aug 15;321:126700. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.126700. Epub 2020 Mar 27

33 BfR April 9, 2019

by Dr. Bruce Fife

Chapter 5: A Weapon of Mass Destruction—Part 3

Introduction

As I read, and read again this next part of Chapter 5, I become even more astounded at how damaging is the consumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates. Oh yes, you won’t die tomorrow if you eat a candy bar just like smoking a few cigarettes won’t put you in the grave.

After several decades, however, the cumulative effect of consuming sugar and other refined carbohydrates, begins to take a toll on your health. A high schooler (or younger) doesn’t die because he smoked a few cigarettes. However, by 65 many of those lifelong smokers are suffering from COPD, emphysema, heart disease, lung cancer, or have already expired.

The same thing happens to most of the life-long heavy consumers of refined carbohydrates, meaning sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white flour, and white rice. By 65, many of these people are already dealing with chronic degenerative diseases. These include obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease, cancer, and others.

Sugar is toxic, and that’s why Dr. Fife use the term—Sugar Kills—in the title of his book.

Digestive Health

The health of trillions of tiny microorganisms in our digestive system has a direct effect on our health. These organisms have a role in the following:

• Keeping us healthy and disease free.
• They help maintain the proper PH balance in the digestive tract.
• They synthesize important vitamins such as B-12 and K.
• They help support immune function.
• They aid in the breakdown and digestion of our food.
• They neutralize toxins.
• They regulate glucose absorption and metabolism.
• They protect against inflammatory diseases and the colonization of pathogenic organisms.

These microorganisms are known as the gut microbiome and consist or tens of thousands of species of bacteria, viruses, and fungi.

A disruption of this carefully balanced population is implicated as a causal factor with the following health problems:

• Obesity
• Insulin resistance and diabetes
• Reduced immune function
• Digestive disorders (chronic constipation, inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease)
• Neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism, ADHD, and depression
• Food allergies and sensitiveness
• Eczema and recurrent yeast problems
• Some forms of cancer

Ninety percent of all known human illness can be traced back to an unhealthy gut. By “gut” Dr. Fife means from the mouth to the rectum.

Our diet has a profound effect on the diet of the microorganism in our gut, and the foods we eat are the foods that our microbiota eat. For example, the population of the sugar lovers bloom when we eat a lot of sugary food and/or refined carbohydrates. By contrast, the fiber lovers are the happiest when our diet is rich with vegetables, fruit, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.

Fiber is often thought as being indigestible and nearly useless as a food component. However, it’s extremely important for good digestive function and overall health. Fiber does the following:

• It softens the stool.
• It shortens the transit time through the intestines.
• It slows down the absorption of glucose.
• It helps to balance the PH in the digestive tract.
• Certain toxins are removed preventing them from entering the bloodstream.
• Most importantly, fiber provides food for our resident gut microbiota.
• Fiber-loving bacteria process and transform the fiber into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).

My Comment: This is getting somewhat technical at this point, but it’s also extraordinarily fascinating at the same time. Dr. Fife is helping us to understand how important good gut health is for our overall health and how deleterious (bad) sugar is for our well-being.

Continuing: Without the proper amount of SCFAs, the epithelial cells lining the digestive tract begin to degenerate. A worsening condition can lead to chronic tissue inflammation and tissue breakdown. That can lead to the following:

• Leaky gut syndrome
• Lesion or ulcers
• Diverticulitis
• Ulcerative colitis
• Crohn’s disease
• Irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive disorders

Dr. Fife makes a most important statement: Evidence suggests that many people suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases are really suffering from a malnourished digestive tract. The modern processed food diet is woefully deficient in dietary fiber.

There’s much more to learn about SCFAs. Recent research shows that they play a key role in the prevention of degenerative diseases such as insulin resistance and diabetes, bowel disorders, osteoporosis, kidney disease, hypertension, and colon cancer.

The SCFAs lower the colonic PH (raises the acidity level of the colon), which provides a suitable environment for helpful microbiota, protects the lining from forming colonic polyps, and increases the absorption of minerals.

Dr. Fife discusses several other details of how a healthy colonic microbiota helps one to have a healthy intestinal tract. Having a healthy gut translates into having a healthy body.

Oral Health: Bacteria Feed on Sugar

Consuming sugar causes tooth decay. Unfortunately for sugar lovers, the sugar loving bacteria produce acids and toxins which eat away at tooth enamel. It gets worse. These harmful by-products (the bacteria’s waste, if you will) also cause irritation of the gums, which leads to inflammation and bleeding.

An overgrowth of these bacteria leads to tooth decay, periodontal (gum) disease, and eventually tooth loss. Bad breath is another symptom of this malady.

The bacteria that cause the greatest harm feed on sugar. The more sugar we eat, the more these bacteria multiply and grow, outnumbering less harmful species. It is the imbalance in the oral microbiome that is the primary cause of poor health.

Dr. Fife pokes fun at the notion that if we just floss and brush, everything will be okay. He offers statistics as to how many people 65 and better have lost teeth due to poor oral health. One in three people 65 or older have lost all of their natural teeth due to tooth decay and gum disease.

Even moderate periodontal disease is now found in 40% of children 12 and older. Does the problem worsen as they get older? Of course!

The Most Prevalent Disease

Dr. Fife quotes the British Medical Journal, the Lancet, which states that periodontal disease affects up to 90% of the world’s population. Of the few hunter-gather populations left in the world, they have the lowest incidence of periodontal disease. By contrast, the people that eat more refined foods have much more periodontal disease and tooth decay.

There are a few hunter-gatherer populations in Africa and elsewhere who eat their traditional sugar-free diets. They have remarkably good oral health, free of gum disease and dental decay. None of them brush or floss their teeth…However, once they start to add sugar or white flour into their diets, their oral health sharply declines.

Dr. Fife points out that there are two types of dental plaque. Healthy bacteria form a sticky film on our teeth and gums. These plaques help prevent acidic foods or drinks from dissolving tooth enamel. He points out that plaque can be harmful if it’s created by the wrong type of bacteria…bacteria that feed on sugar.

If the diet consists of a large amount of sugar or starch, the plaque that coats the teeth is heavily populated by these acid forming bacteria. The acid they produce on the tooth surface dissolves the enamel, making the teeth soft and easily accessible to invasion by bacteria and other microorganisms. This leads to tooth decay.

Brushing, flossing, and dental care are necessary to remove this harmful plaque. Dr. Fife points out that primitive peoples never brushed their teeth. They didn’t need to because they didn’t have refined carbs (sugar) in their diet. The plaque that formed on their teeth was beneficial, and not harmful.

Dr. Fife reminds us that pets do not need to have their teeth brushed; not do they get tooth decay. However, if pets are fed grain-based pet food, they can develop dental problems.

He concludes this section by saying that anyone could say, “Hey, I get my teeth fixed, so what’s the big deal? And if I get a cavity, I just didn’t do good enough home care or visit my dentist often enough.” Dental problems are rarely blamed on one’s diet.

To be continued…

In our next issue I’ll continue Dr. Fife’s discussion on the connection between poor oral health and heart disease. Even more sobering, there is the sugar connection to the dreaded “C” word.

My Comments: Society’s sugar addiction is very, very costly, and it affects virtually everyone, either directly or indirectly.  Let’s start with dental health.

My mom was a registered dietician, but whatever she learned in college seems to have been a total waste. Because of the usual sugary things that were in our family’s diet, I developed a liking to sugary things at an early age. I’d find a spare nickel here and there and buy five-cent candy bars at nearby mom and pop stores.

At times I would roust up a spare dime to throw into the coke machine at the corner gas station. Sometimes another neighborhood kid and I were devious and told the gas station operator that the Coke machine didn’t give us our Coke. The guy believed us to the extent that he opened the machine and gave us our Coke.

Mom always made Christmas candies for the holiday season. She put them in tins and hid them in the lower pots and pans cupboard until it was time for holiday festivities. I’d sneak two or three of the sweet morsels and rearrange them so it would look like none were taken.

In sixth grade I had collection money in my pocket from my paper route. You can guess what I did with some of it. Yeah, there were several small markets in my delivery area. Worse, some of my customers gave me a box of See’s Candy for a Christmas gift.

My ninth-grade school photo showed the weight I had put on. I caught flak from some not-so-nice peers because of it. At social gatherings it was difficult to have just one or two cookies. The highlight of the coin club that I used to attend were the “refreshments” after the meeting. No, I didn’t drink black coffee; instead, I had a doughnut or two. I was like an alcoholic that was looking for ways to get a drink.

My parents just paid the dental bills.  Yes, it was drill, fill, and then bills…. courtesy of Mom and Dad. Unfortunately, I had my first crown in my late twenties. There were other crowns that followed. Nobody ever made any connection made between my diet and dental work. It was a total disconnect.

Between fillings that I paid for, crowns, a failed root canal, a gum graft, two apicoectomies, and a bridge, I’m sure I’ve shelled out over $20,000 for dental and gum work during the earlier decades of my adult years. Two of those back molars that I spent thousands on, are gone.

Yeah, It’s Expensive

I’m had many, many clients contact me about dental plans. I asked one caller, “What kind of dental work are you looking at.” “Oh, maybe some implants running between five and ten thousand.,” the person responds. Then there are those that have lost their teeth and have to resort to dentures. There’s another continuing expense. With a proper diet, meaning real foods, virtually all of these expenses, mine included, could have been avoided.

Paleontology records show ancient people with fully intact teeth. Dr. Fife discussed some current-day hunter-gatherer groups that have perfect teeth, and they don’t even brush and floss. Have they just lucked out? No, no, no. Their oral health hasn’t been ruined by sugar.

Sugar and refined carbohydrate addictions are expensive, and we’re just getting started with the cost of dental care. When it comes to the cost of medical damage to our health, you can guess that it gets much, much worse. We’ll explore this more in our next issue. End

.

By Al Sears, MD

Editor: If you thought the damage caused by excess dietary carbohydrates, particularly refined carbs, wasn’t bad enough, it gets worse. Dr. Sears outlines the vision damage that can be caused by eating too many carbohydrates.

Article begins: Despite what your eye doctor may tell you, vision loss doesn’t have to be an inevitable part of getting older. And a new 20-year study backs up what I’ve been telling my patients for years…

Decades of eating a typical carb-heavy Western diet is what causes visual impairment – and even blindness – later in life.

The study, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, found an association between a diet full of carb-rich processed foods and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The researchers looked at the development of macular degeneration in 16,000 American adults. Using data on 66 different kinds of foods, they identified two distinct eating patterns. One they labeled “Prudent,” or healthy. The other, which included high levels of processed foods, grains, sweetened drinks, and sugar-laden desserts, they identified as “Western.”

The incidence of AMD vision loss was three times higher in the group that ate a Western diet.

I’m never surprised by studies like this. I’ve seen this pattern in the indigenous tribes I’ve studied for decades.

You see, the rate of vision loss among tribes has historically been very low. In fact, a century ago, the rate of visual impairment among Alaskan Inuits was less than 1%. Today it’s close to 50%!

And those numbers shot up in just a single generation.

So what’s changed for the Inuits?

Their diet. The traditional Inuit diet was stable for generations. It consisted of fish from the ocean; sea and land mammals including walrus, seal, whale, caribou, and polar bear; birds and eggs; seeds and berries.

A recent study found that only 16% of foods consumed by Inuit adults now come from their traditional diet. The other 84% is processed foods. 1

So it’s not surprising that one study found that only 2 out of 131 Inuit elders experienced vision loss. But more than half of their children and grandchildren — who grew up on processed foods — needed glasses. 2

The medical industry blamed compulsory schooling and “close [reading] work.” It’s a nice theory, but it doesn’t hold water. Here’s why…

There’s an island nation in the South Pacific called Vanuatu. The children here also attend school eight hours a day.

But they still eat a traditional diet. Most grow their own food — papaya, yams, coconut, and mangoes. They eat fish and raise fowl. The kids don’t eat cereal for breakfast or white bread sandwiches for lunch. And the rate of kids who need glasses in Vanuatu is just 2%.

Here’s what happens to your eyes on a carb-heavy diet…

The refined foods in the typical Western diet send a lot of sugar into your body. All that excess glucose — and your body’s insulin reaction — changes the shape of your eye.

On top of that, when your blood sugar constantly rises and falls, the delicate tissue and blood vessels in the eye get damaged. High sugar levels also make the lens of the eye swell. This causes blurry vision.

This is common in diabetics. But the truth is anyone with consistently high blood sugar is at risk of AMD.

One study from Tufts University found that people eating the most sugary carbs increased their risk of age- AMD by up to 42%. 3

High blood sugar levels cause damage to your vision in another way.

Cataracts are caused by sugar molecules attaching themselves to proteins in the lens of your eye, in a process called glycosylation. This causes the proteins to twist, bend over and clump together and as a result, your lens becomes cloudy and less elastic.

Three steps to rebuilding better vision

One: Go super-low carb. Your body’s requirement for carbs is zero. This means no grains, including so-called “healthy” whole grains, no processed sugars, and no foods from a box or bag. Avoid starchy vegetables like potatoes, parsnips, peas, and corn.

Also beware of hidden carbs. These include cashews, pistachios, almonds, bananas, apples, pears, grapes, and oranges.

Two: Eat more healthy fats. A study at the National Institutes of Health looked at the link between nutrition and AMD in more than 4,500 people. They found those who consumed the healthiest omega-3 fats from oily fish had the lowest rates of the disease. 4

But it’s hard to get what you need from food. I recommend supplementing with 600 mg to 1,000 mg of omega-3s from squid oil daily.

Three: Supplement with nature’s top two eyesight savers. The best nutrients for improving vision and protecting your eye health are lutein and zeaxanthin. In fact, your eyes can’t function without them. Studies have shown that eating foods rich in lutein and zeaxanthin can increase the pigment density in the macula and therefore lower the risk of macular degeneration.

Your best food sources for lutein and zeaxanthin are dark, leafy vegetables like spinach, kale, and collard greens. But it’s not easy getting enough from your food. I recommend supplementing with 20 mg of lutein and 1 mg of zeaxanthin.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD, CNS

References:

 

1. Morgan R, et al. “Inuit myopia: an environmentally induced “epidemic”?” Can Med Assoc J. 19758;112(5):575–577.
2. “Western Diet Fuels Spike in Blood Pressure of Canada’s Inuit.” Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. www.heartandstroke.com. Accessed on July 19, 2022.
3. Cordain L, et al “An evolutionary analysis of the aetiology and pathogenesis of juvenile-onset myopia.” Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica. 80(2):125-135.
4. “Risk Factors Associated with AMD.” Ophthalmology. 2000, 107(12): 2224–2232.

by Dr. Al Sears

There is a virus that remains dormant inside your body long after you were first infected…right up until the day it gets reactivated because of a weak immune system.

No, I’m not talking about Covid.

I’m talking about shingles. And anyone who’s ever had chickenpox as a child is at risk of getting this viral infection of the nervous system. They’re both caused by the varicella-zoster virus.

It’s not something you ever want to experience.

Shingles causes an outbreak of prolonged and painful blisters on your skin that can last for months. But there’s more to shingles than an agonizing rash…

A recent study came out in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology . It found that getting shingles increases your risk of heart attack and stroke by a whopping 41%.1

Shingles can also lead to pneumonia, hearing and vision loss, facial paralysis, and autoimmune diseases.

One out of five people who get shingles will go on to develop what’s known as postherpetic neuralgia. Patients have described the agony of this complication as “worse than childbirth” and “more painful than passing a kidney stone.” The slightest breeze or even your bed sheet is enough to trigger unbearable pain.

Traditional medical doctors will tell you that the only way to prevent shingles is with a Big Pharma vaccine.

But this kind of vaccine is linked with skyrocketing rates of autoimmune diseases… In fact, the FDA just slapped a new safety warning on GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccine cash cow Shingrix. A large Medicare study found that the shot increases your risk for an autoimmune disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

I take a different approach with my patients… I encourage them to avoid shingles — and the potential dangers of the vaccine — by getting their body’s immune system in tip-top shape.

A healthy immune system is the key to preventing any infectious disease.

One of the most powerful immune boosters I know of comes from deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. It’s a woody vine called cat’s claw that the Ashaninka tribe has used for thousands of years to boost immunity.

Today, clinical studies are validating what these traditional healers have known for centuries…

In one study, a group of volunteers were given 350 mg of cat’s claw twice daily or a placebo. After eight weeks, the number of white blood cells in the cat’s claw group increased substantially.2 A second study of healthy adults given cat’s claw for six weeks noted the same results.3

Cat’s claw works both by boosting your immune response and calming an overactive immune system. In one study, it was found to suppress TNF-α production by up to 85%. TNF-α is a pro-inflammatory cytokine produced by macrophages, monocytes, endothelial cells, neutrophils, smooth muscle cells, activated lymphocytes, astrocytes, and adipocytes. It’s released following infection and has a powerful antivirus effect.4

When it comes to additional viral infections, cat’s claw:

• Was more effective at reducing symptoms in 31 volunteers with cold sores virus (herpes labialis) than the prescription antiviral drug Acyclovir.5
• Stopped the spread of the herpes virus by preventing it from attaching to cells.6
• Reduced incidence of human papillomavirus in 261 study volunteers.7
• Prevented immune cells from being infected with dengue virus.8

Look for a supplement made from the inner bark of the plant and take 500 mg per day.

Shield your immune defense with nature’s remedies

Cat’s claw isn’t the only immune-boosting plant I recommend. Here are two more plants that strengthen your immune shield:

Enhance your immunity with astragalus. I’ve used this herb for more than 20 years to help my patients improve their immune systems. There are over 100 scientific studies on astragalus’ effect on immune function.

And the research on astragalus continues to grow… In one study, the immune systems of subjects supplementing with astragalus for three months acted up to 20 years younger.9

I recommend 500 mg of the astragalus extract three times a day.

Boost your body’s defenses with açai. This berry has become all the rage in recent years, and with good reason. It is high in antioxidant compounds like polyphenols and polysaccharides, which have been shown to increase antioxidant ability in the blood and enhance T cell immune response.10

When taken directly, açai boosts the production of interleukin 12 (IL-12) as well as myeloid cells, a type of white blood cells that ensure your immune system is healthy.

Açai berries are available fresh, frozen, or in powder form. Of course, you can also supplement. I suggest taking 5,000 mg daily.

References:

1. Min-Chul K, et al. “Herpes zoster increases the risk of stroke and myocardial infarction.” J Am Coll Caridol. 2017;70(2):295 DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2017.05.015
2. Lamm S, et al. “Persistent response to pneumococcal vaccine in individuals supplemented with a novel water-soluble extract of Uncaria tomentosa, C-Med-100.” Phytomedicine. 2001 Jul;8(4):267-74.
3. Sheng Y, et al. “Enhanced DNA repair, immune function and reduced toxicity of C-MED-100, a novel aqueous extract from Uncaria tomentosa.” J Ethnopharmacol. 2000 Feb;69(2):115-26.
4. Seo S. “Tumor necrosis factor alpha exerts powerful anti-influenza virus effects in lung epithelial cells.” J Virol. 2002 Feb; 76(3): 1071–1076.
5. Mur E, et al. “Randomized double-blind trial of an extract from the pentacyclic alkaloid-chemotype of uncaria tomentosa for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.” J Rheumatol. 2002 Apr;29(4):678-81.
6. Caon T, et al. “Antimutagenic and antiherpetic activities of different preparations from Uncaria tomentosa (cat’s claw).” Food Chem Toxicol. 2014 Apr;66:30-5 .
7. Mistrangelo M, et al. “Immunostimulation to reduce recurrence after surgery for anal condyloma acuminata: a prospective randomized controlled trial.” Colorectal Dis. 2010 Aug;12(8):799-803.
8. Mistrangelo M, et al. “Immunostimulation to reduce recurrence after surgery for anal condyloma acuminata: a prospective randomized controlled trial.” Colorectal Dis. 2010 Aug;12(8):799-803.
9. Harley, C., Weimin L., et al. “A natural product telomerase activator as part of a health maintenance program.” Rejuv Res. 2010.
10. Holderness J., et al. “Polysaccharides isolated from Açaí fruit induce innate immune responses.” PLoS One. 2011 Feb 28;6(2):e17301.

by Jim Rickards (editor Strategic Intelligence)

Inflation is often described as a hidden tax on the middle-class and that’s a good description. Politicians know they will get pushback if they try to pass an outright tax increase (although that doesn’t always stop them from trying).

Inflation works along the same lines as a tax increase. It reduces the burden of government debt. The nominal amount of the debt is unchanged by inflation, but the real burden of debt shrinks because the value of the dollar is lower.

At the same time, Americans have to pay more for everything because prices are going up. When Americans pay more and the government reduces debt (in real terms), that’s the same as a tax increase to reduce the deficit – and that’s what inflation does.

The government likes inflation more than tax increases because they don’t have to vote for it; all it takes is negligence by the Fed, bad policy by the administration, and profligacy by Congress. And many Americans don’t quite understand how it works as a tax increase even though they feel the pain of inflation every time they pull up at a gas pump to go to the grocery store.

Still, everything has a cost whether it’s a tax increase or inflation. High inflation causes Americans to spend more on essentials like gasoline and food, so they have less to spend on everything else including restaurants, clothes, travel, entertainment, and household items. Eventually, the demand destruction in those non-essential sectors leads to layoffs, business failures, and ultimately a full-scale recession.

That may be exactly what’s happening in the U.S. economy right now. Technically, the U.S. is in a recession right now, but the decline in GDP has been somewhat mild. That could get a lot worse once the demand destruction from inflation and Fed monetary tightening kicks in.

One development that is keeping the economy going for the time being is described in this article. Americans trying to deal with inflation are using up their credit card lines of credit. That’s a stopgap, but it’s non-sustainable.

Interest on credit card balances can be 20% or higher. Inflation is running around 9% for now. This means the credit card balances will grow faster even than inflation, which will eventually cause Americans to run out of new credit.

That’s when the demand destruction will emerge with a vengeance. Americans will be facing high inflation and high credit card bills. That’s a recipe for complete economic collapse. It’s coming.

Fat Heals—Sugar Kills: Chapter 5: A Weapon of Mass Destruction—Part 2

by Dr. Bruce Fife

Recap of Chapter 5, Part 1: A Weapon of Mass Destruction

Dr. Fife points out that sugar kills but does so slowly. It kills by accelerating the rate of aging and degeneration leading to chronic disease that causes disability and death. The high intake of sugar increases the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, senility, mental illness, liver disease, kidney disease, cancer, gallstones, arthritis, and dental cavities.

Studies have shown that around 60% of the foods eaten in America are ultra-processed convenience foods. The ultra-processed foods are those that have multiple ingredients and additives. These include flavorings, colorings, sweeteners, emulsifiers, preservatives, and many others. The problem with these ultra-processed foods is that around 30% of the calories come from sugar.

Dr. Fife points out that Vitamin C is just one of the many essential nutrients that is deficient in a diet overloaded with sugar-laden processed foods. He again references the concept of sub-clinical malnutrition, a condition that can remain unnoticed indefinitely.

Dr. Fife discusses the connection between elevated blood levels of homocysteine and heart disease.

Chapter 5: A Weapon of Mass Destruction—Part 2

Obesity

Dr. Fife points out the difficulties that people had in keeping their weight off after being on a low-fat diet.

Low-fat, calorie restricted diets are doomed to fail because they are based on the erroneous belief that all calories are alike, regardless of their source…this belief tends to single out fat because it contains more than twice as many calories as either carbohydrates or protein.

Fife continues by saying that fat has been targeted as a villain and eating too much fat has been blamed on causing the obesity epidemic. He suggests that this notion is wrong because the percent of fat consumed in our diets has decreased, but obesity has increased.

He points out that overweight people are those that trim off fat from their meat, consume non-fat dairy, etc. Slim people gorge on fatty foods.

Those people that have a history of weight problems are more likely than normal-weight individuals to eat low-fat foods.

My Comments: Overweight people are also those that consume more artificially sweetened beverages using aspartame or sucralose (Splenda) compared to normal weight people. The overweight people also tend to be caught up in the “calorie-counting” squirrel cage and engaged in fad diets.

Low-fat Diet Problem

Continuing: Key point: Most of the fat in your body comes from consumed carbohydrates and NOT fat! If a so-called low-fat diet has less fat, then the calories are replaced with….yes, roll the drums…more carbohydrates! Thus, a low-fat diet is really a high-carb diet. Worse yet, those carbs tend to be sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and refined flours. All low-fat diets are doomed from the start.

Why do these diets fail from the start? The problem is glucose. Carbohydrates are converted into glucose and released into your blood stream. Excess blood glucose levels trigger the release of insulin into your bloodstream.

Insulin not only shuttles glucose into the cells, but it also triggers the conversion of glucose into fat and shuttles fat into the fat cells. Insulin is a fat-storage hormone. The more insulin you have coursing through your veins, the more fat is produced and deposited in your fat cells, and the more weight you gain.

My Comments: Let’s digest what Dr. Fife just said. Excess carbs trigger insulin, and the insulin converts those carbs into fat. You end up buttering your body with excess fat just as if you would slog heaps of butter on your toast.

Nathan Pritikin was partially successful with his low-fat diet regimen because he also eliminated all refined carbohydrates. Unfortunately, he didn’t understand the importance of adequate amounts of healthy fats in one’s diet.

Continuing:

Protein and fat have little to no effect on blood glucose levels. Consequently, fat and protein do not stimulate much of an insulin response and do not promote weight gain.

The “too much carbohydrate problem” is compounded when the carbs are sugars and refined starch. The refined starches are white flour, white rice, etc. Fake “whole wheat” breads are still made from mostly white flour.

Those refined carbs promote insulin resistance. Now your body is programmed to store fat, but it gets worse. The insulin resistance also tells your body not to release stored fat. The excess carbs in your diet not only make you fat, it makes sure you stay fat.

My Comments: I hope you can see the folly of the food industry’s peddling of “diet” foods. This has to be one of the worst frauds perpetrated on the American public. It’s whole foods, real foods, and healthy fats that will help you to maintain a normal body weight, and not ultra-processed garbage from the food industry.

Continuing: Dr. Fife stresses that being overweight isn’t just about your weight or how you look. Being overweight profoundly affects your health.

Nearly 70% of the diagnosed cases of heart disease are related to obesity. The risk of death rises with increasing weight. Even moderate weight excess (10 to 20 pounds for a person of average height) increases the risk of death, particularly among adults between the ages of 30 and 64.

Excess body weight contributes to other risk factors. High blood pressure is twice as common in obese adults compared to those of normal weight. Obesity is associated with elevated fat levels and decreased HDL (good cholesterol) levels.

A weight gain of only 11-18 pounds doubles a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia (high insulin levels) which are conditions associated with diabetes, increase with weight. Over 80% of the people with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese.

My Comments: It’s no wonder that we have an epidemic of type 2 diabetes in the US. Forget about Covid; the type 2 diabetes problem is far worse, but it garners little or no headlines.

Even more alarming is that people that have type 2 diabetes are ones that have been affected the most from Covid. The type 2 diabetics fatality rate is far higher, and their symptoms are far worse compared to those that do not have type 2 diabetes.

When you add in other co-morbidity factors such as high blood pressure and heart disease, your immunity is trashed, and your body will be more challenged to fight off disease.

Continuing: Obesity is an independent risk factor for heart disease affecting both men and women.

Obesity is a major health problem, and the primary cause is the overconsumption of sugars and refined starch.

NEURODEGENERATION: THE NEW DIABETES

Sugar Doesn’t Make Memories Sweeter

There’s another benefit of reducing your sugar consumption; it’s better memory.

Excess sugar consumption can keep you from remembering what day it is, where you live, or the name of your spouse.

Mr. Comment: One problem I see with Dr. Fife’s text is just what is sugar overconsumption? Many people cut down only to go from horrible to not as bad, but it’s still bad.

There’s virtually unanimous agreement that smoking is really bad for your health. Is cutting down from a two-pack a day habit to one-pack per day an improvement? Yes, it‘s an improvement, but wouldn’t it be much better to totally cease smoking altogether?

For many people, cutting down on sugar consumption is like going from the two-pack per day smoker to a one-pack per day smoker. You’re still an addicted user to sugar as the smoker is addicted to nicotine.

If the cutting down on smoking is a weaning off process that leads to permanent cessation, then that’s an entirely different matter. The same holds true for the sugar addict.

Just one 12 ounce can of soda pop has about 10 teaspoons of sugar, which is still, way, way too much to break your sugar addiction. Oh, you’ll drink the “diet” stuff instead. Ask yourself, why are overweight people the largest consumers of artificial sweeteners?

My personal experience suggests that the closer you can get your refined carbohydrates (sugar, HFCS, refined flour, rice, etc.) to zero, the better off you will be.

Most reformed alcoholics well know that the best way to stay permanently dry is to do exactly that; they do not consume alcohol, period! They know what can happen with just one drink!

Continuing: Dr. Fife suggests that the overconsumption of sugary food and drinks can lead to Alzheimer’s disease. It is insulin resistance that is the problem. He quotes mice studies that show that sugar-fed mice showed the presence of Alzheimer’s-like plaque deposits whereas the non-sugar-fed mice did not. Additionally, Dr. Fife states that there is evidence linking overconsumption of sugar to Parkinson’s disease.

Insulin Resistance and the Brain

Studies show that people with diabetes have a smaller brain size compared to those that do not have diabetes. This is due to the death of brain cells in diabetics. The brains of people with diabetes age pre-maturely.

One researcher showed that the brains of diabetics are about ten years older compared to non-diabetics. Even pre-diabetics are in danger of developing Alzheimer’s. The common denominator between pre-diabetic, diabetics and Alzheimer’s is insulin resistance.

Insulin levels also play a role in normal brain functioning. Dr. Fife adds that Alzheimer’s is now considered to be type 3 diabetes.

Other neurological disorders such as vascular dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and ALS, also exhibit features suggesting insulin resistance as either an important underlying factor or as a contributing factor to the initiation and progression of these diseases. All of the major neurodegenerative diseases display a marked decline in energy metabolism leading to cell death and loss of brain volume.

Insulin resistance exacerbates the severity of the symptoms and reduces the therapeutic efficacy of drug therapy.

Dr. Fife also notes the connection between ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and insulin resistance. He also mentions that Huntington’s disease, which is primarily inherited, also appears to be influenced by insulin resistance.

Here is what is scaringly sobering:

The changes that take place in the body that lead to diabetes and eventually to neurodegeneration occur long before these diseases become apparent. Glucose metabolism becomes abnormal one to two decades before type 2 diabetes is diagnosed. Neurogenerative diseases may surface another two decades after that.

Eighty percent of your brain tissues may already be damaged before you’re diagnosed! Dr. Fife concludes the section by stating the following:

If you are having memory or cognitive problems or feel that you are losing your mind due to neurodegeneration, you likely have sugar to thank for it.

My Comments: If you are the average American whose food is 60% ultra-processed, you are substantially increasing your chances of having severe cognitive decline later in life. The problem is that the damage may become manifest decades later after years of dietary abuse.

The connection inevitably becomes lost. John Doe at 75 doesn’t realize that his Parkinson’s disease started in his 20s, 30s, and 40s as he consumed his sugary foods and drinks. He liked his junk food, and his doctor didn’t seem to be overly concerned that John was thirty pounds overweight.

When John was diagnosed with pre-diabetes at 65, his doctor, rather than reading John the riot act, put him on metformin. It just ran downhill after that. Later, his doctor added a statin drug and blood pressure meds. Neither the patient nor the doctor had any inkling of the cause and effect of the cascade of events in John’s life.

Next, we’ll continue with Part 3 of this chapter. The lead-off section will be eye health End.

Note: We have republished this book review and digest with updated comments. You might enjoy reading Sugar Blues in its entirety. To order, please click here.

…Here was something more intoxicating than beer or wine and more potent than many drugs and potions then known to man.  No wonder Arab and Jewish physicians used refined sugar carefully in minuscule amounts, adding it to their prescription with great care…

Dufty explains that our brain is the most sensitive organ in our bodies and the difference between up or down, calm or freaked out, sane or insane, depends to a large extent on what we put into our mouths. The amount of glucose in the body must balance with the blood oxygen.

Ingesting sugar into one’s body drastically increases the amount of glucose in the bloodstream, which then “destroys” the balance of glucose and blood oxygen. Now the body is in crisis.

Hormones pour from the adrenal casings and marshal every chemical resource for dealing with sugar: insulin from the endocrine “islets” of the pancreas works specifically to hold down the glucose level in the blood in complementary antagonism to the adrenal hormones concerned with keeping the glucose level up.

Dufty explains that the process goes too fast and too far. The bottom drops out of the blood glucose level and a second crisis comes out of the first. 

 Pancreatic islets have to shut down; so do some departments of the adrenal casings. Other adrenal hormones must be produced to regulate the reversing of the chemical direction and bring the blood glucose up again.

He continues by saying that we immediately feel “up”, which will soon be replaced be feeling listless and tired. The blood glucose level must be brought up again. Our brain is now vulnerable to suspicion and hallucinations. 

After years of doing this, one’s adrenals our now worn out.  When stress comes our way, we go to pieces because we no longer have a healthy endocrine system to cope with it…we’re always tired, never seem to get anything done. We’ve really got the sugar blues.

Dufty notes that…the cells of the brain are those that depend on the moment-by-moment blood sugar level for nourishment; they are perhaps the most susceptible to damage. The disturbingly large and ever-increasing number of neurotics in our population makes this clearly evident.

My comments: Sugar Blues is 40 years old. I think that most everyone would agree that things in our society have worsened in the last four decades. Just witness the increase in divorce, the rise of gangs, school shootings, and other whacked out things we hear on the news. 

What’s also interesting to note is that Japanese scientists developed high fructose corn syrup [HFCS] in the early 70’s. The latter is now used almost everywhere in conventional, processed foods.

Is the increased sugar and now HFCS consumption causal to much of the deterioration of our social fabric? I believe the answer is, “Yes.”  While there are multiple causes to this societal decline, the increased consumption of these potent and refined carbohydrates certainly hasn’t helped. 

A real eye opener is to note the correlation between obesity rates and the increased portion sizes of soft drinks sold both in containers and those served at the fountain.  Back in the fifty’s, Coke used to come in 6½ ounce bottles. That was followed by 8 ounce bottles and then 12 ounce cans.  That’s all been replaced by the 20-ounce plastic bottles in the coolers seen everywhere including the check-out aisles at box stores. That’s a triple shot compared to the old 6½ ounce serving!  For some visuals of these increased portion sizes, please click here, here, and here. The second two links have visualizations that you will need to scroll down to see.

Continuing: Dufty quotes the late endocrinologist John W. Tintera,

It’s quite possible to improve your disposition, increase your efficiency, and change your personality for the better. The way to do it is to avoid cane and beet sugar in all its forms and guises.”

Dufty spends several pages describing how both the church and the state persecuted natural healers or sorcerers. He tells us that this started with the return of the Crusaders. He describes how some clever beer makers “sophisticated” their beer by adding some foreign substance such as sugar compared to the natural malt and hops. Such offenders were subject to be paraded around the village in a merde* wagon. People knew that the human body and brains could not handle the sweetness of sugar. *French for the vulgar form of excrement or the stuff from the cleaning of privies.

He described shipwrecked sailors that ate their ship’s cargo of sugar and rum with the result that they went bonkers and often died. Soldiers and sailors that were involved in the handling of sugar began to have more trouble with their teeth.

Comments: In the first half of the 20^th Century Dr. Weston A. Price, a dentist, studied various native cultures, ones that were free from processed Western foods.  He described many of them as having perfect teeth. He also noted that when such people moved into a Westernized culture and were exposed to sugar, refined foods, and canned goods, they started developing the usual dental problems.

Sad to say, I had my share of cavities. Neither my parents, myself, my dentist, or anyone else in my life seemed to understand that the root cause was sugar and refined foods. Weston Price visited with and wrote about people that had perfect teeth.  I can’t think of a better cause and effect relationship of the problems caused by sugar consumption. Not only does sugar consumption play havoc with one’s blood sugar balance, it also rots teeth. 

My dental hygienist once told me about the “Pepsi” kids. Their teeth were rotted more than the kids that drank other brands of pop.

For more information about Dr. Weston A Price and the Dr. Weston A Price Foundation, please click here.

Continuing: Dufty describes ancient civilizations that believed the disorders of the mind and body

“[p]roceed from what we eat. As the Oriental sages phrased it, the mind and the body are not two. The sorceress…wise woman…natural healer believed this too.  However, by the time sugar was introduced widely in Europe, the natural healers were uncovered—practically overnight—as a declared enemy of the church and state. Ailing people consulted them at very real peril.  One literally risked his life and limb having any truck with them. In turn, they risked life and limb to aid you.”

He tells us that for centuries uninformed physicians would relegate symptoms of sugar blues to bewitchment. Near the end of the chapter Dufty tells the account of a modern French natural healer, Maurice Mességué. He was hauled into the courts on forty occasions for practicing medicine without a medical license. He was fined one or two francs, and then some of the judges sought him out for his professional services for their ailing wife or mistress. 

Mességué wrote three bestselling books about natural healing where he repeats his prescription: Whole natural food, naturally grown.

Dufty describes his involvement in translating books from a Japanese natural healer, Sakurazawa, You Are All Sanpaku. In Chapter One of Sugar Blues, Dufty mentioned the catalyst for his epiphany. I’m thinking that the “little book” that he referenced must have been from Sakurazawa. 

…If you’re sick, it’s your own damn fault. Pain is the final warning.  You know better than anyone else how you’ve been abusing your body. So stop it.  Sugar is poison…more lethal than opium and more dangerous than atomic fallout. Ed: My emphasis

To check it out on Amazon, please click here.

Dufty concludes the chapter by quoting from Sakurazawa again.

…I am confident that one day Western Medicine will admit what has been known in the Orient for years: sugar is without question the number one murderer in the history of humanity.

My comments: What more can you say for an encore? Rereading this book forces me to reminisce about my upbringing. I, too, ran afoul of the problems that Dufty describes of our sugar drenched culture. I so wish that my parents would not have had sugar in the house, would not have made Christmas candy, would not have brought home stale doughnuts from work, would not have had that !@#$%  Betty Crocker cookbook in our house, and would have taught me about the dangers of refined sugar…in all of its guises and disguises. I would have been spared from thousands of dollars in dental work, being overweight, and having ups and downs of my energy level during my adolescence.

What I find to be so ironic in this age of “enlightenment” is this. I meet people that are taking multiple drugs including diabetic prescriptions. I ask them if their doctor ever asked them what they eat or drink.  The answer is invariably negative. Of course, that is exactly what Dufty recounted in Chapter One.

During all that rigamarole, I cannot recall a single doctor [out of the dozens that treated me] whoever displayed the slightest curiosity about what I ate or drank.

I attend an agent-training seminar sponsored by a health insurance company.  Guess what they serve for refreshments?  A fruit and vegetable tray…..are you kidding?  I wish. It’s soda pop and sometimes canned or bottled juice, breakfast rolls, bagels, brownies, and muffins. All SORF.*  They don’t get it!

* An acronym for sugar, oil [the wrong, inflammatory kind], and refined flours

Lastly, Dufty referenced the persecution of the natural healers of old by the “church and state” including the burning of “witches” at the stake. We can look back and think how stupid and backwards society must have been back then.  But then, have things really changed all that much? True, we don’t burn people at the stake anymore, but the power of the state can be used to persecute people and put them out of business. In the last 100 years, what are some of the modern-day equivalents to what’s happened in centuries past?

What about today? What’s happened to doctors, nurses, and others that have opposed masking and Covid shots? Countries like Australia have turned into virtual police states. Aren‘t we witnessing the modern form of “burning people at the stake?” End