Death by Sweetness!
David J Cowan Sr
Ali’s Alliance / The Cancer Directory
Sugar is bad for you, specifically refined sugar. Year after year, decade after decade the evidence increases to the point there is no doubt. Refined sugar whether white, brown or high fructose corn syrup is one of the most harmful substances found in the modern American diet. The harm it does is compounded by the insidious way it is bound into most of the processed foods we consume daily including most of the foods we feed our children daily. The harm done becomes essentially evil when one considers how much is known about sugar and the fact that corporate leaders and boards knowingly shovel this substance into the market place and remain unaccountable. What the processed food industry is doing should be considered criminal. Sugar may well be the asbestos or tobacco of the twenty-first century. The FDA does nothing because of the vast amounts of money involved and many doctors and other clinicians ignore or choose to be ignorant of the facts because of their overwhelming workloads, or plain lack of interest.
During the early spring of 2010 my wife Alison was in the hospital losing weight and having difficulty staying hydrated. These symptoms were the result of chemotherapy administered in February of the same year. Her oncologist, concerned about the continuing weight loss ordered the hospital dietician to send a supply of Boost™ or Ensure™ to her room along with her meals and anytime she requested. I questioned the doctor about the amount of sugar in the products, but he insisted the calories were more important than the sugar. To say I was concerned and questioning would be an understatement. I’d read articles about how cancer fed on sugar and I’d seen first hand the results of her PET Scans.
If you’ve never seen or had a PET scan you should understand that two days before the scheduled scans, the patient is denied carbohydrates or sugar of any kind. When the patient arrives for the scan they are asked to confirm they’ve had no sugar or carbs and a baseline scan is performed for comparison to the final scan. Once the baseline scan is complete the patient is given a significant dose of radioactive sugar water intravenously. The radiation enables the machine can to where the solution goes and the sugar is essentially food or fuel for the cancer cells. The cancer takes up sugar at a rate several times (some say 200x) that of normal body cells. The resulting scan shows where the radioactive sugar water is collecting and identifies cancer cells and tumors. (1) Whether sugar causes cancer is still a matter of some debate, but the fact that cancer feeds on sugar is generally accepted and is certainly a concern. At the time of Alison’s treatment I did not know enough to challenge the doctor’s orders or search for alternative products. Those alternatives are coming on the market now.
Glucose is the simplest form of sugar and provides energy and fuel to the body’s cells for most processes. Naturally occurring sugars (fructose) are found in fruits, vegetables and dairy products. They digest slowly and encourage the body to feel full longer as it uses the fuel. Refined sugar (sucrose) is extracted from sugar cane and sugar beets through a mechanized process and produces a product that breaks down very quickly in the body causing spikes in blood sugar and insulin production. Additionally, the blood sugar spikes so rapidly the consumer does not feel full until long after the stomach is full, which can lead to overeating, obesity and possibly other chronic health issues. In the decade since 2010 there has been study after study linking sugar to cancer and other chronic health problems,(2) yet doctors and oncologists continue to prescribe or recommend these highly processed chemical concoctions, like Boost™ or Ensure™ to patients. One study cited on WebMD indicates that sugar sweetened beverages may increase the chances of developing Esophageal cancer by almost 70% (3). Whether you accept the idea that overuse of sugar causes cancer or not there seems to be an accepted judgment that body fat and obesity have a direct link to thirteen different cancers(4) and over consumption of sugar will lead to obesity in most people. The cancer risk aside, obesity and lack of exercise are major causes of Type 2 diabetes and that disease will certainly complicate dealing with all other health concerns.
Once you’ve accepted the idea that sugar is not good for you or anyone in your family you’ll need to become aggressive in identifying and eliminating sugar from your daily life. Sugar is sneaky stuff and is found in many naturally occurring foods such as fruits, vegetables and breads. The good news is that naturally occurring sugars found in fruits and vegetables are slow to digest and relatively slow to enter the blood stream. Sugars released from carbohydrates such as bread, donuts, bagels and brownies are quick to break down contributing not only to roller coaster blood sugar levels but consumption of many empty calories and the obesity mentioned above. The worst offenders of all are the mass-produced sugary beverages such as Coke™ and Pepsi™ with approximately 10 teaspoons of sugar in a 12 oz. container. Shockingly Mountain Dew™ tops out the field at 12.5 teaspoons of sugar in a 12 oz. container (5).
AS concerning as the amounts and sources of sugar are, the real danger lies in the way that sugars act in the brain. Research over the last decade shows that refined sugar and the sugar derived from the carbohydrates in modern wheat products interact with the dopamine receptors in the brain giving consumers a “high” not completely different from the high achieved with opioids. Not the same “rush” obviously, but the same reward response that leads to addiction. Try depriving yourself of any sugar or refined carbs for a week, not only will you feel extreme cravings but, if you give in to the craving you will find it all but impossible to stop within the same seating or episode. The above describes addictive behavior and we are doing this to our children. According to current data from the National Institute of Health 32% of young people are obese or overweight. This is a national health nightmare in the making and we’re doing it to ourselves.
(1) https://imaging.cancer.gov/imaging_basics/cancer_imaging/nuclear_imaging.htm
(2) https://www.healthdesigns.net/natural-vs-refined-sugar/
(3)(4) https://www.webmd.com/cancer/features/cancer-sugar-link#1
(5) sugar contents referenced on GOOGLE & Quora
Ali's Alliance 
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