Five Foods that Feed Cancer

Some foods can speed you to your grave. Rather than promote health and healing, some foods are known to feed cancer more than they feed you.

Soda

Sodas are known to be bad for you, but did you know they can cause cancer? Sodas are loaded with sugar, artificial flavors, artificial colors, and preservatives as well as other chemicals. Caramel coloring agents are added to the drinks to give it that brown color. This process can produce a possible carcinogen called 4-methylimidazole. Surprisingly enough, the FDA has yet to limit the amount of this chemical byproduct allowed in sodas. Researchers have found that just drinking one can of soda a day raises the risk of cancer and this affects between 44% and 58% of all Americans.

Processed Meat

Processed meats that include artificial preservatives, flavorings, and colors include bacon, sausage, hot dogs, salami, beef jerky, ham, canned meats, and meat-based sauces. The WHO found that daily consumption of 50g of processed meat results in an 18% increase in the risk of colorectal cancer. This is roughly equal to eating about 2 pieces of bacon a day. While this is not much, and eating processed meats does not directly translate into getting cancer, frequently eating large amounts of it does increase your risk. In order to lower your risk, it is better to avoid this type of meat. If you choose to eat lunchmeat, choose the brands that do not include nitrates, nitrites, and other chemicals.

Sugar

Sugar is highly processed and stripped of minerals. As a result, it is very acidic. An acidic pH benefits cancer growth. But sugar does more. It impairs the immune system and directly feeds cancer cells and tumors.

GMO’s

There are now many animal studies that show long-term consumption of GMOs to be harmful. A variety of deleterious effects have been documented: kidney damage, liver damage, infertility, reduced birth weight, birth defects, and cancer. GMOs also damage gut health, feed cancer, and lead to other illnesses.

Artificial Flavors, Colors, Sweeteners, Preservatives, and MSG

If you’re thinking of trading in the sugar laden soda for the zero calorie stuff, you may want to reconsider. Food-like products, that aren’t really food at all do more damage to the body and even promote more cancer growth than sugar and other junk food. Anything artificial is bad news for the body’s overall function, and this can be disastrous when battling cancer. For instance, MSG is a neurotoxin; it kills brain cells. In addition, all of these food-like products dramatically disrupt the function of the beneficial bacteria in our gut. If we eat processed foods filled with artificial ingredients, we are giving cancerous cells a chance to prosper.

Many chemicals are known to cause cancer, so it should not surprise us to find chemical laden food causes cancer – in more ways than one. Cancer doesn’t just happen due to some bodily malfunction. In order for cancer to progress to the point that it poses a threat, something is horribly wrong. More often than not, environmental toxins, usually from one’s diet, have caused imbalances in the body that have enabled cancer to grow. If you’re facing cancer or any other serious disease choose food wisely. If it’s not real food, don’t eat it.

For anyone who’s sick, whether it be cancer or almost any other disease, the first steps to eliminating disease are to fix the diet and heal the gut. Check out 80% Raw Food Diet and Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases.

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Post Halloween Sugar Blues

So you took your little ones out for a night of door-to-door begging and came home with a load of candy. Once your little darlings were tucked into bed you sorted through the hoard, convincing yourself that your only goal was to toss out the worst of it, the crap candy no one should ever feed a child. But let’s face it, you were also picking out the miniature candy bars and eating them yourself, knowing you only have a year or two at the most before the jig is up and your kids will know exactly how many pieces of candy they scored.

Now that Halloween is over, how do you feel? Are your sinuses aching? How about your gums? Any old injuries reminding you that you are getting on in the years? Any joint pain? Any signs of a viral, bacterial, or fungal infection anywhere in your body?

When we deal with aches and pains or a sudden illness after a holiday, we are quick to blame either stress or the weather. The truth is, it’s probably the sugar.

Sugar does two things: it devastates the immune system for 2-3 days and it feeds Candida (and other fungi), bad bacteria, and viruses. If you’ve been eating well and correcting the balance of good bacteria to bad bacteria and yeast in your gut, you just undid a lot of hard work because your bad bacteria and yeast were just given a feast. All through your body where you have scar tissue or a tendency for chronic infection, you have a little more yeast than you want to have. These guys just enjoyed a feast and exploded exponentially. That’s why your old sports injury hurts or your sinuses have flared up again.

So what do you do now? Eat right!

Time for Salads

If you think a salad means lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, think again. A real salad, a healthy salad, an amazing salad, is a feast of raw, fresh, organic veggies. This salad filled with 10-12 veggies (or more) will not only be the most nutrient rich meal you can eat, it is also exactly what your gut needs to regain balance.

Raw vegetables are prebiotic. They (and their roughage) feed and house healthy bacteria in your gut and help them to multiply. This healthy bacteria keeps bad bacteria and fungi in check.

See the first link below for suggested ingredients for the perfect salad.

Supplements

If you’ve sent Candida into mass production through your sugar consumption diet is key but supplements can help. A good probiotic and a great supplement to kill Candida will hurry up the process.

Another Consideration

Now that you are understanding how much havoc sugar wreaks on your system, why are you feeding it to your children? Eliminate processed sugar and high fructose corn syrup from their diet. Both were already horrible for everyone’s health, but now they are worse – both are usually genetically modified. (GM sugar beets and corn). It’s time we step up and make new traditions for our families that do not include unhealthy food. Check out Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases for more information on gut health and disease.

Recommended Supplements:
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10 Steps to Detox From Sugar

Have you ever had a sneaky suspicion that you would feel a lot better and probably lose quite a bit of weight if you could just quit eating so much sugar?

Do you feel frustrated because you constantly think about food and crave sugary snacks?

Have you gotten to the point where your desire to feel better is outweighing the relative ease of staying the same?

In my experience, when people decide once and for all to eliminate sugar from their diet, they usually start to freak out about how hard it’s going to be. It is easier if you have a strong, compelling reason to step outside of your comfort zone!

If you are considering a sugar detox,  you are probably struggling with one of the following:

  • You have pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes (90% of Americans have not been diagnosed)
  • You have belly fat that you would like to lose
  • You are overweight and low-energy
  • You always crave sugar and carbs
  • You have trouble losing weight on conventional diets
  • You eat when you’re not hungry
  • You get withdrawal symptoms if you cut down or stop eating sugar or flour

If any of these sound like you, what follows is a comprehensive guide to your sugar detox. I highly recommend you detox for a full 10 days.

1. Make a decision to detox

There are lots of other symptoms you may be dealing with including bloating, gas, reflux, irritable bowel, joint or muscle pain, brain fog, memory or mood problems, sinus or allergy symptoms, and more. You know intuitively that these conditions are not normal and are somehow tied to sugar consumption, so by choosing to detox from sugar, you are making a decision to feel healthy and happy!

2. The Tried and True Turkey Approach

The tried and true turkey is cold turkey. You have to go all the way. There honestly is no half-way for this one if you want to reset your body’s neurotransmitters and hormones.

Sugar, as we know, is highly addictive and lights up the same centers for pleasure in your brain as cocaine and other drugs. It’s a sugar “detox” for a reason! Stop consuming all forms of sugar, flour products, and artificial sweeteners, which cause increased cravings and slow metabolism and lead to fat storage.  Ideally, for 10 days, you avoid any food that comes in a box, can, or package, and any food that has a label. Stick to real, whole, fresh food.

3. Detox your Drinks

We forget that juices, sports drinks, and sweetened teas are just as bad as solid food with sugar or flour. In fact, when we drink sugary sodas and juices all that glucose goes very quickly into your bloodstream, raises your blood sugar, causes your body to release insulin, and ultimately begins the cycle that leads to belly fat and high triglyceride levels! Stats: a 20-ounce soda has 15 teaspoons of sugar; Gatorade contains 14 teaspoons of sugar in one bottle.

4. Protein Power

Lean, clean protein at every meal, especially at breakfast, works wonders for balancing blood sugar and insulin and cutting cravings. Traditional breakfasts based on pancakes, waffles, cereal, and fruit are not part of this equation. You are better off with whole eggs in an omelette with veggies, or even a high-quality protein shake. You will have to plan ahead so you can have nuts, seeds, eggs, fish, chicken, or grass-fed meat on hand for protein at every meal.

5. Eat Green Carbs

Did you know that vegetables are carbs? You get to eat as much as you want. Yep, unlimited green carbs … non-starchy veggies such as kale or dandelion greens, anything in the broccoli family (cauliflower, kale, collards), asparagus, green beans, mushrooms, onions, zucchini, tomatoes, fennel, eggplant, artichokes, and peppers, to name a few. Go sparingly with things like sweet potatoes and beets.

6. Fat is Your Friend

I’ve said this about a million times, but here I go again. Fat doesn’t make you fat, extra calories and too much sugar does. Fat makes you feel satiated, helps balance your blood sugar, and is necessary for healthy hormone production. Along with protein, I encourage you to include good fats at every meal or snack. Sources of good fats include nuts and seeds (which also contain protein), extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, and omega-3 fats from fish.

7. Be prepared for the 911

To set yourself up for success you need to think ahead and avoid a food emergency when your blood sugar is dropping and you find yourself in a food desert such as an airport, the office, or a maze of convenience stores, fast food joints, and vending machines. You will need to pack yourself a collection of good snacks that will rescue you when things look grim. Look for things like:

  • Justin nut butters that come in single serve packets
  • Almonds, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds in ziplock bags
  • Salmon jerky or turkey jerky
  • Fresh fruit or veggies

8. Stress Less

There is a direct link between stress and the hormone cortisol. When you are stressed, your cortisol levels go up. This makes you hungry, initiates that belly fat storage pattern, and leads to type-2 diabetes. The trick here is to be aware that you are feeling stressed out and learn to PAUSE.

Breathe.

Breathe deeply.

Studies show that taking deep breaths activates a special nerve, called the vagus nerve, that shifts your metabolism from fat storage to fat burning and quickly moves you out of the stress state. All you have to do is take a deep breath.

9. Don’t Fuel the Flames

Food allergies and stress can cause inflammation which in turn triggers blood sugar imbalances, insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, and type-2 diabetes. The most common sources of inflammatory foods are sugar, flour, trans fats, gluten, and dairy. We often crave the foods we’re allergic to. This might be the perfect time for you to eliminate gluten and dairy for 10 days. Getting off them isn’t easy, but after just 2 or 3 days without them, you’ll have renewed energy, relief from cravings, and will see many of your common symptoms disappear.

10. Sleep it off

Have you ever experienced not being able to lose weight, being stuck on a plateau even though you’ve been doing all the right things, and then all of a sudden you take a couple days off and get plenty of sleep only to find you lost 5 pounds overnight? Sleep is exactly what you need for your body to heal, to reset hormones, and to decrease stress and inflammation. Let’s be honest, most of us are not getting enough sleep. Without the recommended eight hours of sleep,  you experience a rise in hunger hormones, a decrease in appetite-suppressing hormones, and big cravings for sugar and refined carbs. You literally can sleep your cravings and your weight away.

Let us know the results of your 10 day detox!

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7 Dreadful Ways Diet Soda is Hurting You

Many of our favorite junk foods increase the risk of weight gain, cardiac arrest, stroke, and other diseases. Diet sodas appear to be an easy way around unhealthy calories while still allowing you a familiar indulgence, but don’t let yourself be fooled. Diet sodas contain a chemical cocktail that drives your metabolism crazy and increases your risk of disease.

If you’re regularly guzzling down diet sodas, here are seven reasons why you seriously need to quit today. I’ll also give you a few practical solutions to help ditch the habit.

Cravings

All diet sodas contain artificial sweeteners. These sweeteners trick your brain (momentarily) into thinking it is about to receive sugary calories. But when the calories are not received, your brain sends signals that you need food, resulting in food cravings.

Weight Gain

Food cravings make it difficult to balance the pleasure centers of the brain, thus increasing your vulnerability to the next high-calorie sweet treat that crosses your path. That’s a tough psychological battle to win.

Chronic Illness

Aspartame, an artificial sweetener found in over 6,000 food products including diet sodas, has been found to trigger or worsen chronic illnesses including brain cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and multiple sclerosis. Aspartame should be considered an enemy of the State!

Corrosion

If a diet soda (search youtube.com for this one) can be used to clean a corroded battery and remove rust, imagine what it’s doing to the lining of your stomach, esophagus, and teeth.

Kidney Decline

A Harvard Medical School study found that women who drank more than two diet sodas per day had a 30% decline in kidney function compared to women who do not drink diet soda.

Dehydration

Diet soda is in no way a replacement for water. Caffeine and sodium found in most diet sodas make you thirsty and cause frequent urination. The average person would rather pay a little extra at the vending machine for another diet soda instead of drinking a free glass of water. This causes a cycle of headaches, fatigue, dry mouth, constipation, and hot flashes — each one a symptom of dehydration

Poor Metabolism

A Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) study linked diet soda to a 36 percent higher risk of metabolic syndromes that cause your metabolism to function at unfavorable speeds. If you want a metabolism that can keep pace with the Indy 500, avoid diet sodas.

So how do you ditch the diet soda habit? Replace it with water. The human body is more than 60 percent water, yet most of us still don’t drink enough of it. Here are a few practical solutions to drinking more water:

Add a Lemon: Yes, water is sometimes tasteless and boring. Try adding a lemon, mint or an orange slice to liven it up a bit, or experiment with a fruit-infused water.
Spice it Up: Not only are cayenne (red) peppers a super healthy seasoning, they will also have you reaching for a cold glass of water during dinner.
Keep it on You: Buy a clear 74- ounce container and keep it in plain sight at all times. Challenge yourself to drink the entire container over the course of the day.
Remember the Savings: Restaurant water is free — why pass up on the savings? Plus most restaurants use a filtration system on their tap, so it tastes even better.

Diet soda can lead to several serious health problems. Replace it with water for a healthy alternative. What’s your best tip for quitting?

Further Reading:
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New Science Website Reveals the Truth About Sugar

(Dr. Mercola) Low-fat recommendations have led to a dramatic increase in sugar consumption, and excess sugar is a primary dietary factor in countless chronic disease states, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.

By removing fat and adding sugar, the processed food industry has created a smorgasbord of made-to-order disease. The sugar, processed food, and beverage industries have been extremely reluctant to admit the health hazards associated with their sugar-laden products.

On the contrary, large sums of money have been spent, and scientific integrity has been tossed by the wayside, in order to convince you that sugar is fine, and if you have a weight problem, it’s because you’re not active enough.

To counter the propaganda provided by profit-driven industry interests, dozens of scientists at three American universities have created a new educational website called SugarScience.org,1 aimed at making independent research available to the public.

Sugar by Any Other Name Is Still Sugar…

The researchers point out that many are unaware of just how much sugar they’re consuming, as it’s oftentimes hidden under other less familiar names, such as dextrose, maltose, galactose, and maltodextrin.

According to SugarScience.org, added sugars hide in 74 percent of processed foods under more than 60 different names! For a full list, please see SugarScience.org’s “Hidden in Plain Sight” page.2

Mislead by shrewd advertisers, many are also still unaware of how too much sugar can disrupt your health and well-being. As reported by the New York Times:3

“The scientists who started SugarScience.org say they have reviewed 8,000 independent clinical research articles on sugar and its role in metabolic conditions that are some of the leading killers of Americans, like heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and liver disease.

The link between sugar and chronic disease has attracted increasing scientific scrutiny in recent years. But many studies have provided conflicting conclusions, and experts say part of the reason is that biased studies have clouded the debate.”

Have You Been Mislead by Biased Science?

A report published in PLOS Medicine in December 2013 looked at how financial interests influence outcomes in trials aimed to determine the relationship between sugar consumption and obesity.4

The report concluded that industry-funded studies end up reaching very different conclusions compared to those done by independent researchers… In all, studies that had financial ties to industry were five times more likely to present a conclusion of “no positive association” between sugar and obesity.

One of the researchers involved in the creation of SugarScience.org is Dr. Robert Lustig, a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at UC San Francisco.

He’s been on the forefront of the movement to educate people about the health hazards of sugar (and fructose in particular), for a number of years now. He believes the new website will help empower consumers by providing objective data. Dr. Lustig told the New York Times:

“The goal of this is to provide just the unbiased science in a way that the public can come to its own conclusions.”

How Much Sugar Is Too Much?

The American Heart Association and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend limiting your daily added sugar intake to nine teaspoons (38 grams) for men, and six teaspoons (25 grams) for women. The limits for children range from three to six teaspoons (12 – 25 grams) per day, depending on age.

Four grams of sugar is equivalent to about one teaspoon, and I strongly recommend limiting your daily fructose intake to 25 grams or less from all sources, including natural sources such as fruit—regardless of whether you’re male or female. That equates to just over six teaspoons of total sugar a day.

If you’re among the 80 percent who have insulin or leptin resistance (overweight, diabetic, have high blood pressure, or taking a statin drug), you’d be wise to restrict your total fructose consumption to as little as 15 grams per day until you’ve normalized your insulin and leptin levels.

The average American consumes around 20 teaspoons of added sugar a day, which is more than three times the recommended amount. There’s simply no doubt that this overconsumption of sugar is fueling the obesity and chronic disease epidemics we’re currently struggling with.

We’re now seeing obesity in infants, strokes in eight-year olds, heart attacks in 20-year olds, and some 30-year olds require renal dialysis to stay alive. Teens are now getting gastric bypass surgeries. What used to be called “adult onset diabetes” is now more often called “type 2 diabetes,” as it is no longer reserved for adults. What is wrong with this picture? It’s the food. 

Instead of eating whole foods—real foods—the contemporary American diet typically consists mostly of sugar, highly processed grains, and a montage of chemicals that are anything but food. Children are surrounded by these fake foods every day, which have a very different effect on their bodies than real food.

The Processed versus Whole Food Experiment: A Visual Demonstration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi_DaJKsCLo
The video above features Stefani Bardin, who collaborated on a study to investigate how your body processes different kinds of foods. Stefani and her Harvard University collaborator swallowed an M2A capsule—a pill-sized recording device capable of recording eight hours’ worth of video as it travels through the intestinal tract. Another pill-sized device measured pressure, pH, and body temperature as it moved through the body. Two types of meals were investigated:

  • Processed food meal: blue Gatorade, Ramen Chicken Noodle soup, and some Gummi Bears
  • Whole food meal: Hibiscus drink, homemade chicken stock with handmade noodles, pomegranate/cherry juice Gummi Bears

The footage offers an interesting view of what really goes on in your gut when you eat processed food. One of the most obvious differences is that the processed fare takes FAR longer to break down. Processed foods are also loaded with sugars, trans fat, sodium, and various concoctions of chemicals that do not exist in nature—all of which can rapidly contribute to high blood pressure and deterioration of cardiovascular health, weight gain, and a slew of other symptoms.

Even ‘Health Foods’ Can Contain Shocking Amounts of Sugar

Getting back to the issue of sugar, exceeding the recommended daily amount is far easier than you might think. For example, just one 12-ounce can of regular soda may contain as much as 11 teaspoons of sugar.5 Even foods that are typically considered “healthy” can contain shocking amounts of added sugar, typically in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Fruit flavored yogurt, for example, can contain upwards of 19 grams of sugar; 12 grams of which is added sugar. For someone with insulin/leptin resistance, this alone will put you over your daily recommended limit for total sugar.

One problem with processed food is that when you look at the label, you have no way of knowing how much of the sugar is natural to the food itself, versus the sugar that was added. According to Dr. Lustig, it’s important to distinguish between natural food-based sugars versus added sugar, because clinical trials have shown that consuming HFCS can increase your risk factors for cardiovascular disease within as little as two weeks.

Food-based sugars are far less hazardous. Lactose, for example, which is a natural sugar found in dairy, does not cause any major harm, according to Dr. Lustig. Still, I believe that if you are insulin/leptin resistant, then limiting ALL forms of sugar, including natural food-based sugars, such as lactose, is advisable, until your insulin/leptin resistance has been resolved.

Your Body Can Only Handle a Limited Amount of Sugar

The main problem with sugar, and processed fructose in particular, is the fact that your liver has a very limited capacity to metabolize it. According to Dr. Lustig, you can safely metabolize about six teaspoons of added sugar per day. As mentioned, the average American consumes 20 teaspoons of added sugar a day.6 All that excess sugar is metabolized into body fat, and leads to all of the chronic metabolic diseases we struggle with, including but not limited to:

  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Hypertension (high blood pressure)
  • Dementia
  • Cancer

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)7 earlier this year, 10 percent of Americans consumed 25 percent or more of their daily calories in the form of added sugars. Most adults (71.4 percent) consumed got at least 10 percent of their daily calories from added sugar. The ramifications of this are significant. In this study, people who consumed 21 percent or more of their daily calories in the form of sugar were TWICE as likely to die from heart disease compared to those who got seven percent or less or their daily calories from added sugar. The risk was nearly TRIPLED among those who consumed 25 percent or more of their daily calories from added sugar. That means at least 10 percent of the US adult population are in this tripled-risk category…

Tips for Reducing Your Added Sugar Intake

The easiest way to dramatically cut down on your sugar and fructose consumption is to switch to a diet of whole, unprocessed foods, as most of the added sugar you end up with comes from processed fare; not from adding a teaspoon of sugar to your tea or coffee. Other ways to cut down on the sugar in your diet includes:

  • Cutting back on the amount of sugar you personally add to your food and drink
  • Using Stevia or Luo Han instead of sugar and/or artificial sweeteners. You can learn more about the best and worst of sugar substitutes in my previous article, “Sugar Substitutes—What’s Safe and What’s Not”
  • Using fresh fruit in lieu of canned fruit or sugar for meals or recipes calling for a bit of sweetness
  • Using spices instead of sugar to add flavor to your meal

Are You Ready to Take Control of Your Health?

Research coming out of some of America’s most respected institutions now confirms that sugar is a primary dietary factor driving chronic disease development. So far, scientific studies have linked excessive fructose consumption to about 78 different diseases and health problems,8 including heart disease and cancer. Having this information puts you in the driver’s seat when it comes to prevention.

As a general rule, a diet that promotes health is high in healthful fats and very, very low in sugar and non-vegetable carbohydrates, along with a moderate amount of high-quality protein. For more specifics, please review my free optimized nutrition plan, which also includes exercise recommendations, starting at the beginner’s level and going all the way up to advanced. Organic foods are generally preferable, as this also cuts down on your pesticide and GMO exposure. Many grocery stores now stock a fair amount of organic foods. The following organizations can also help you locate whole foods fresh from your local farm:

  • Local Harvest — This Web site will help you find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
  • Eat Wild: With more than 1,400 pasture-based farms, Eat Wild’s Directory of Farms is one of the most comprehensive sources for grass-fed meat and dairy products in the United States and Canada.
  • Farmers’ Markets — A national listing of farmers’ markets.
  • Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals — The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United States and Canada.
  • FoodRoutes — The FoodRoutes “Find Good Food” map can help you connect with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing for local farmers, CSAs, and markets near you.

Last but not least, a number of substances in processed food (including sugar) are highly addictive, so if you need help to break free, you may want to consider using a tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). A version of EFT specifically geared toward combating sugar cravings is called Turbo Tapping. For further instructions, please see the article, “Turbo Tapping: How to Get Rid of Your Soda Addiction.” The video below with EFT practitioner Julie Schiffman also demonstrates how to use EFT to fight food cravings of all kinds.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/L92oOPJlfyg



Studies Determine Sugar, Saccharin More Addictive Than Cocaine

(NaturalNews – Jonathan Benson) Millions of prohibitionist-minded Americans have been exposed as complete hypocrites by research proving that refined sugar is more addictive than even hard drugs like cocaine. A compilation of scientific evaluations looking at both sugar and synthetic sweeteners reveals that these omnipresent substances often trigger the same or stronger responses in the brain as illegal drugs, and are sometimes much harder to break in terms of habitual consumption.

A paper published in the journal PLOS ONE back in 2007, for instance, explains how rats given the option to choose between drinking water sweetened with saccharin (Sweet’n Low) or intravenous cocaine almost always chose the water. A shocking 94 percent of rats, according to the researchers, actually preferred the high that they got from saccharin as opposed to the cocaine rush.

The same study found that sucrose, or common table sugar, was also preferred by the rats over cocaine. Based on this observance, the research team noted that regardless of caloric content, the sheer intensity and pleasure of sweetness seems to be more addictive than even the sensitization and intoxication brought about by cocaine, which mainstream society still recognizes as being much more harmful than sugar.

“Refined sugars (e.g., sucrose, fructose) were absent in the diet of most people until very recently in human history,” wrote the researchers from University of Bordeaux in France and James Cook University in Australia. “Today overconsumption of diets rich in sugars contributes together with other factors to drive the current obesity epidemic.”

Sugar addiction is biologically equivalent to drug addiction

But is it just that the taste of sweetness is enjoyable, or is there something more going on in the brain to indicate actual dependency and addiction? Nearly 40 years ago, William Dufty helped answer this question when he penned a book entitled Sugar Blues, which highlighted the addictive properties of sugar and how sweets are a major driver for declining public health.

Many of the ideas presented in this groundbreaking book have been affirmed and reaffirmed by science, which has repeatedly demonstrated that certain neuroendocrine pathways are activated in response to sugar. The infamous “sweet tooth” and frequent sugar cravings are indicative of how these pathways drive obsessive consumption and addiction.

“In most mammals, including rats and humans, sweet receptors evolved in ancestral environments poor in sugars and are thus not adapted to high concentrations of sweet tastants,” wrote the author of another study involving bees, which experienced cocaine-withdrawal-type symptoms when their sweet floral resources were taken away from them.

“The supranormal stimulation of these receptors by sugar-rich diets, such as those now widely available in modern societies, would generate a supranormal reward signal in the brain, with the potential to override self-control mechanisms and thus to lead to addiction.”

Wheat, cow’s milk contain opioid components similar to heroin

Wheat and processed milk are similarly addictive, according to GreenMedInfo, which documents how many processed foods made from these additives possess narcotic properties, acting in a similar way to heroin when consumed. Modern wheat actually contains psychoactive chemicals that bind to opioid receptors in the nervous system, literally acting as a drug inside the body.

Wheat contains a variety of opioid peptides known as gluten exorphins, while cow’s milk contains a variety of casomorphin peptides. Both of these component classes are highly addictive, and are part of the reason why foods made with them are often referred to as “comfort” foods.

“Fructose… is known to increase brain levels of endogenous morphine following ingestion, and may produce metabolic products in the brain very similar to those produced by morphine,” wrote Sayer Ji for GreenMedInfo about another highly addictive food additive prevalent in the American food supply.

Sources:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
http://www.greenmedinfo.com
http://science.naturalnews.com



More Bad News For Sugar – Research Confirms it is a Leading Cause of Heart Disease

(NaturalNews – John Phillip) Just in case you needed yet another reason to stay away from added dietary sugar sources, nutritional scientists now confirm that our obsession with consuming sweets is killing us by dramatically increasing risk of death from cardiovascular disease and heart attack. A host of known risk factors including elevated blood pressure and triglycerides, along with cholesterol abnormalities such as oxidized LDL cholesterol and poor HDL/LDL cholesterol ratios are all attributable to a diet filled with empty calories fueled by sugar consumption. Interestingly, researchers have determined that the increase in cardiovascular risk factors is not attributable to weight gain commonly associated with excess sugar intake; sugar directly raises heart disease risk independent of weight gain.

A research study team from New Zealand’s University of Otago, publishing in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, has conducted a review and meta-analysis of a large cohort of dietary studies comparing the effects of higher and lower added sugar consumption on blood pressure and lipids, both of which are important cardiovascular risk determinants. Lead study author, Dr. Lisa Te Morenga and her students have uncovered solid and documented evidence that eating sugar has a direct effect on risk factors for heart disease, and is likely to negatively impact blood pressure and blood lipids. Dr. Te Morenga noted, “Our analysis confirmed that sugars contribute to cardiovascular risk, independent of the effect of sugars on body weight.”

Sugar and refined carbohydrates increase risk of hypertension and cholesterol abnormalities

The scientists analyzed a total of 49 nutritional intervention trials conducted between 1965 and 2013. Comparing diets where the only intended differences were the amount of sugars and non-sugar carbohydrates consumed by the participants allowed for the measurement of the effects of these diets on lipids and blood pressure. 37 trials reported the effects of dietary sugars on lipid metabolism while another 12 yielded results on blood pressure. The team then pooled the available data to determine the impact on measurable risk factors that affect human health.

The team noted that some of the data provided by the studies was skewed as the research was funded by the food/sugar industries. When they factored out those biased results, they found a startling pool of data conclusively demonstrating the negative impact of high-sugar diets on cardio-metabolic risk factors. Small increases in blood pressure, as little as 20 mm Hg systolic and diastolic, can double the risk of a heart attack, while changes to cholesterol metabolism can alter the delicate endothelial lining of the arteries affecting plaque formation and blood clotting.

While the food industry and media outlets continue to promote a wide spectrum of processed, sugar packed foods as a means to boost their bottom line profit margins, millions of uninformed people continue to consume 156 pounds of added sugar each year. Recently, sugar has been making news as it has been associated with increased risk of many forms of cancer, as well as stroke and Alzheimer’s dementia. The evidence should be clear to any health-minded individual — eliminate all sources of empty sugar and refined food products in favor of foods in their natural form to dramatically lower the risk of heart disease and most chronic illnesses.

Sources for this article include:
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2014/05/07/ajcn.113.081521
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-05/uoo-sii051414.php
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140515095633.htm