SUGAR
by Dr. George MalkmusREFINED SUGAR is possibly the most addictive substance in the world today - as addictive, if not more so, than alcohol and nicotine! Over the years I have been told by many, many people that when they went on the Hallelujah Diet they thought giving up meat would be the most difficult thing, but for them it turned out to be REFINED SUGAR!
Refined sugar is found in almost every manufactured food
item in the grocery store - WHY? Because God gave us a
natural desire for sweetness, so that we would be attracted
to the raw fruits and vegetables He provided in nature for
our nourishment and sustenance. What has happened is that the food merchants of this world have taken advantage of this natural desire our bodies have had genetically programmed into them in order to sell their non-food products.
The result? When we go shopping in the modern supermarkets almost every manufactured product has sugar contained within it. Refined sugar is the tool used by the manufactured food industry to dupe people into buying their nutritionally-void substances.
Let me give you some examples of the amount of sugar
contained within some of the manufactured products of today:
* The average 12-ounce can of soda pop contains 11 teaspoons
of refined sugar.
* The percentage of refined sugar in most ice creams is
about 37%.
* Many breakfast cereals are over 50% refined sugar.
* Most fruit drinks are well over 50% refined sugar, with
only a very small percentage being real juice. Some examples would be FIVE ALIVE, containing 58% refined sugar, while HAWAIIAN PUNCH contains a whopping 95% refined sugar. Some other well known brands include: OCEAN SPRAY CRANBERRY JUICE
COCKTAIL at 77% refined sugar water; CHIQUITA COCKTAIL at 80% refined sugar water; and HI-C and WELCH'S GRAPE DRINK each containing 90% refined sugar water.
* Most candies are approximately 100% refined sugar.
And you will find refined sugar in almost every other
manufactured product on the grocery store shelf - from the
cracker box to the peanut butter jar. The annual refined
sugar intake by the average American at the turn of the
century was 5 pounds per person per year. Today it is over
150 pounds per person per year, which amounts to over 50
teaspoons of sugar per day.
Our pancreas cannot handle all of this unnatural sugar, and
this causes the pancreas to malfunction. Hypoglycemia occurs when the body still has a fairly strong pancreas. The body overreacts to the concentrated sugar intake and releases too much insulin from the pancreas. Blood sugar levels then plummet far below the normal stable level. The personsuffering with hypoglycemia then experiences a syndrome of fatigue, headaches, mental depression, and often irritability. These symptoms are then 'magically cured' by another quick refined sugar fix. In other words, when the blood sugar level bottoms out, the body craves more sugar to bring it up, and this creates an addiction very similar to that of an alcoholic, whereby the body demands the very thing that is harming it.
And so the sugarholic is caught in an endless cycle. Often
the end result is that the pancreas wears out from all the
over-stimulation. Once this happens the person is diagnosed "diabetic." And the diabetic sufferer is condemned by the medical community to taking insulin daily for the rest of their lives. Diabetes is our nation's number three killer, just behind cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
Sugar actually controls the lives of a multitude of adults
and children around the world. We find that when a child
diagnosed with A.D.D. or A.D.H.D. is taken off sugar and
manufactured foods, and placed on a predominantly living-
foods diet, usually within a month or less they have no more
need for Ritalin. And one more thing -- a psychologist once
told me that he believed that over 50% of all divorces in
America had refined sugar as the primary cause of that
divorce.
With that as a little background, let's read a few of the
letters sent to me this week on this subject:
"Rev. Malkmus, could you and Rhonda please pray for me to
gain the strength to overcome this addiction I have to
sugar? Thank you for your love, compassion and prayers."
"Thank you so much for Health Tip #81 on addiction. I beg of
you to do more on sugar and addictions to sugar. . . . "
"Thank you for your support. I knew sugar was addictive 12
years ago when I was taking anatomy and nutrition classes. I
asked the instructor if sugar was addictive and she
snickered and said 'NO', and not one other of the 30+
students in the class thought it was addictive either. I am
going to beat this sugar addiction with the help of God,
myself, and you."
"I so enjoyed your Health Tip, but would like to ask for
prayer to start your way of eating. I am 43 years of age,
135 pounds overweight, diabetic, and have a multitude of
health problems. Sugar is so addictive . . . it is hard for
me to break this lifelong habit. I am an R.N. and know what
improper nutrition does, but find it so hard to apply to
myself. Please PRAY for me!"
"I read your article on addictions with great interest. I
have a strong addiction to sweets and over 400 pounds in
weight speaks to how indulgent I am. I have received your
Health Tips for quite some time, attended one of your
seminars, and have even tried the Hallelujah Diet. But I
can't seem to break my sugar habits and cravings! Please
pray for me!"
_____________________________________________Sugar and chocolate are two of the most addictive drugs
available today, and breaking their addiction is extremely
difficult. So we go through the trauma to break the addiction and finally gain the victory. Then along comes a holiday and we think that just a little bit of that to which we were previously addicted won't hurt--after all, it is a special
day and we have been so good. And so we give in to the
temptation and blow it.
During my twenty years as a pastor I worked with many
alcoholics, helping them break their addiction, and so many times I have seen them, after a period of abstinence, take just one drink, and the addiction returns with a vengeance. Addiction to sugar and chocolate are closely akin to addiction to alcohol.
May I encourage you to not give in to those things that are
so addictive ever again! Are a few brief moments of a taste sensation worth the potential undoing of what you labored so hard to gain victory over? And this is not to mention the harmful effects these substances can have on the body. I have found that if I will satisfy my mouth with good things FIRST (like Barleygreen, carrot juice and salad) then even the temptation is greatly diminished.
We have shared extensively about refined sugar in the past, so let's take a look at CHOCOLATE for a moment:
In my book, WHY CHRISTIANS GET SICK, on pages 52 and 53, I write: "Chocolate, which is derived from roasted seeds of the cocoa tree, is an addictive drug! Cocoa or chocolate contains the drug 'theobromine.' Random House Dictionary defines 'theobromine' as: 'A poisonous powder, used chiefly as a diuretic, myocardial stimulant . . . found in cocoa.' Webster's Dictionary says that 'theobromine' is 'a bitter alkaloid . . . closely related to caffeine . . . and has stimulant properties.'"
Agatha Thrash, M.D., shares some incredible information
about chocolate in her book, CHOCOLATE VERSUS CAROB:
"Chocolate contains theobromine, which can cause headaches, general or localized itching, depression, anxiety, central nervous system irritation, breast cancer and prostatic hypertrophy.
"Its bitter flavor must be masked with sugar.
"Chocolate contains a minimum of 50% fat to eliminate
graininess.
"It contains 2 grains of tannin per cup. (Tannin is the
substance they use for tanning leather.)
"Chocolate contains no more than an average of 75 insect and rodent fragments per 3 tablespoons. The visible or solid animal excreta is not to exceed 10 mg per pound. These are the maximum level guidelines set by the U. S. Government. The insect fragments are from an insect similar to our cockroach.
"Sweet chocolate contains 528 calories and 35 grams of fat per 3.5 ounces."
Let me add a brief word here about sugar in closing.
Chocolate is so bitter in its natural form that sugar must
be added to it in order to get it past our taste buds. The
annual consumption of refined sugar in America one hundred years ago was five pounds per person per year. Today, the average American consumes over 150 pounds per person per year.
Sugar is very high in calories while providing zero
nutrition. Refined sugar causes blood sugar levels to
alternately rise and fall. When blood sugar levels are low,
it causes people to consume more sugar to feel balanced.
This creates an addiction for more sugar, and it becomes a vicious cycle that can only be broken when a person
eliminates all sugar products from their diet. Refined sugar
has been linked to diabetes, hypoglycemia, hyperactivity,
depression, and myriad other physical problems. And
remember, SUGAR AND CHOCOLATE ARE ADDICTIVE DRUGS!