REFINED 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!
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