Sugar, sweet suicide—part I

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, July, 2003 by Gary Null

Like diabetes, cardiovascular disease is the result of elevated glucose. A blood sugar above 125 mg/dl diagnoses diabetes. A slightly lower level of 100-125 mg/dl greatly increases one's chance of coronary heart disease. In a large, diverse sample of the population, people in this category had a 300% greater risk of contracting cardiovascular disease than people with a blood sugar level below 79 mg/dl. (39) In a similar study published in the Lancet, many people hospitalized for a heart attack were found to have undiagnosed diabetes or prediabetes, an elevated glucose level close to the diabetes range. Over two-thirds of the study's heart attack patients had blood sugar abnormalities. (40) Once again, the message is that diabetes and heart disease can be prevented or reversed by keeping one's blood sugar within reasonable limits.

Hyperactivity and Learning Disorders in Children

We are seeing more cognitive problems and emotional distress in children today than ever before. In a world where millions of children are "diagnosed" with behavioral and learning problems and routinely medicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or attention deficit disorder (ADD), a diagnosis for lack of attentiveness without the acting out component, one must consider the effect of sugar. These days, except for the first grade teacher who experiences the monstrous metamorphosis of 25 children after snack time, most educators, psychologists, counselors, and doctors do not believe there is a connection. One teacher, in fact, reported that at a meeting to discuss "problem" children, one girl's antsy behavior was brought up. When the teacher suggested looking into how much sugar the child was eating, one of her coworkers snapped, "That has nothing to do with it. My sister is controlling her son's ADHD through food,, and sugar is low on the list. He could eat as many chocolate chip cookies as he wants." This woman's comment is typical of public opinion reflecting ignorance of the topic. While there are several ingredients that trigger systemic and nervous symptoms, sugar is not low on the totem pole, but a major player.

The belief that sugar is benign can be traced to the sugar industry's misinformation campaign developed decades ago. Their aim was to prove that sugar does not cause hyperactivity in order to quell objections to increasing amounts of sugar in the diet. To make their point, the sugar industry financed studies with one intent: to prove their hypothesis true. Their studies contain several serious flaws. Consider the following:

* The amount of sugar used per trial was unrealistically low. In one investigation, a mere 13 teaspoons per day (the amount in a single 10-oz can of soda) was studied, when the average child takes in closer to 47 on average and twice that at a birthday celebration. (41)

* The trial size was extremely small, with no more than 30 children followed at a time. (42-46) (Independent studies that linked sugar to hyperactivity followed hundreds of thousands of school children over a period of years.) (47-55)