High-fructose corn syrup is just one food ingredient, among many others, that virtually every health advocate will tell you to avoid. The Corn Refiners Association (CRA), a large organization that represents the corn refining industry, continues to assert that high-fructose corn syrup is completely safe and perfectly ‘natural’,  but many health experts and research results couldn’t disagree more. One contribution high-fructose corn syrup is making to our society is a startling increase in obesity rates. Scientists have repeatedly proven that heavily altered (and often genetically modified) form of fructose, used in thousands of food products and soft drinks, can negatively impact human metabolism and is contributing to the growing obesity epidemic.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup Alters Human Metabolism

For quite some time, high-fructose corn syrup was thought to be perfectly healthy by some individuals, and the ingredient rampantly consumed in high amounts internationally. But research shows that high-fructose corn syrup changes human metabolism, and is actually metabolized much differently than other sugars. HFCS is a highly processed product that contains nearly the same amount of fructose and glucose. Sucrose, however, is a larger sugar molecule that is metabolized into glucose and fructose in your intestine. High-fructose corn syrup metabolizes to fat in your body much faster than other sugars, resulting in increased fat gain. Since the fructose is consumed in liquid form, the negative effects on human metabolism are even greater.

“…Over 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a strictly controlled diet, including high levels of fructose, produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems”, reported scientists from UC Davis.

In addition, 100% of fructose that’s consumed is taken up by the liver, while only some of glucose passes through the liver, and is then excreted. This results in increased fat deposition in the abdominal cavity and increased blood levels of triglycerides — both of which are risk factors for heart disease and diabetes.

Further showing how the human metabolism is damaged, one study found:

“To assess the relative effects of these dietary sugars during sustained consumption in humans, overweight and obese subjects consumed glucose- or fructose-sweetened beverages providing 25% of energy requirements for 10 weeks. Although both groups exhibited similar weight gain during the intervention, visceral adipose volume was significantly increased only in subjects consuming fructose…and [fructose-sweetened beverages] decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight humans.”

Some individuals claim that high-fructose corn syrup is safe at low levels, but even if that were remotely true, the ingredient is still found in thousands of mainstream and corporate-owned food and beverage products in high doses. It is in these high doses that it has also been found to contain mercury, an element that is highly damaging to the human body. Sugar itself is highly over-consumed today, causing a multitude of health issues, but turning the natural form of sugar into  high-fructose corn syrup causes further damage to human metabolism and the liver.

Responsible for giving colas their popular brown look, a widely used food coloring known as caramel coloring may be increasing your cancer risk. Consumer watchdog group Center for Sciences in the Public Interest is so consumed over caramel coloring that they have been urging the Food and Drug Administration for quite some time to ban the use of the ingredient.

Caramel Coloring Shown to be Causing Health Complications

First writing the FDA in 2011, CSPI mentioned how 2-methylimidazole (2-MI) and 4-methylimidazole (4-MI), which form upon creation of caramel coloring, are causing lung, liver, and thyroid cancer in mice. In a more recent letter written by the CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson to FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg, Jacobson told the commissioner how recent lab analyses showed very high levels of 4-MI in sodas. The state of California recommends a limit of 29 micrograms for 4-MI, but the analyses showed levels exceeding that by nearly 5 times.

“When most people see ‘caramel coloring’ on food labels, they likely interpret that quite literally and assume the ingredient is similar to what you might get by gently melting sugar in a saucepan. The reality it quite different,” said Jacobson in a statement.

“The caramel coloring added to soft drinks serves a totally cosmetic function,…we suspect that most consumers would prefer a clear beverage without an unnecessary carcinogen over a dark-brown beverage with a carcinogen,” the letter said.

While caramel coloring may be a potential issue, the real threats continue to be high-fructose corn syrup, aspartame, and the deathly amount of sugar used in soft drinks. Known for containing toxic mercury, high-fructose corn syrup has been shown to cause obesity, liver damage, and cancer. The amount of sugar added to soft drinks, almost always in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, is also of great concern. Carcinogenic sugars are running rampant in the food supply, with an average bottle of Coke containing 60 grams. These over-consumed sugars are leading to DNA damage, altered cellular metabolism, increased production of free radicals, obesity, cancer, and much more.

To avoid the hazards of these sugars and hopefully lose weight, soda drinkers often turn to diet sodas instead. Unfortunately a toxic artificial sweetener known as aspartame is simply replacing high-fructose corn syrup in the health-destruction. Instead of containing mercury like high-fructose corn syrup, aspartame instead poses a different threat – the sweetener is made through a process that involves genetically modified bacteria. Consuming this ingredient has been linked to tumor development,  hastened kidney function decline, a number of neurological symptoms, and will not help you lose weight.

According to a recent study, conventional cancer treatments are on the rise, and many experts are now revealing that the increase is without a reasonable cause. The study suggests that those with lower risk of cancer diagnoses and those expected not to live longer than 10 years (seniors from 80-90 years old) are more apt to receive treatment for cancer despite the fact that it would likely do them more harm than good.

Experts Reveal Unnecessary Cancer Treatments Accelerating Death

There is a stigma that follows cancer wherever it goes. Survivors are often heralded as being ‘extremely lucky’ or ‘exceptional cases’ due to the level of fear people have for cancer and the lack of knowledge from the general public in dealing with that fear.

Cancer has become increasingly more common, and people think it’s a death knell to receive a cancer diagnosis. Such a verdict often sends the average person into a panic that gives them frightening uncertainty of their own future. In the midst of this fear, the average person will defer to leave the fate of their lives in the hands of a ‘qualified medical professional.’ Given the less than effective practices of western medicine, putting faith in such professionals is often a grave mistake.

The conventional cancer treatments are radiation and chemotherapy. These treatments are notorious for causing heavy damage to the human body, insomuch that they often can kill the patient, or leave them in a worse state than they were in beforehand. Additionally, chemotherapy has been shown to negatively impact DNA extending to offspring.

Though chemotherapy is able to destroy the cancer, it does not address the root cause of the cancer, nor does it offer a favorable chance of recovery.

Many doctors themselves state that they would not receive conventional cancer treatment if they had cancer. Their decision to refuse mainstream cancer treatments likely has to do with cancer drugs being found to have been found to actually make cancer worse and kill patients more quickly. And yet when individuals first hear that they have cancer, they hastily accept the treatment assuming that it is the only hope for survival.

Why are millions of dollars spent and donated to cancer research while the same dangerous treatments are pushed so heavily today? Is the medical establishment truly trying to make a breakthrough in cancer treatment, or is that not the sought after goal whatsoever?

Are these people too afraid to make a change or address the root cause of cancer? Some suggest that cancer is a deficiency disease like many others, and can be cured with alternative treatments like laetrile or turmeric, which have much higher success rates than conventional therapy. In fact, turmeric has been shown to decrease cancerous brain tumor size by 81 percent in more than 9 studies.

The conventional diet of the American citizen today is unbalanced, and consists of dangerous chemical additives, genetically modified foods (shown to cause cancer), gross amounts of sugar (which cancer cells use as fuel), and no nutritional intake whatsoever.

Along with these causes, there are numbers of X-factors bred from the average lifestyle like radiation, a lack of exercise, unhealthy habits like smoking or alcohol abuse, lack of sleep and especially high stress levels that all contribute to causing cancer today.

Unless the individual is conscious of this and attempts to remedy it, the body will quickly fall victim to cancers and the many diseases that also plague society today. The stigma surrounding cancer is caused by the cancer industry itself. Creating the image of an undefeatable disease, expensive and destructive drugs are pushed as the only solution, when many alternatives exist.

Ultimately, it is the individual’s personal obligation and duty to search for alternative treatments and discover how to truly avoid illness and disease, as opposed to simply accepting the ‘professional method’ which has been proven to be lethal.

Recently it has been recognized that high levels of sugar consumption can be the culprit for a number of health defects and issues faced today. Many individuals also agree that the rampant levels of sugar consumption among the populace seem to suggest that there is an issue with individuals maintaining or exercising self control.

Is Sugar Becoming the Next Tobacco?

Most ‘organic’ sugar is not necessarily bad in the case of produce (as it comes in low doses along with a cocktail of empowering nutrients), though fructose is heavily embedded within the American diet and elsewhere. Many fruits and vegetables often contain small amounts of unprocessed sugar that is acceptable and fair for consumption. Despite this, processed chemical sugar concoctions like high-fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners like aspartame are generally the norm and are often more readily available than pure or healthy sweeteners.

Many reports find that these forms of sugar are often addictive; creating a chemical craving in you that fuels your desire to have more of the same product. In this respect, some would even say that there is a legitimate cause for concern when considering the ability to consciously mitigate and eliminate sugar from one’s diet.

Some suggest taking regulatory actions to show and forcibly create a level of discretion against sugar consumption, though this is not the most effective answer on an individual level. While the industry needs to address the dangers of excess sugar consumption (and the presence of mercury in high-fructose corn syrup), change also begins starting with the consumer. It takes education to sway the decisions of consumers away from highly marketed sugary products that are harming their health.

One of the problems is that sugary products and empty carbs are more featured in the food supply than ever before. Various junk foods, candies, and ‘sugar water’ drinks with added flavor are pushed and placed across the consumer base. These foods do nothing for nutritional intake as a whole. As a result, people often desire more nutrient dense foods and proteins, which are scarce in the general consumer market.

For most of the day, people are replacing their need for real nutrition with a placeholder of sugar and junk, which is often easier, cheaper and more plentiful to supply than ‘real’ food. Thus overall sugar consumption increases. The other major issue is the prominence of artificial sweeteners used within foods. High fructose corn syrup is not raw sugar cane, but a highly refined form of chemical sugar product that produces a number of health problems.

Sugar is not particularly harmful when derived from fruits and vegetables, though the risk increases when over-consumed or eaten in one of its dangerous refined chemical product forms. Despite this, there is a real need for sugar intake to be mitigated across the board, and replaced with real nutritional foods. Balanced diets should be utilized with more emphasis on protein and nutrient intake, as opposed to any form of tasty gratification that is offered to us by the food industry.

According to the FDA, you should always seek medical advice from your orthodox medical doctor before attempting any natural healing protocol. If you do, I suggest you find one that knows what natural healing is and how it works using herbs, nutraceuticals and other adjunctive remedies. Only practitioners using drugs are allowed to claim they treat, prevent or cure disease. Natural healing practitioners may not make that claim even if their protocols actually do.

What to do and not to do – How to be Well Through Natural Healing

If you don’t know by now, pathogens are not the causes of dis-ease. They are a sign, signal or symptom of the true underlining cause; and that cause is The HONSTEC Syndrome. Of all the components of this acronym, E is most vital. E stands for Energy-in-Motion. All life depends on harmonious free flowing energy. After all, without life force energy, we cease to exist.

The other six components of this syndrome are contributing factors to the loss of energy, both at a cellular level and the body in general. Pathogenic organisms are merely opportunistic scavengers attracted to toxic, nutrient imbalanced, dehydrated hosts; humans. Regardless, there are steps they we can take to minimize exposure to and proliferation of these pathogens. Here are a few ideas.

To help avoid any infection, you should first stop doing those things that contribute to sickness and start doing those things that contribute to health. Here is a short list:

Stop –

1. Eating junk food; fried, preserved, microwaved, cooked-to-death, commercial, pesticide-laden “stuff.” There is no vitality, energy or nutrients to speak of.

2. Drinking soda filled with sugar, phosphoric acid, preservatives, dyes and other toxic chemicals. Sodas are extremely unhealthy.

3. Eating sugar! Sugar is the number one additive that compromises the immune system, creates an acid pH, lowers tissue oxygen and contributes to sickness and dis-ease. If you do eat any sugar at all, you must do something to negate, block or burn it off. Along with soda, sugar contributes to osteoporosis and the loss of vital minerals.

4. Smoking cigarettes, cigars or use of any tobacco.

5. Eating or drinking commercial, pasteurized diary products — especially if you have a lung infection. To the contrary, raw, UNpasteurized diary provides nutrients and healthy probiotics and therefore is good to consume in moderation.

6. Using your cell phone without an ear piece or Bluetooth connection.

7. Drinking alcohol in excess. One portion; glass of wine, beer or drink per day can easily be metabolized by the body and liver without complications, more than that and you risk having problems including dehydration and nutrient depletion.

8. Avoiding the sun. The sun is the single best way to acquire much needed vitamin D3. Do not use sun screen; however, do not get a sun burn.

9. Negative thoughts about you and your life or your friends or loved ones. Negative thoughts are toxic and will help to create sickness and dis-ease. The number one negative emotion is fear. Fear is usually generated from not knowing. Education and taking effect action remove fear.

Start -

1. Hydrating the body by drinking at least 64 oz. of pristine distilled water daily with added electrolytic minerals. Add an alkalizer to insure an alkaline pH, negative ionic charge and to neutralize the effects of chlorine.

2. Detoxifying the body on a regular basis.

3. Remineralize and fortify the body with a full complex of mineral supplement.

4. Regulating and normalizing glucose.

5. Modulating the immune system with any one of many foods and products including garlic, onions, horseradish, cruciferous vegetables, Asian mushrooms and more.

6. Relaxing by getting plenty of rest and sleep.

7. Oxygenating through regular, effective exercise.

8. De-Stressing by practicing stress releasing techniques like EFT or the Healing Codes.

9. Washing your hands each time you touch possible contaminated articles and especially after shaking someone’s hand. Wash your hands at least three or more times per day. Do NOT use anti-bacterial soap as this only lowers your resistance to infections over time.

10. Avoiding people that are coughing and sneezing or are obviously sick. Although only sick people get sick there is no need to be heavily exposed.

11. Eating a lot of alkaline foods. Pathogenic organisms typically do NOT thrive in an alkaline environment. Eat and juice the following now and forever:

A. Alkalinizing Vegetables

Alfalfa, Barley Grass, Beets, Beet Greens, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrot, Cauliflower, Celery, Chard Greens, Chlorella, Collard Greens, Cucumber, Dandelions, Dulce, Edible Flowers, Eggplant, Fermented Veggies, Garlic, Green Beans, Green Peas, Kale, Kohlrabi, Lettuce, Mushrooms, Mustard Greens, Nightshade Veggies, Onions, Parsnips (caution: high glycemic), Peas, Peppers, Pumpkin, Radishes, Rutabaga, Sea Veggies, Spinach, Spirulina, Sprouts, Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes, Watercress, Wheat Grass and Wild Greens.

B. Alkalinizing Fruits

Apple, Apricot, Avocado, Banana (caution: high glycemic), Berries, Blackberries, Cantaloupe Cherries (sour), Coconut (fresh), Currants, Dates (dried), Figs (dried), Grapes, Grapefruit, Honeydew Melon, Lemon, Lime, Muskmelons, Nectarine, Orange, Peach, Pear, Pineapple, Raisins, Raspberries, Rhubarb, Strawberries. Tangerine, Tomato, Tropical Fruits, Umeboshi Plums and Watermelon.

C. Alkalinizing Protein

Almonds, Chestnuts, Millet, Tempeh (fermented), Tofu (fermented), Whey Protein Powder, Super Kamut™.

D. Alkalinizing Other

Apple Cider Vinegar, Bee Pollen, Lecithin Granules, Molasses (blackstrap), Probiotic Cultures, Soured Dairy Products, Green Juices, Veggie Juices, Fresh Fruit Juice, Mineral Water, Alkaline Antioxidant Water.

E. Alkalinizing Sweeteners

Stevia, Xylitol (neutralizes).

F. Alkalinizing Minerals

Cesium: pH 14, Potassium: pH 14, Sodium: pH 14, Calcium: pH 12, Magnesium: pH 9

G. Alkalinizing Spices and Seasonings

Cinnamon, Curry, Ginger, Mustard, Chili Pepper, Sea Salt, Miso, Tamari, All Herbs including the following teas: ginger, cayenne, red clover, etc.

H. Alkalinizing Oriental Vegetables

Maitake, Daikon, Dandelion Root, Shitake, Kombu, Reishi, Nori, Umeboshi, Wakame.

I. Potassium Broth Soup

In a large cooking pot cut up fresh, organic vegetables such as cabbage, celery, potato, onions, garlic, beets, carrots, ginger and others. Pour distilled water to top. Simmer for a couple of hours then screen off the vegetables leaving pure vegetable broth. Drink as much as you want.

Remember, you don’t need to adhere strictly to the alkaline side of the chart, just make sure a good percentage of the foods you eat come from that side. Our bodies are alkaline by design and acid by function. The fluids that make up 75% plus of your body must remain alkaline for you to experience optimal health. Maintaining proper alkalinity is essential for life, health, and vitality. Simply, an imbalance of alkalinity creates a condition favorable to the growth of bacteria, yeast and other unwanted organisms. All leading biochemists and medical physiologists have recognized pH (or the acid-alkaline balance) as the most important aspect of a balanced and healthy body.

*Dr. James Chappell is a retired board certified chiropractic primary physician, traditional naturopath, clinical nutritionist, medical herbalist and master formulator with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Since 1971, he has been an avid health researcher and educator specializing in teaching and incorporating natural healing protocols for chronic, severe and so-called “terminal” illnesses. He does not treat patients or dis-ease. He teaches those interested in advanced natural healing. His books and nutritional products are found throughout the world. His services are sought globally, as well. Contact information: calldrjim@sbcglobal.net 805-646-1193.

Both soda and diet soda are two drinks you won’t want to be anywhere near if you really care about your health. These highly consumed beverages contain massive amounts of sugar and toxic ingredients, leading to a great deal of health complications. Research has found that those who drink soda on a daily basis are increasing their risk of heart attack and stroke.

Diet Soda Increases Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke

Lead researcher Hannah Gardener and her team studied 2,564 adults aged 69 years or older in New York City over the course of 10 years. During the time period, 591 men and women had a heart attack, stroke, or died of cardiovascular causes. Researchers found that diet soda consumption was linked to a 44 percent higher chance of heart attack or stroke, up from the 22 percent non-soda drinkers have.

Although the findings are sad for soda-consumers, it is only a glimpse of how soda and diet soda can really cause problems. Most sodas contain very large quantities of sugar. This sugar often comes in some refined form, like high-fructose corn syrup, which is even more dangerous than regular sugar and is known to contain mercury. The over-consumption of sugar alone can actually damage the body in a number of ways, including damaging DNA, causing inflammation, altering cellular metabolism, increasing production of free radicals, and causing cancer. Amazingly, high-fructose corn syrup is even worse.

Research released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows that half of the US population above age 2 consumes sugary drinks like soda daily. Around 5 percent of the population consumes more than 4 12-ounce cans of soda every day. Needless to say, these stats go very much against the recommendation of the American Heart Association, which is to drink less than 3 cans of soda per week. But even soda with little or no sugar is harmful.

Marketed for containing little to no sugar, diet soda could even be worse than regular soda due to the addition of a toxic sweetener called aspartame. Aspartame has been shown to cause neurological issues as well as cancerous brain tumors. One study even found that 67 percent of female rats exposed to aspartame developed tumors about the size of golf balls.

To add to the health issues, one infographic shows that:

• Drinking two sodas per week increases risk of pancreatic cancer by 87 percent.

• Drinking one soda per day increases risk of metabolic syndrome by 44 percent and a child’s risk of becoming obese by 60 percent.

• Drinking two sodas per day increases risk of gout by 85 percent.

Obesity truly has been one of the fasting growing health problems for many years past. Unfortunately the many causes of obesity are not entirely discriminating, and as a result every individual suffers from the triggers. Children especially are susceptible to obesity due to their developing stages. Matched with the increasing obsolescence of outside activity thanks to technology, the issue of obesity is even further amplified. But some still don’t realize how big of an issue obesity truly is.

Infographic | Targeting Children with Treats

In 2010, 60 percent of the United States was overweight or obese, and percentage is continually growing. If the escalation of obesity rates continues at its current rate then 50 percent of the population is expected to be obese by 2030. It is true that there was a change in the definition of body mass index, which is the formula used to determine if you are at a healthy weight. The change reclassified about 25 million Americans – turning their label into ‘overweight’ from ‘healthy’. But this change was instituted in 1998, and obesity rates have been growing dramatically even a decade after the change. There are many factors to the increasing obesity rates.

Children in America spend approximately 44.5 hours per week watching television while being exposed to up to 30,155 ads per year. Advertising itself is one of the most powerful tools to shaping the subconscious mind, with food advertisements actually influencing children more than parents. Around 50 percent of the ads are for candy, snacks, sugary cereal, and fast food. Children have an average of 3 snacks in between meals, most of which contain high amounts of health-damaging sugar. But a poor diet isn’t the entirety of the issue.

While those 44.5 hours of TV are damaging to the mind in the form of advertising, that is only part of the problem associated with extended television watching. This nearly full work week of TV watching is significantly cutting down on any time spent outdoors or engaging in physical activity. Even when TV is not being watched, kids spend hours on video games and the computer, and then time is needed to do homework and associate with the family. Couple inactivity with an obesity-promoting diet, and we have the formula.

What have these things led to? About one third of American children are overweight or obese. What’s more, 50 percent of overweight children remain overweight even into adulthood. Many parents have even made childhood obesity among their top concerns for their children, along with smoking and drug abuse.

To fix this issue we need to institute a total transformation of advertising while educating and raising awareness on unhealthy and healthy foods, especially from a very young age. The positive change will not happen over night, but with the proper education and dismissal of false advertising, changes will occur gradually over time.

Infographic created by Teach.com

It isn’t terribly difficult to begin a new life in your own bubble of healthy eating. So then why do people often put off much needed changes in their diet? It is usually a combination of not knowing how to shift into a healthy diet along with feelings of being overwhelmed since there is so much to learn. In order to easily transition into the healthy lifestyle you strive for, you must recognize some of the ingredients to avoid for optimal health.

1. Sugar | A Toxic Consumption

Resting at the top of the list of ingredients to avoid, sugar, especially while in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, should be limited. Sugar is currently a rather large problem growing at a steady and rapid pace, so much so that scientists are declaring a health crisis over the widespread over-consumption of sugar. Americans alone are consuming 475 calories worth of added sugars daily on average, which equates to about 30 teaspoons of sugar. The consumption of sugar is largely fueling cancer and obesity rates while also playing a role in rising rates of heart disease and diabetes. Sugar in the form of high-fructose corn syrup is especially damaging to your health, as it is heavily processed and often contains toxic mercury. Try to avoid high-fructose corn syrup completely while also limiting sugar consumption more and more each day.

2. Artificial Sweeteners Lurking In Your Food

Avoid aspartame. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener and excitotoxin commonly found in diet sodas. An excitotoxin is named for its ability to ‘excite’ the cells of the body into overproducing a particular chemical, thus burning them out prematurely. This sweetener possesses detrimental cancerous effects and should be avoided. One study involved feeding 48 mice diet soda and resulted in up to 67 percent of all female rats developed tumors roughly the size of golf balls or larger. Sold as Nutrasweet and Equal, aspartame has been shown to lead to many forms of neurological diseases as well as cancer. What’s more, the substance is created using genetically modified bacteria - adding even more reason for this substance to be among the many ingredients to avoid.

3. The ‘Hidden’ Trans Fat

Avoid hydrogenated oils, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, or trans fat. Hydrogenated oils are what you would find in the ingredients section of a label, but you may also recognize it more easily by the term ‘trans fat’. Hydrogenated oils are great for shelf life, which is a primary reason manufacturers use them, but they are contributing to heart disease and other health complications. Other research has shown that junk food containing trans fats can make healthy young men infertile by damaging their sperm. This is one ingredient you will always want to avoid.

There is much more to completely shifting to a truly healthy diet, but by making small dietary changes, you will notice a huge positive difference in your health. But don’t feel overburdened by too many changes, or the changes will likely not happen. Start by omitting the 3 ingredients to avoid mentioned, and enjoy the process of improving your health.

Many people know that sugar is far over-consumed and is contributing to nearly every health condition we face. But do people really know the full extent to which this is happening? The United States is facing a wide-spread sugar epidemic and it truly is having a negative impact on health. It seems that many consumers have a health-afflicting sweet tooth, and that has everything to do with how normal sugar consumption really is. That is to say, once you stop consuming so much sugar, you won’t even want or feel like you need it anymore.

Fighting the War Against Sugar

A team of UCSF scientists think that sugar is so toxic and so addictive that it should be regulated with taxes, restricted on to whom and where it can be advertised, and age-restricted sales. Right they are in their view on sugar and how it is highly addictive and toxic. Fructose has even been shown to be addictive as cocaine while fueling cancer and obesity rates. But would regulating sugar really be the answer to the problem? While sugar consumption definitely needs to be lessened, creating laws against is not the answer. The government doesn’t need to create laws for every single issue we face. Certainly companies shouldn’t be allowed to blatantly lie and tout foods as being healthy when they contain 25g of sugar per serving, but that is another issue.

A viable solution would simply be to educate from youth on what truly is and isn’t healthy.

In a paper published in the journal Nature today, the UCSF scientists argue that the increase in global consumption of sugar is the primary reason for the escalation of many chronic diseases. But the scientists don’t think that simple education and awareness will work as a solution. Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF states:

“The only method for dealing with this is a public health intervention…Everyone talks about personal responsibility, and that won’t work here, as it won’t for any addictive substance. These are things that have to be done at a governmental level, and government has to get off its ass.”

He makes an interesting point – to let the same government body who claimed walnuts to be illegal drugs take care of the problem. It may indeed be difficult to fix the problem through education and awareness alone, but that is only because of how the advertising system is currently operating. In western society, the subconscious mind of the individual is often subject to a number of heavy influences — through entertainment mediums especially. Television, movies, and music create a profound subconscious effect on the human mind that influences and dictates the choices that they will make to at least some degree.

These food advertisements are influencing children even more than parents. One study had parents read a script which directed their child either to avoid or eat the junk food. To monitor the results, the children were then offered coupons for both apple slices and french fries. Among the children who viewed the commercial for the fast food fries, 71% chose the coupon for the fast food fries over the apple splices if their parents did not intervene. If the children were encouraged to choose the healthy food by their parents, that number only dropped to 55%.

So accompanied with education and awareness must be a transformation in advertising. Children can not be bombarded with ads for “healthy” cereals that contain ridiculous amounts of sugar. Sugar is so rampant in cereals that the Environmental Working Group has created a list of the 10 worst children’s cereals. All of the cereals are 40-50 percent sugar by weight – and this is only one example.

The food and beverage industries, however, seem to think that sugar is perfectly OK. Undoubtedly influenced by government lobbying, The American Beverage Association states:

“There is no evidence that focusing solely on reducing sugar intake would have any meaningful public health impact.”

This sounds very similar to what doctors said back in the 50′s about cigarettes having no negative health impacts. Sugar has been playing a huge role in the rising rates of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and much more for some time. Too much sugar alters your biochemistry and makes you more vulnerable to metabolic conditions that lead to illness and disease. Of course the industries want you to consume their sugar-riddled drinks — addictive sugar is a goldmine.

On average, Americans consume 475 calories worth of added sugars each day. That is about 30 teaspoons, or 5x more than even the American Heart Association recommends. The recommended amount of sugar to consume on a daily basis is only 25g, but look at what we have to currently battle:

• An average bottle of Coke contains over 60g of sugar.
• A Red Bull contains up to 27g of sugar.
• Supposedly healthy Vitamin Water contains up to 13g of sugar.
• An 8oz Snapple contains up to 23g of sugar.
• A single Pop Tart contains 17g of sugar.
• A Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll has up to 55g.
• Most kids cereals, like Capn Crunch, Frosted Flakes and Trix contain anywhere from 10-12g of sugar per serving.
• A 16oz Starbucks Mocha Grande Frappuccino contains over 40g of sugar.

While there is no perfect diet, people are starting to realize that many of the health complications they currently face are actually a result of consuming way too much sugar. More health experts are voicing their concern regarding the over-consumption of fructose, which has been pinpointed as America’s number one source of calories. New research mirrors what has been found in the past, connecting fructose to cardiovascular disease and an increased diabetes risk.

High Fructose Consumption Leading to Cardiovascular Risk

The researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University analyzed 559 adolescents ages 14 to 18. What they found is that a high-fructose diet helps to perpetuate higher blood pressure, insulin resistance, fasting glucose, and other inflammatory factors which lead to heart and vascular disease.

“Adolescents consume the most fructose so it’s really important to not only measure the levels of fructose but to look at what it might be doing to their bodies currently and, hopefully, to look at cardiovascular disease outcomes as they grow…A unique aspect of our study design is that we took into account the fructose released from sucrose during digestion along with the fructose found in foods and beverages…Because sucrose is broken down into fructose and glucose before it arrives at the liver for metabolism, it is important to consider the additional fructose from sucrose when determining the overall health effect of fructose.” said Norman Pollock, co-first author of the study published in the Journal of Nutrition.

Although fructose is found in fruits and vegetables, neither of these food groups make up even close to the amount of fructose being consumed on on a grand scale. Instead, health-wreaking and often mercury-tainted high-fructose corn syrup makes up the vast majority of fructose consumption, which is leading to even more illness and disease. Fructose in its cheap, refined form has been shown to be addictive as cocaine, while fueling cancer and obesity where ever it is consumed.

One study, published in the Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets, analyzed the link between refined sugar consumption and cancer. What the researchers found was that excess fructose consumption can actually damage the body in a number of ways beyond the development of cancer, including DNA damage, inflammation, altered cellular metabolism, and increased production of free radicals.

Research published in the journal Cancer Research reached similar conclusions, finding that the way in which sugar is metabolized stimulates cancer growth.