Sickingly Sweet

Shadows cascade against the walls of an alley. Two men are standing in the center. One hands over the cash, the other a pack of powder. Thus the sale of poison is completed, and another life dwindles down the drain of the steaming city.

Governments throughout the world condone these transactions and have declared a war on drugs. They have sentenced many kingpins and dealers to the pen and kept them there till their expiration date. What if these governments were involved the scheme? What if our own government was responsible for the poisoning of tens of millions of its citizens every day? What if our nation's citizens happily lined up in bright aisles to receive their daily doses?
This may sound like the plot of a best selling science fiction novel but it is happening all around us, from vending machines to supermarket shelves. Refined sugar is poison. The side effects of sugar include, but are not limited to a weakened immune system, tooth decay, poor behavior and cognition in children, increased stress, depression, deplenishment of important bodily nutrients, diabetes, chromium deficiency, and even cancer.

U.S. food manufacturers are aware of these complications, but are more interested in churning a profit than consumer health. As a consequence, they search for the cheapest manufacturing techniques and apply them. They have found pumping high fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners into the food we eat cuts the cost of production. In turn, they zap it into foods not associated with sugar content.

The average American consumes corn as high fructose corn syrup more than any other form, according to the ABC 60 Minutes documentary "The Food Industry is Deceiving You". The documentary also stated, according to the department of agriculture if American's were to apply to a well balanced diet, nearly twice the acres of fruits and vegetables would have to be grown.
In fact, according to the documentary, the majority of the new food products that flood the market each year are packaged and are junk food. The majority of these products contain sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, fructose or other sweeteners. "Fats and sugars get 3 times as many subsidies and fruits and vegetables."

The FDA often does not burst onto the scene unless there is a huge public backlash. As a matter of fact, it has shown a continual lax of enforcement on food companies for years. This has been apparent in the recent salmonella peanut butter outbreak. " Nutritionists nickname for the FDA is the Fraud and Death Administration." Susan Zimmer, Osteopathic Physician and Holistic Medicine Specialist said. The FDA has even been known to accept bribes from these companies if they will overlook them.

According the 2002 U.S. Census Bureau, the average American's consumes 45 teaspoons of sugar a day. " That adds up to a whopping 675 empty calories," Dr. Gott the Author of the column "Ask Dr. Gott," said. This opposes the nutritionist recommended 2 teaspoons a day. It is no wonder we have seen a dramatic increase in childhood obesity and learning disabilities in recent years. According to the 2002 U.S. Census bureau survey 65% of American are either overweight or obese. If something isn't done soon being thin and healthy will be an abnormality.
Thirty years ago our children snacked of cheese, crackers, fruits, and vegetables. Today's children gorge themselves on candy bars, soda pop, potato, chips, and gummy snacks. These foods are not only unhealthy; they verge on being dangerous. According to How the Food Industry is Deceiving you, you have to peddle your bike an hour to burn off the calories in a liter of soda and six hours to burn of the calories in a McDonalds value meal. "We have really changed the nature of what we call a snack," said Barry Popkin, professor of nutrition UNC at Chapel Hill.
High sugar foods are bad for you because the body digests them too quickly. " The bottom line is the faster your body digests your food the sooner you will be hungry again and the more you will eat in the long run," Dr. Gott said. He said when you eat sugar a rush of glucose rushes into you body the moment it is consumed. " When blood is flooded with sugar and glucose this way you experience a temporary sugar "High" caused by a spike in your blood sugar level," Gott said. " A short time after later, as the glucose leaves your system just as quickly as it entered it, you experience a "crash" which leaves you feeling fatigued and hungry as your body craves more fuel." The best foods to eat are complex sugars and fibers because the body digests them slowly, as a consequence you don't feel hungry as often.

Sugar is addictive, almost as addictive as cocaine. It is no wonder why so many people in this country cheat when they attempt to apply a low calorie diet. Often these addicts malnourished, due to sugar's replacement of the minerals in their body. This is often the case with Chocoholics. " Besides sugar, a chocoholics unknowingly also crave the magnesium in Chocolate." Zimmer said. She said that her job as a nutritionist is to help the patient find healthy ways of restoring chemical balance to their body.

According to Zimmer, there are things that people can use as alternative to sugar. "When I make apple pie I use bananas to sweeten it," She advised buying plain yogurt and mixing the fruit in yourself, because name brand yogurt companies pack sugar into flavored yogurt products. This goes to show that one can live healthy while partaking in some of life's sweetness, there are also many benefits to be had in avoiding sweets.

"If you do not indulge in sweets, sugars and processed foods, especially from and early age, you can eliminate any and all tooth decay" Dr Mercola, Osteopathic Physician, St. Alexius Medical Center, Hoffman Estates, IL said. "There are many cultures throughout the world who avoid sugar and as a consequence are nearly cavity free." Zimmer said, as a parent, she makes sure she does not keep any sugar inside of her house