Alison Whitwood requested information (last week or the week before;
I'm
just catching up on e-mail) on sugar to dispel the misinformation
spouted
off by misinformed or uniformed consumers.  She asked:

>>Does anyone have any suggestions about some good replies to give to frien=
ds
>>and family who state these "facts" about eating milk or cookies?

I suggest you read a few books on the ill effects of sugar so that you
will
have information at your disposal.  The more you read the more you
will
absorb.  Repetition is the key to learning.  I started doing that
years ago
and I have a lot of that information in my head.   I started with the
first
book on this list in high school, then read book #2 in college, and
then
read more after that.  When you find some passages really fascinating
or
enlightening, read them over a couple of times to help etch the
material
into your memory banks.  Thinking abou the material when you make food
choices and also sharing what you are learning and have learned with
others
(who are receptive!) will help cement it.

I'd start with these books:
1. Sugar Blues by William Dufty
2. Lick the Sugar Habit by Nancy Appleton
3. any books by Dr. Yudkin that you can get your hands on---try the
library=
!
4.  The Saccharin disease byT.L. Cleave, author of =B3The Saccharine
Disease=B2
by (Keats publishing).

HERE ARE A FEW FACTS:
Sugars depress the immune system.
Sugars feed bacteria, yeasts, and cancer cells.
Sguars damage body proteins.

=B3If only a fraction of what is already known about the effects of
sugar wer=
e
to be fully revealed in relation to any other material used as a food
additive, that material would be promptly banned."      --Dr. John
Yudkin,
M.D. from his book ___ Pure, White, and Deadly__

>From some of my writing, I'll share this:

The Science of Sugar
   =20
Dr. John Yudkin, MD, is probably the only medical researcher who has
thoroughly studied the effects of sugar on human metabolism.  (And he
has
been lambasted for years by his colleagues because his findings were
and
still are so threatening to their habits and their sources of
funding.)  In
his book Pure, White, and Deadly, Yudkin reports the results of his
over 20
years of research on sugar.  Yudkin has found that diets rich in sugar
caus=
e
the following biochemical and physiological pathologies:

1) increased cholesterol and triglyceride levels;
2) abnormally high insulin levels; 3
) abnormally high estrogen levels;
4) high levels of toxic uric acid;
5) increased platelet stickiness and aggregation;
6) retinal degeneration;
7) fatty liver and liver fibrosis;
8) kidney and adrenal gland enlargement;
9) pancreatic hypersensitivity;
10) and impairment of protein synthesis.
   =20
Yudkin found links between sugar consumption and peptic ulcers, hiatus
hernia, gallstones, Crohn=B9s disease, ulcerative colitis, breast
cancer,
colon cancer, testicular cancer, gout, myopia (near sightedness), and
far-sightedness.  He has also determined that diets containing sugar
cause
developing children to mature too rapidly--i.e. gain fat and reach
monarch
at an earlier and earlier age, and age quickly overall, all of which
translates into increased disease and morbidity and decreased
longevity.

CHANGES IN FOOD CONSUMPTION:
Surprisingly, since 1900, figures show that per capita total meat
consumption has increased by only 30 pounds per year, or about 20%,
amounting to only a few extra ounces per day.  Butter and egg
consumption
have shown a steady decline in the past century, whereas consumption
of
caloric sweeteners (free sugars) has increased by more than 100%; soft
drin=
k
consumption has risen 500%, and consumption of processed fruit
products
(juices, jams, jellies, canned fruits, etc.) has risen by over 700%.
Clearly, the data suggests that the decline in American health is
unlikely
to be due to increased consumption of animal products, and more likely
due
to the decline in consumption of nutritious vegetables, exceeded only
by th=
e
increasing consumption of sugar-rich, caloric sweeteners, and
processed
fruit products.

According to T.L. Cleave, author of =B3The Saccharine Disease=B2 by
(Keats
publishing), sugar intake at 152 pounds per person in the years since
1990.
Half of all carbohydrate calories consumed by the average American
come fro=
m
simple sugars.  Compare this to about 200 years ago, when per capita
sugar
consumption was less than 10 pounds per person.  Look even further
back, to
a preagricultural era, and the only sugary stuff eaten, aside from
(uncultivated, sour) fruit was the occasional honey, not gotten
without a
great deal of effort (tree climbing, knocking down a hive, angering a
hive
full off biting bees, and so forth; hardly worth the effort on any
regular
basis).=20

If you want a copy of a "Test Your Sugar IQ" quiz I wrote for a
magazine,
e-mail me privately.  I'll have the article on my web site, when it's
up.
(Someone is building it for me since computer lingo is not my
fort=E9!)

Healthfully yours,

Chef Rachel (Rachel Matesz)
Healthy Cooking Coach
Cooking Instructor
Freelance Food/Health Writer