Sugar is good for you

When you see a thread with that title posted in the General Health Topics forum in the HSI Healthier Talk communitywell, you’ve got to bite. I do anyway.

“Couldn’t believe my eyes!” is how a member named Tressa leads off the thread. And she follows with a short news item that surely would be hard to believe if we hadn’t seen this sort of thing before.

Tressa found the item on the Organic Consumers Association web site, and it’s titled “Corporate Dollar Overpowers ScienceAgain!” It seems that Richard Kahn, the chief scientific and medical officer with the American Diabetes Association (ADA), made this statement in a recent interview: “What is the evidence that sugar itself has anything to do with diabetes? There is no evidence.”

That claim alone is enough to raise eyebrows. But here’s the kicker: This past April, the ADA established a partnership with Cadbury Schweppes, one of the largest soft drink producers in the world. The partnership is described as a “three-year, multi-million dollar alliance.”

This news caused a member named Timco to do more than raise an eyebrow: “Please never post anything like this ever again! You’ve got me in such a rage that I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep.”

But a member named Clara33 doesn’t seem a bit surprised: “It’s all so simple, just like everything else, follow the money trail.”

Apart from the corporate connection, the question remains: Does sugar cause diabetes? (Of course, we’re talking about type 2 diabetes here; not type 1, which is an inherited genetic condition.) A member named Pinky has another take on it: “Empty Carbs are the main culprit, since they turn to Sugar in the system.” And by “empty carbs” he means simple carbs that we mostly get from refined foods.

A member named Neal goes into a little more detail: “Sugar consumption by itself will not cause diabetes. Managing sugar consumption will only reduce the main symptom of diabetes. Managing sugar consumption will not cure diabetes. It is only the first step. The whole diet will have to be managed to cure diabetes.”

Neal’s on the right track here. Anything that causes rapid spikes in blood glucose (such as sugar) over a prolonged period increases the likelihood of developing insulin resistance, which is the precursor of type 2 diabetes. You can say that sugar does not “cause” diabetes and you might be technically correct. But there’s no doubt that a regular intake of sugar products will help set the stage for insulin resistance. Mr. Kahn of the ADA claims there’s no evidence that “sugar itself” has anything to do with diabetes. Whether he intended to be vague or not, his choice of words is ambiguous. If he were speaking one-on-one to a type 2 diabetic, I wonder if he would actually suggest that sugar products can be consumed in large quantities with no fear of health repercussions.

We’ll finish up with a posting from a member named Darlene, a type 2 diabetic for 14 years who uses nutrition to control her glucose levels. She writes: “The starch foods turn to sugars almost when they hit the stomach. I have removed all starch from my diet, like potatoes, flours, starch veggies, etc. I read a lot about natural healing and foods, and it does help to keep my counts in control. Also the diet helps keep weight in control, I am the only one who has normal weight in my family, most are 150 lbs. or more overweight. AT times, starch is worse than sugar.”

Other topics being discussed this week in the Healthier Talk community forums include:

Vision: Natural treatment for ocular pressure?
Heart: Cayenne for heart first aid
General Health Topics: Bursitis
Cancer: Cures for cancer already exist
Food Questions: Mood food
Hormones: Bioidentical hormones