Sugar

What is so bad about eating sugar?

(1) It lowers the activity of your immune system.  In the phagocytic activity of the white
blood cells, each white blood cell (WBC) can destroy 14 bacteria in 5 hours time.  
When just 6 teaspoons of sugar (about half the typical amount in an 8 oz. soda), are
ingested, there is a 25% decrease in activity, and the white blood cells can only destroy
10.  At 24 teaspoons of sugar there is only one bacteria destroyed by each WBC.  (A
similar situation occurs in an uncontrolled diabetic).  If you were to look at the “fallen”
cells under a microscope, a way to best describe them would be drunk.  Consider this
quote from Dr. Braly’s Food Allergy and Nutrition Revolution:

In a sensitive individual, sugar has been shown to be the direct cause of inhibition
of blood cells, and to lower the immunity of certain important “scavenger” white
blood cells.  Consider the following scenario:  After you consume a soda or a
couple of cups of coffee with sugar and a Danish, these phagocytic white blood
cells will pick up 75 percent fewer bacteria than before, and it will take about six
to eight hours to recover their former protective powers. But if, before those six
hours are up, you eat a piece of pie a la mode or a couple more cups of sugared
coffee, the immune defense system will be further depleted.  If before the recovery
period is up, you have a typical dinner-perhaps a couple of drinks, a steak, and
French fries with wine, followed by dessert with coffee and sugar, 90 percent of
the white blood cell’s defenses will have been lost. (p. 242)

Dave Frahm from Healthquarters, in his monthly newsletter, said it aptly when he
suggested that the months from October through March were cold and flu season
because of 7 reasons:  “Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Super Bowl,
Valentine’s Day, and Easter” (Healthquarters Monthly, vol. 74, p. 1).

(2) They increase the acidity in the body.  There is a lot of talk now about the acid
/alkaline balance in the body, and how that proportioning and balance of acids to alkali
can make all the difference between health and disease in a person.  You see, cancer,
Candida yeast, and other disease processes can’t even survive in an environment that’s
alkaline.  Acidity in the body’s tissues and blood supports the disease and degenerative
process.  So all you have to do is to maintain a good environment so the bad stuff won’t
grow and thrive.  The American diet has its basis in acid foods (largely processed foods
instead of raw fruits and vegetables), and sugar is a leading contributor to this acidity.  At
the turn of the century the average American ate very little sugar per year, and it was a
treat usually only for the rich.  Now we eat 152 lbs. per person, and it is commonplace
and easily produced and available everywhere.  Our bodies were not designed to handle
it (see pancreas and adrenal burnout #3).  
Acidic foods are not necessarily unhealthy.  It’s just that in America we have tipped the
scales toward way too many acid foods, and not enough basic foods to keep the acid in
check.  
The greens that are popular right now are helpful in upping the alkalinity in the body.  
When the body is too acidic it may hang onto water to dilute the acid and toxins, so that
your cells do not come in contact with these damaging conditions. Or your body may
hang on to fat to do the same thing.  Fat serves a protective function to the body, in that
is the vehicle it may use to store toxins, and wall them off from the rest of the body.  
(That is true for animals too.  For instance whole milk with the fat is going to naturally
contain more toxins than non- or low fat milk, because of that very principle).  When
people eat a very basic diet and drink these green drinks they often find that the excess
water and fat weight literally begins to drop off, since it no longer has to protect the
body.  
    Another issue that can be helped by consuming a less acidic diet is osteoporosis.  
The pH of the body needs to stay at 7.4, and when it drops, how do you think it brings it
up again?  By taking the raw materials it has within itself to raise it up again.  For
instance, one place the body can get alkalizing ingredients is from the bones.  It breaks
into the bone material to take what it needs to restore balance to the body. So perhaps
the emphasis on calcium supplements should be replaced by eating a balanced, more
alkaline diet.