“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”  George Orwell

Lately I’ve been thinking about the four major stripped carbohydrates as each having its own century or two. In my mind, corn starch/syrup belongs to the 20th century, rice to the 19th, wheat to the 18th, and sugar to the 17th (and 16th) centuries. One foodstuff at a time, humans figured out how to strip away the germ and the fibrous outer coat to increase shelf life, marketability, and profitability. I have nothing against capitalism, by the way, just not at the expense of our health. I am a physician, dedicated to preserving the health of my patients and my community.

Is it possible that we simply tipped the balance, previously straining, but not exceeding, our abilities to tolerate increasing amounts of stripped carb over several centuries, until we reached the 20th century and the amounts in our food supply skyrocketed with the introduction of high-fructose corn syrup? Perhaps. I do think that most of us can tolerate a small amount of stripped carb now and then. Especially if we are active.

Today I want to focus on sugar, the first product humans figured out how to strip. The sugar industry obtains its raw materials from three major sources: dates, beets, and sugar cane. Each of these is high in fiber; that’s how it’s found in nature. What must it have been like when, for the first time, large amounts of sugar began to be manufactured and distributed? Yes, small amounts were being produced in pockets of communities scattered around the world, but there had been nothing like it before, at least not in industrial doses. Previously, recipes for sweets would have used honey, or maple syrup, or mashed dates. Applesauce also comes to mind, or other mashed fruits. Small amounts, restricted to certain times of the year. But the concentrated sweetness of sugar revolutionized the way people cooked, ate their meals, drank their tea.

Turning to what I call “sweet n pink, sweet n blue, sweet n yellow,” and so on, I am concerned about the food industry’s heavy marketing of these alternative “artificial sweeteners.” If you’ve decided that sugar isn’t good for you, the food industry has a variety of alternatives at the ready, and it markets strenuously the message that artificial sweeteners are a great way to get your “sweet fix” without having to pay a price, metabolically speaking.

Yet, there is now research showing that more than two diet sodas per week were associated with an increased prevalence of diabetes and stroke. In one particular study, depression appeared actually to be caused by diet sodas in excess of four daily. We don’t have sufficient evidence yet to prove causality for diabetes and stroke, but I’m not going to stand in the middle of the highway waiting to find out.

Other recently published research showed a 20% rise in insulin levels on consuming sucralose, marketed as a splendid alternative to sugar. High insulin levels are the underlying cause of so many chronic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, arthritis, gall stones, fatty liver, and more. What else raises insulin levels? Stripped carbs, like white flour, white rice, corn syrup, corn starch, and, of course, sugar. Sweet n white?

Fish don’t know about the water in which they swim; it’s their world. Birds don’t see the air in which they fly; it’s simply their world. All over the world, humans are surrounded by a diet consisting of enormous amounts of items that we did not evolve to eat. Though we ourselves no longer see it, I’m absolutely certain that George and Martha Washington’s grandparents would have more than a few questions were they to find themselves, tomorrow, in the “food court” at my local mall.

So I ask you to consider: Was sugar the first artificial sweetener?