By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Are you addicted to sugar? A ludicrous thought you say? Not so -- Researchers at Princeton University, USA conducted an experiment four years ago on laboratory rats with irrefutable results. The rats were offered a delicious, nutritious meal of their favorite grains, accompanied by a sugary drink. Within a month the rats had doubled their intake of their sweet drink and reduced their intake of all that good, health-giving grains. Do we behave like rats? Indeed we do say scientists. "The urge to get a sugar rush is intensely habit forming." In other words sugar, like nicotine, is addictive. Our craving for sugar goes back to our early ancestors, who lived by hunting and foraging for food. They discovered that what they picked off trees that tasted sweet, was not toxic. Scientists concluded that we are genetically programmed to like the taste. Ah! These unyielding genes! Is there anything left that we do not blame them for? According to the Brits we are now consuming almost half a pound (.22kgs) of sugar a day, and say the Americans, the average consumption has reached approximately 115lbs per year (52kgs) per man, woman, and child. That is why obesity is out of control, concludes a study at Cambridge University. On November 11, 2008, the International Sugar Organization (ISO) predicted that the world will consume 165.9 million tons of sugar in 2009, 3.6 million tons more than it will produce. The damage of our sugar intake is exponential -- the more sugar we have, the more we need to have, rejecting other non-sweet foods including meats and vegetables. We are, more often than not, unaware that we are eating sugar, as it is an ingredient in almost every food, prepackaged or canned food. It is found in cereals, crackers, breads, soups, sauces, diet foods, fruit juices, cured meats, yoghurt, even pizza, vitamins, medications, and toothpaste. But, you read the list of ingredients, and there was no mention of sugar. Of course not; those sugar manufacturers, much like the former tobacco makers, skillfully disguise it, giving it some other name. If you see an ingredient ending with --ose - that is it -- dextrose, maltose, glucose, etc. While manufacturers' pockets are getting fatter, so is the waistline of the world's population. "Obesity is now deadlier than smoking," screamed the headlines in Britain last year. By 2050, 60% of men and 50% of women will be clinically obese, and the rates of type II diabetes and weight-related cancer will spiral. The damaging effects begin early, at baby's birth. Mother's milk is sweet if she takes sugar, and the formula is even sweeter, loaded with sugar. Practically 95% of the human race is addicted to sugar to some degree or another. Of course sugar is not poisonous, not like the tar in tobacco. It is not the sugar itself but it is the excessive consumption of this commodity that is behind this life-threatening health crisis -- obesity. Two hundred and fifty scientists worldwide have concluded that: "While smoking reduces life expectancy by 10 years, being seriously overweight can cut it by as much as 13 years!" Sugar is now compared to heroin -- here's how! It starts off as a plant; sugar cane is stripped of all of its vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes, and other nutrients it once possessed, reducing it to an unnatural chemical substance that the human is unable to handle. In the case of heroin, the opium is first extracted from the poppy then refined into morphine, which is then further refined into the deadly heroin. Chemists then proclaimed a great discovery -- a supreme pain killer that is non-addictive. Now we know better. Sugar cane is first pressed as a juice, then refined into molasses, then further refined into brown sugar, and finally into those gleaming white crystals that is known as C12H22O -- a chemical alien to the human and addictive. It is also delectable, seductive, obsessing and enslaving. What is more, it seems so pure and harmless, but is considered even worse than heroin. It takes years from birth to adulthood, to inflict its wicked deed, destroying the pancreas, the adrenal glands, and the endocrine system. It wreaks more damage than all the narcotics combined, claim scientists. The list of harm the consumption of the long term chemical causes is shameful and shocking. I counted 38 diseases, most of them serious, apart from tooth and gum disease and type II diabetes that has now reached epidemic proportions. They say that Greeks, who have a word for everything, do not have a word for sugar. They had no use for it, and neither did other ancient civilizations like Egypt and Rome. Although beet sugar has been available for thousands of years, it formed an insignificant part of their average diet. Such massive damage occurred mainly in the last two centuries during which the sugar commodity became abused by manufacturers and over used by consumers. The result is now apparent how pernicious and deleterious sugar can be to man's health. The human body is simply unable to handle the incredible amounts of such an unnatural substance. Historians trace the appearance of sugar cane to the islands of the South Pacific some 8000 years ago. From there, it traveled to India and Persia, and with the Arab expansion to the Far East, it was brought by them to North Africa and Spain. The Crusaders came home raving about the "new spice." Sugar cane was planted by Columbus in the Caribbean, but for centuries it was a luxury that few could afford. When German chemists discovered that beet sugar is just as sweet as sugar cane sugar in 1744, refineries sprang everywhere in Europe and the craze and crave for sugar was on its way. If you think honey is a better substitute, it is not. While good in certain cures, it is not recommended as an everyday food. It is similar to white and brown sugar. Here are only some of the health problems wrought by years of our excessive sugar consumption. It suppresses the urinary system, upsets the body's mineral balance, and contributes to hyperactivity, depression, osteoporosis, atherosclerosis, weight gain and a weakened defense against bacterial infections. Please read on! It can cause kidney damage, hypoglycemia, drowsiness, elevation of harmful cholesterol and increase in systolic blood pressure. If nothing can make you resist all that sugar in your coffee or tea, this might -- like cigarettes, sugar speeds the aging process causing skin discoloration, wrinkles and grey hair. My tea has been sugarless since! They surfeited with honey and began To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little More than a little is by much too much -- King Henry IV: William Shakespeare (1564 -- 1616)
