IN PRAISE OF SUGAR
when i read the ‘information’ posted on various platforms online - even when i look at books about nutrition in a bookstore - i am struck by the lack of basic knowledge the average author has about the operation of the human body - an animal that shares the basic chemistry of life with all animals, from as small as a fruit fly to as large as a blue whale. all earth animals burn the same fuel to animate their lives and all the systems in their bodies. that fuel is glucose - grape sugar. there are supplemental needs, like protein for cell repair and production, fat for enzyme production (including cholesterol) and many trace minerals, but the basic moving and thinking and regulation of all the autonomic functions of the body, whether you are a fruit fly or a human, is fueled by sugar. so is your ability to think and read and understand these words.
i hear voices saying ‘yes, of course, but what about all the sugar added to the human diet?’ well, if the added sugar adds too many calories to an animal’s intake they will gain weight. yes! weight gain is just caused by a caloric intake from all sources greater than the expenditure to maintain daily activity. (think of a bear gorging on sugary fruit in the autumn.) but increasing sugar intake does not make a person sick by itself. sugar is not toxic to the human body (or any other body). we know this because it’s easy to get mice in controlled experiments to eat more sugar, or even only sugar. and their organs do not immediately fail, nor do they get sick.
this does not mean you should try living on pop, ice cream and candy. but people on their own will not crave that kind of diet and it is not seen outside controlled experiments. humans, like all animals, naturally know what to eat and managed to live healthy lives for millennia before the first ‘expert’ arrived to ‘save’ them. trying to make the general public forget this history is one of the prime demands of the so-called health movement. dogs and bears and fish and bugs are lucky they don’t have such a nuanced language and can’t read. and to my knowledge there are no dog or fish experts around to tell them what to do anyway.
so what should be our takeaway from all this modern industry, this wellness industry? it is corrupt and entirely self- serving and not to be trusted. ignore it all - you will only be ignoring someone else’s ignorance, not your own.
