Carbohydrates are complex long chained sugar molecules. The more complex the chain the more slowly and steadily the sugar is released into our blood. Never before in human history have we been faced with such a huge abundance of readily available sugar. Easily absorbable sugar causes our bodies to pump out large amounts of various hormones – especially insulin.

Being practical, our bodies store excess sugar for leaner times. One way it does this is by re-linking the molecules to form long, complex chains of a substance called glycogen, some of which is then stored in the liver. The excess is converted it into fat and stored as fatty tissue. Sugar is the only substance that our body can turn into fat with little effort.

Glycogen reserves in muscles are soon used up and that is why we are advised to continue our exercise beyond the stage when we suddenly find it hard work, because that is when we start burning fat.

Human cells value fat and are reluctant to release them, hence the need to either exercise or fast to encourage such release. Fat is the most valuable and efficient of all food particles. We use it to coat our nerves to allow impulses to pass faster without interference and also to manufacture some of the most important hormones in our body. Our small intestine absorbs the fat, not into our blood stream where it would clog the system, but via the Lymphatic system. All the body’s lymph vessels converge in an impressively thick duct – the ‘Ductus Thoracicus’, from here it skirts the belly, passes through the diaphragm and heads straight for the heart. There is no de-toxing by the liver as there is for everything else we digest.

Detoxification of dangerous bad fat, takes place only after the heart has given it a powerful push to pump it through the system, and the droplets of fat happen to end up in one of the blood vessels of the liver where it is dealt with. However by then our heart and our blood vessels would have been at the mercy of the bad fat. Good fat protects against atherosclerosis and inflammatory diseases.

Carbohydrates easily and rapidly convert to glucose which too can be dangerous in excess. The glucose from our food that doesn’t end up being used for fuel or stored in the form of glycogen in the muscles can also end up as liver fat. (See – ‘Food – Fat – Energy Cycle’ and ‘The Ketogenic Diet’)

This accumulation of liver fat appears to be the first step toward insulin resistance and increased insulin levels-leading to obesity and a cascade of other metabolic disorders that result in type 2 diabeties and heart diseases etc. the American Heart Association recommends a safe upper limit for sugar in excess of what is naturally present in lactose in diary and fructose in fruit, both consumed in small quantities, which is;

for children – 4 teaspoons/day – a 50z container of yoghurt with strawberries contains 3 teaspoons of sugar.

for women – 6 teaspoons/day – for men – 9 teaspoons/day – this is typically what you will find in a can of soda drinks. Crave a Cola? It also contains salt to make you thirstier.

Sugar contributes to premature ageing, just as smoking and UV rays. Sugar when present in the skin, forms cross-links with amino acids that may have been damaged by free radicals. These cross links once formed can’t unhitch and therefore jam the cells’ natural repair mechanism and result in pre-maturely old looking skin. Cinnamon, Cloves, Garlic and Ginger seem to slow down such cross linking.

See at You Tube – ‘Sugar: The Bitter Truth” by Robert Lustig Endocrinologist and Professor of Pediatrics – University of California, San Francisco.

There is a strong link between the amount of sugar and carbohydrates and excess Omega-6 in a Country’s food habits and the prevalence of diabetes in that Country and with such changes in the Indian diet these past decades, it is no wonder India has such high prevalence of Diabetes.

Excessive intake of refined carbohydrates and sugar have also been shown to alter the balance of the bacteria in our gut with adverse affects, including an increasing craving for more carbohydrates. (See – ‘Gut Micro Flora & Obesity’).

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