A Brief History of FOOD
1. The small hard “package” we call a wheat seed contains most of the building blocks our cells need. (See USDA Database) Vitamins, minerals, all the protein, essential fat and the carbohydrate our cells run on called glucose. In addition, loads of fiber, Q10, arginine and far more antioxidants our body uses than fruits or vegetables. The hard working ancient could satisfy all their energy and growth needs by simply eating grain supplemented by salt and a few vegetables.
2. By eating grain the ancients avoided the plant protective poisons found mainly in the leaves and stems of plants. Much like a hen puts into an egg what is needed to make a baby chick. Nature puts into a wheat seed all the food a baby plant needs until it can care for itself. Humans also thrive on it. The first thing a wheat berry does when it sprouts is to make the poisons (phytochemicals) needed to protect it (so avoid sprouting seeds). Specific phytochemicals or toxins are sometimes useful as drugs to treat human cell dysfunction. Like other drugs they have side effects.
6. So what seemed like a miracle was only fruits and vegetables restoring the vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants previously supplied by whole wheat. The same mistake is still made by current health advisors. The downhill slide continued because like sugar, ELOFAV calories also displaced the now protein deficient white flour. So guess what happened next? Right, people became protein deficient. This was the opportunity to push tasty protein rich meat and dairy products. What comes with meat and dairy? FAT! Fat soon provided over 40% of our calories. What did fat do? Like sugar and ELOFAV, fat displaced even more white flour. If you recognize lots of sugar, fruits and vegetables, meats, dairy and a little white bread as the modern diet you are correct.
7. I came on the scene in 1934. I remember what we ate. Mother bought milk, white flour, sugar, Crisco, vegetable oil and cod liver oil. We planted lots of vegetables, raised chickens and ate lots of biscuits. In season, our family traveled to orchards and picked fruit at low cost. We ate as we picked. We then canned fruit in cane sugar syrup. Life was great. Deficiencies and the depression were past. But unexpected surprises were soon to follow.
8. SURPRISE One surprise was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Another surprise was that heart attacks (almost unknown prior to 1900) were killing more Americans than the war. When the Korean War autopsies were performed in 1953, the coronary arteries of most of young US casualties examined had advanced Coronary Artery Disease (CAD). The big surprise was the Korean casualties showed no evidence of CAD. One might assume Koreans were genetically protected, but the opposite is true. So what was going on?
9. I see the Korean War Autopsies as the end point of an unappreciated experiment. I call it the first “Great Unappreciated Trial” or GUT-1. The Korean participants had eaten the ancient “control diet”. They obtained the food molecules they needed and little else by eating grains supplemented by salt, soybeans, a few vegetables and if lucky an occasional fish. The control diet has almost no fructose or galactose. It is low in saturated and transfats. Their soybeans provide essential fats. The Americans had eaten the experimental diet high in fat, fructose and galactose. They also obtained essential fatty acids from soybeans, but in soybean oil. Both groups received all the nutrients needed to prevent obvious deficiency diseases. Both groups were young and physically active. Smoking by Americans was another factor.
10. The autopsies didn’t reveal what specifically was triggering CAD. It could be the high fat, high fructose, high galactose, smoking or something else. One thing was clear. The modern diet or smoking, like war was bringing Americans tremendous suffering and early death.
11. In 1953 the inventor of the WW2 “K” Ration, Professor Ancel Keys pointed out a probable relationship between high fat consumption and death from CAD in six countries. Then a UK professor of nutrition John Yudkin showed that CAD in the same six countries (referred to by Keys), correlated much better with the intake of sugar than with fat. Yudkin followed with 170 research studies and three books exposing fructose as the main problem. He noted that it was when people ate fructose that saturated fat became a problem. The metabolic mechanisms behind both professors observations were unknown at the time. Mechanisms are what I wanted to understand.
12. From 1900 to the time of the Keys and Yudkin, Big Sugar gave support to universities. Also high government officials had significant holdings in the United Fruit Company. Even in 2003 a much weaker sugar industry took on the World Health Organization. Since 1960 the US government and universities have spent billions on long-term studies of the effects of dietary fat on CAD. In contrast, I was unable to find even one study by government or universities on the long-term effect of dietary sugar, fructose or galactose (1907 on). Mind you, many short-term studies suggest both dietary fructose and galactose are adverse and recommend long-term evaluations. The fact that natural fructose from cane, beets and fruits is a major trigger of CAD is still being hidden from the public. But it isn't easy to hide. It is obvious to many that HFCS in soft drinks trigger obesity. So marketers have made HFC syrup the scapegoat and hope to trick folks into replacing HFCS with natural cane and beet sugar.
13. The 1953 Korean War Autopsies that supported the ancient diet and the revealing contributions of professor Yudkin were not on the agenda of our advisors. So they began carefully teaching the public that the cause of CAD was dietary fat. By 1975 folks became believers and enrolled in the second Great Unappreciated Trial or “GUT 2”! The theory was that if you avoid fat, you avoid CAD. All you have to do to be part of “GUT 2” is avoid as much fat as possible. The marketers quickly helped with non-fat, low fat and no cholesterol foods of all types. Folks religiously trimmed away all meat fat and dissected off chicken skins. We switched from beef to poultry and from fatty whole milk to skim. If you did eat any fat, nutritionist and gurus told us it should be olive oil (mainly oleic acid) like in the Mediterranean diet. The vital role of soybean oil in US diet was never mentioned. The fact is you don’t need to eat any oleic acid because your body makes it is rarely mentioned.
14. Another Summary Most folks in the late 1800s obtained most calories or energy from whole grains. When folks replaced whole grain calories with sugar and white flour calories they developed deficiency diseases. Around 1900 we replaced more white flour with lots of fruits and vegetables (ELOFAV), it replaced the vitamins and minerals but we became more protein deficient. To obtain the protein once provided by whole grain we ate meat & dairy which came with lots of fat. Fat calories replaced even more white flour. We enjoyed this tasty market friendly modern diet until we realized it might trigger CAD. Yudkin’s research showing that fructose was triggering CAD was inconvenient to business and government agenda. Fat theories were not.
15. Review…Cane and beet sugar is sucrose and digests into 50% fructose 50% glucose. Milk sugar is lactose and digests into 50% glucose and 50% galactose. Starch is a polysaccharide that digests into glucose. HFC is usually 55% fructose and 45% glucose.
16. Around 1975 plain corn syrup (glucose) was kissed by hi-tech and changed into then desirable “fruit sugar”. 100% pure fruit sugar was (and still is) sold in health food stores as perfect for diabetics because it didn’t raise blood glucose. It does have the lowest “glycemic index” of any carbohydrate so many said "Eat up and be healthy". HFC was so cheap that free refills on soft drinks became good business. Most of us enjoyed replacing “Bad" fat calories with “Healthy” fruit sugar drinks. I once consumed 64 ounces after a long hot hike. Folks filled the caloric vacuum left by “No Fat” with HFC soft drinks. The health conscious did the deed with fruit and fruit juice (apple juice is 65% dry wt. fructose). Juice isles and health food stores grew as fast as our bellies, disabilities and chronic diseases.
17. I think it is fair to assume that cane, beet and fruit sugar would have replaced the caloric vacuum created by “No Fat” if high fructose corn syurp was never invented. The same problems would have developed. HFC is not the problem. Our high fructose diet is.
18. Inconvenient or not our cells treat a fructose molecule from an apple the same as one manufactured from corn. If a healthy human cell needs fructose to divide, it makes just what it needs from glucose. We don’t need to eat any fructose. Fructose is not sitting around in healthy cells.
19. Sodas and fruit juices created huge hits of fructose that cause very high levels of fructose in many cells …not just the liver, for up to 6 hours. I find it interesting that premenopausal women metabolize fructose faster than men or premenopausal women with a predisposition to type2 diabetes (T2D). Could this be a reason women initially have less heart disease but catch up after menopause? (I suspect a fructose tolerance test using an oral sucrose might reveal a predisposition to diabetes early on.)
20. Cell metabolism, cell talk and cell dysfunction is more complex than I can even imagine. I only attempt to give you a view I find useful. As cells are exposed to a high fructose diet they often upregulate their ability to take in fructose. The liver at times metabolizes only about 60% of ingested fructose, not the 100% you hear about. Other cells tending to dysfunction metabolize the rest.
* As fructose sits around in cells it does cause problems. If you are a physician or researcher, the following article reviews some of the science behind why dietary fructose and hyperglycemia cause cell dysfunction. From the following and related research I think you can put together a reasonable theory of why dietary fructose and hyperglycemia are so adverse.
http://www.hin nk thdawi.com/journals/jop/2010/170393.html
Normally a cell only makes the fructose it needs when it divides. So how does a needed molecule cause problems? Most likely by pushing the formation of the most reactive sugar in the body, a 3-carbon sugar called glyceraldehyde. By reactive I mean the ability of a molecule to react (without enzymes) directly with another molecule to form a junk molecule. This process is known as glycation. Glyceraldehyde is reactive enough to react directly with vital control and messaging proteins within the cell and damage them. This damage can result in cellular dysfunction (disability). For example it is now accepted that CAD results from dysfunction of the cells that line blood vessels. CAD is “endothelial cell dysfunction”. NASH is hepatic cell dysfunction. Polycystic ovary disease is ovarian cell dysfunction…etc.
21. Glyceraldehyde is also free to move out of a cell and react (glycate) with the most reactive amino acid called lysine. (Lysine is low in grains and high in chicken flesh). This union forms the most toxic of about 8 similar Advanced Glycation End products or AGE found in the body. Thus it is called the Toxic AGE or TAGE. TAGE effects cells through cell Receptor sites for AGE. Professor Ann Marie Schmidt cutely termed them RAGE. These receptor sites form on cells and give cells inflammatory messages when cells come in contact with TAGE. What goes on unfortunately is that our innate or primitive immune system reacts to TAGE as if it was a fragment of invading bacteria (look up “innate immune system”). By attaching to a RAGE, TAGE produces a chronic, accumulating and progressing low-grade inflammation, which can trigger genetic predispositions to cancer and other chronic disease.
TAGE also is pro VEG-F meaning it abnormally increases Vascular Endothelial cell Growth Factor or VEG-F (Look up Judah Folkman MD and VegF). Abnormal levels of VEG-F have been implicated in promoting over 50 chronic diseases. The big ones are cancer, CAD and abnormal vessel disease such as AVMs, varicosities and the one you get. Drugs such as thalidomide and doxycyclene and phytochemicals found in green tea, lima beans, chocolate and turmeric are anti-VEG-F. Thus they medicinally counter the adverse effect of dietary fructose and high blood glucose.
22. In medical school they told us elevated blood glucose was bad, but didn’t really know why. It is nice to finally have a reasonable theory. Like dietary fructose, high cellular glucose (via the sorbitol pathway) elevates the fructose in cells. Uncontrolled diabetics have elevated fructose in blood, urine and many cells. As with dietary fructose, elevated fructose elevates the glyceraldehyde, which directly damages the cell or escapes and reacts with lysine forming TAGE. TAGE attaches to RAGE, which repeatedly gives cells harmful inflammatory messages. TAGE also abnormally increases VEG-F, triggering more problems. When fructose is high in a cell because of ingested fructose or high blood glucose, glyceraldehyde is formed and messes with cell controls and can cause dysfunction of that cell, then move out of that cell etc… If you realize the mechanism is similar but can affect different cells, you are right.
“Fructosis” is a fitting name for the mechanism or disease process where fructose leads to cell dysfunction and triggering of disease predispositions. Is “FRUCTOSIS” a stealthy serial killer? I think so!
23. When fructose accounts for about 50% of our ingested carbohydrates it easy for folks to assume all carbohydrates are bad. It is easy to prove a low carbohydrate diet is healthier. Is this “garbage in garbage out” research? I think so. Eating huge amounts of expensive protein to provide needed glucose is not practical or necessary, but it does avoid fructose. People who decide to drink only water are also usually healthier. It is a cheap way to avoid big hits of fructose and galactose. Are Mediterranean folks healthier because they get needed calories from olive oil instead of the sugar, HFC & fruit of the modern diet? I think so!
Nutrition experts and researchers will continue to give confusing advice until they realize ingested fructose and galactose is adverse. “Eat No Fat” except Olive Oil was taught for years. As a result folks in US avoided the cheap vegetable oil (Soy Bean Oil) that for 100 years provided our essential (for life) fatty acids. As a result many have become deficient in essential fatty acids (EFA). Thus eating expensive EFA supplements and fish is now helpful and the agenda of marketers is reinforced. (Yes, I realize SBO contains some saturated fatty acids.)
24. Please consider the following. Table sugar is 50% glucose 50% fructose. The brain is powered by glucose. Muscles need and burn glucose. If you don’t eat enough carbohydrate or protein your body will destroy muscle to make needed glucose. A healthy human cell produces the fructose it needs, when it is to be used and not before.
25. TEST QUESTION… if carbohydrates are unhealthy, specifically which major dietary “carb” (glucose or fructose) is best avoided? If you don’t know you can join the expert past advisers for the American Diabetic Association who insisted all ingested carbohydrates affect humans the same. WHY? Big Fructose at work... see
26. Our advisors should have stopped the Second Great Unappreciated Trial or GUT-2 ...years ago. But then it wouldn’t be "Unappreciated". It is undeniable that obesity, diabetes and silly explanations have increased. What is still unappreciated is that FRUCTOSIS has triggered a significant increase in many diseases since 1900. GUT 2 trial volunteers have been suffering and dying prematurely of many diseases. They have not been told why. The trial has not been stopped. It is obvious that removing fat from their diet lead to an increase in big hits of dietary fructose. Official results were out years ago. The first huge long-term women’s health study showed women that ate the least fat had the most CAD. Women eating the most soybean oil (not olive oil) had the least CAD. I think it is safe to say that by removing fat from the modern diet and replacing it with high fructose foods is a painful failure. GUT-1 also remains unappreciated. This is all so crazy no one believes it... unless you do your homework.
27. In 1991 information on prevalence of diabetes in various Chinese populations and changes in sugar consumption over time were available. They showed as sugar consumption increased the prevalence of diabetes increased from 1% to 10% after a time lag. Recently I wondered why the communists hadn’t addressed the problem. What I found is the Chinese government has huge sugar interests and of course tobacco interests.
28. REVIEW…50,000 years ago our 2000 ancestors are thought to have survived by hunting and gathering. Twelve thousand years ago civilizations thrived on the ancient diet of grain, salt and a few vegetables. About one hundred years ago our diet had changed and Americans were dying mysteriously. We didn’t return to the ancient diet. Instead... Eating Lots Of Fruit And Vegetables (ELOFAV) was the cure with a price. Sixty years ago Americans were mysteriously dying of CAD a rare condition prior to1900. The clear message of the Korean War Autopsies went unappreciated. Our advisers told us CAD was caused by fat in our diets and hid the more likely probability that dietary fructose was the problem. They didn’t tell us the incidence at any age of many chronic diseases had increased since 1900. Their solution to CAD was to eat no fat.
29. Our experts now imply they have always pushed whole grains, vegetables, essential fatty acids, avoidance of HFC and the need for some vitamin and mineral supplements. Not so! What happen to UCLA’s “Fruit Pyramid”, wonderful fruit sugar and the magic orange? Advisers failed to warn us about fructose and our need for essential fats. They encouraged us to drink lots of fruit juice and milk and avoid vitamin or mineral pills. Our advisers are now waffling! If any expert who advised us on nutrition from 1960 to 2000 has asked forgiveness for leading millions to suffer or die early, I missed it!
Overfat folks are told… It is your fault because you watch television and use computers rather than read books and newspapers”. Your fault “Because you eat large portions of fast food, don’t exercise enough and don’t eat enough fruits & vegetables”. Others say “You don’t follow a cave man diet”. It is your fault because you advertise food. The solution I hear is confusion. “Be responsible and exercise more!” Make food advertisements, large portions and HFCS illegal. Force schools to remove pop and candy from schools and replace them with healthy fruit juice, nonfat milk and fruit rolls.
I have always said “It is not your fault”. I repeat…” It is not your fault”. Unless someone told you specifically to avoid fructose, not "sugar" or carbs, it is not your fault! As far as I know…universities didn’t tell you, nutritionists didn’t, the American Diabetic association didn’t, the American Heart Association didn’t, the government didn’t and most Gurus didn’t. To “fast food providers” including MacDonald's I also say, “It is not your fault”. “Fast Food” provides what folks want and governments approve. They provide the same fructose, galactose and trans-fats that fancy restaurants, supermarkets and health-food vendors provide and nutitionists push. Clinically, I find it is almost impossible for the extremely obese to stop eating lots of fructose. The problem usually starts with drinking lots of HFCS drinks, fruit juice or fruit drinks. Stoping isn't easy. From the 1950's please enjoy what Jack La Lanne had to say... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJVEPB_l8FU
Fructose via glyceraldehyde is causing dysfunction of many cell types in many organs. Like me you won’t believe fructosis could relate directly to so many diseases unless you do the homework. I mention only a few. Liver cell dysfunction leads to NASH, now the most common cause of hepatitis and second highest for liver transplants. Smooth muscle cell dysfunction promotes diverticulosis (rare in 1850 autopsies), irritable bowel syndrome, asthma and hypertension. Prostate cell dysfunction triggers BPH and cancer. Dysfunction of brain cells triggers predispositions to depression and other mental illness like Alzheimer’s. Nerve cell dysfunction triggers neuropathy, RLS, fibromyalgia, arrhythmias, vision and hearing loss. White blood cell dysfunction reduces immunity and this increases the incidence and severity of infections. Insulin resistance may relate to muscle cell dysfunction. Dysfunction of gut sensor cells that secret incretins, regulate appetite, early insulin response and stimulate new pancreatic beta cells from duct cells relates to T2 diabetes. A lawyer once made this response to sugar industry... http://www.garynull.com/Issues/Sugar/SugarResponse.htm
Once your blood glucose is elevated you don’t have to ingest fructose to have an abnormal level of fructose in many cells. Ovarian cell dysfunction triggers polycystic ovary disease. Triggering of predispositions to many cancers and many other conditions is part of it. Glyceraldehyde + lysine create TAGE. TAGE is proinflammatory. TAGE triggers genetic predispositions to diseases. TAGE also promotes abnormal levels of VegF. Abnormal VegF is associated with over 50 diseases including brain aneurysms, varicose veins and rapid tumor growth. I must sound like a NUT but I am only scratching the surface! For example GOUT, kidney stones, gallstones and gum disease increase with increase in dietary fructose.
Some good researchers believe the “metabolic syndrome” has a single cause. They are right. The “metabolic syndrome” is really just a limited view of fructosis.
Many research projects relating to cell dysfunction triggered by ingested fructose and or galactose need to be done. Check one out! You will be amazed. Most dietary research does not take into account the significance of dietary fructose or galactose. It is like not knowing which subjects smoke in a study on the incidence of lung cancer! As a result even careful research gives confusing and erroneous results that lead to poor advice from conscientious experts.
Stakeholders in status quo will want everyone to wait another 40 years for the results of long term studies that avoid fructose and galactose. Don’t fall for it! Avoid most dietary fructose and galactose NOW. Enjoy exercise and keep your fasting glucose level like that of an ancient farmer. Push entrepreneurs for healthy versions of milk, yogurt, shakes, smoothies, sodas, fruit juice, ice cream and candy. They can taste the same but have fructose and galactose replaced by glucose. Ask for glucose instead of more expensive and unhealthy “Sugar” (table sugar, sucrose or cane and beet sugar).
Obesity is the most visible effect of fructosis. It seems to be caused by dysfunction of brain cells, gut glucose sensor cells and gut fat pericytes that prior to becoming dysfunctional kept weight constant. Other effects on brain make us less active. If our mother drank lots of “healthy” juice and milk before we were born and then feed us lots of “healthy” carrots, fruits, milk and juice we were “fructed” from the start. It isn’t long before ice-cream, candy and HFC sodas are available. As a result of cell dysfunction many youth simply want to eat more and be inactive. Genetic predispositions to depression, other mental problems and diseases such as Type One Diabetes can be triggered early. Their blood glucose will always be much higher than an age matched North Koreans surviving on grain and a few vegetables.