How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy

I’m currently reading Paul Chek’s How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy.  It is a very interesting read, and when I came across the following passage I decided that I just had to share it.  Although I was already sold on the evils of sugar, and rarely eat any myself, I still found the following revealing and it helped me pull together many of my thoughts on the subject.  I hope it helps you in your own nutritional decision making.  Also, from what I have read so far, I can emphatically suggest you pick up a copy of the book.

In 1957, Dr. William Coda Martin pondered: “ When is afood a food and when is it a poison?”  HIs working medical definition of “poison” was, “Any substance applied to the body, ingested or developed within the body, which causes or may cause disease.  Physically: Any substance which inhibits the activity of a catalyst (which is a minor substance, chemical or enzyme that activates a reaction).”
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Dr Martin classified refined sugar as a poison because it has been depleted of its life forces, vitamins and minerals.  What is left is pure, refined carbohydrates.  The body cannot effectively utilize this refined starch and carbohydrate unless the depleted proteins, vitamins and minerals are present.  When we eat sugar in absence of the nutritional factors necessary to compensate for digestion, metabolism and elimination, incomplete carbohydrate metabolism results.  Pyruvic acid accumulates in the brain and nervous system, and the abnormal sugars accumulate in the red blood cells.  These metabolites interfere with the respiration of the cells.  They simply can’t get sufficient oxygen to survive and function normally.  In time, some of the cells die.  This interferes with the functioning of that part of the body and is the beginning of degenerative disease.

Daily intake of sugar produces a continuously over-acid condition.  Consequently, minerals are required from he body tisues (such as notes and teeth) in order to buffer the acidic environment and rectify the imbalance.  In order to protect the blood, so much calcium is taken from the bones and teeth that decay and general weakening begin.  Excess sugar eventually affects every organ in the body.

In the liver, excess sugar is stored in the form of glucose (glycogen).  Since the liver’s capacity is limited, a daily intake of refined sugar soon makes the liver expand.  When the liver is filled to its maximum capacity, the excess glycogen is returned to the blood in the form of fatty acids.  These fatty acids are then taken to every part of the body and stored - as fat - in the most inactive areas: the belly, the buttocks, the breasts and the thighs.

When these areas are completely filled with fat, fatty acids are then distributed among active organs, such as the heart, liver and kidneys.  These organs begin to slow down - finally their tissues degenerate and turn to fat.  the whole body is affected by their reduced ability, and abnormally high blood pressure results.  The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is affected because processed sugar is a powerful stimulator of the sympathetic branch of the nervous system.  The circulatory and lymphatic systems are invaded, and the quality of the red blood cells begins to change.  An overabundance of white cells occurs and tissue creation slows down.

When you ingest processed sugars without adequate amounts of the quality fats, proteins, vitamins and enzymes, your blood sugar levels will become elevated.  The body responds by releasing insulin, a hormone that rapidly reduces blood sugar levels.  Unfortunately, the feedback mechanism that tells the brain that blood sugar has returned to normal is slow, commonly resulting in a blood sugar crash, or hypoglycemic state.  The body must respond to this immediately.  If not, your brain will run out of blood sugar to operate on and you’ll go into a coma.  This emergency situation results in the release of powerful stress hormones, one of which is cortisol.  In the midst of all this, most people respond to the hypoglycemic, or low-blood sugar state by drinking coffee or soda, or eating something sweet.

Meanwhile, cortisol has triggered the release of stored glycogen form the liver to quickly raise the blood sugar levels again.  This results in an inflow of sugar form the liver as well as form the sweet thing that you just ate or drank, starting the whole porcess over again.  Many live thier lives on this roller coaster ride all day, every day.  This creates a big problem because after a while, your body can become insensitive to insulin - the first sign being an accumulation of fat around the middle, giving your midsection an apple like appearance.  This results in what is commonly called Syndrome X, and is the first major step toward becoming diabetic.

The constant hormonal roller coaster ride caused by the typical sugar-laden junk food diet overworks the adrenal galnds.  They finally become exhausted from producing excessive cortisol.  When the hormonal system becomes disturbed and unbalanced due to the stress of eating processed sugars, numerous other pathological conditions soon manifest - degenerative disease, allergies, obesity, alcoholism, drug addiction, depression and behavioral problems.  Our ability to resist disease progressively decreases as processed sugars displace the nutrient dense foods we were designed to thrive on...