FINAL NOTES

The way you eat and how you digest, then, are just as important as the quality of the food eaten. Don't be overwhelmed by all of this

Food Combining Principles 41

detail. There are simple, straightforward ways to choose good foods and digest them well. It's just very important that you understand as completely as possible why violating many or most of these prin­ciples of food combining and food choice (to be addressed) can be the primary reasons why you're sick, overweight, or both.

 

Sugar abuse can eventually lead to chronically elevated insulin levels in the blood, which will be discussed in detail later in this chapter. These elevated insulin levels not only promote the forma­tion of fat in the body, they also directly correlate with the risk of heart attack. Pyorala et al. found that among healthy, nondiabetic policemen in Finland aged thirty-four to sixty-four years, those with the highest insulin levels were more than three times as likely to have a heart attack as those with the lowest insulin levels.¹ Since sugar abuse can be the cause of chronically elevated insulin levels, this suggests at least one mechanism by which sugar might be sci­entifically blamed for the skyrocketing incidence of heart disease today. Furthermore, overconsumption of sugar is one strong factor in the causation of diabetes, a disease that also increases the risk of heart attack. In fact, diabetes is such a major risk factor for heart dis­ease that people with diabetes who have no sign of heart disease have the same risk of dying of a heart attack as nondiabetic people who have already suffered a heart attack.

Sugar abuse is also an important factor causing many people to be seriously overweight. Periodontitis, or gum disease, has also been shown to be independently associated with a greater incidence of heart disease. Saito et al. showed that obesity appears to increase the risk of having this kind of gum disease.² It would appear that at least one way in which sugar can affect the incidence of heart dis­ease is in its ability to cause the obesity that is positively associated with the periodontitis.