Lef s look at a pattern of eating shared by many, if not most, Americans today. The day starts around 7:00 a.m. with the great American breakfast: orange juice, a sugar-releasing refined cereal with more sugar added, milk, and coffee (usually sweetened with sugar). The glucose skyrockets and the insulin skyrockets in response. Around 10:00 a.m. the glucose has dropped precipitously low from the insulin overshoot provoked by breakfast. The resulting state of hypoglycemia now causes a feeling of sluggishness. Solution: the coffee break! Remember that even without added sugar, the caffeine hit releases sugar from internal stores and initiates another surge of insulin into the blood to metabolize it. Once the coffee break is over, there's generally enough sugar-stimulated energy to finish out the morning. Then, around noon, if s time for lunch. Since the overshoot of insulin at 10:00 a.m. again does not have enough glucose to metabolize, the carbohydrate craving sets in, and the great American burger or sandwich lunch is consumed. This has a doubly potent effect in producing sluggishness for the early afternoon. The protein portion diverts much of the blood supply to the digestion, and the bread (and coffee and dessert, if also consumed) once again
Refined Sugar: The Toxic Treat 59
has the insulin pouring into the bloodstream. Once again there is insulin overshoot, and you're praying for the afternoon coffee break to arrive so that you can stop and squirt more sugar into the blood to keep you going and give the insulin excess something upon which to work. You finally wake up from this new injection of glucose, and you survive until dinner. Dinner consists of another carbohydrate/protein disaster, but this time, when your glucose is dropping again several hours after the insulin overshoot response to dinner, you don't need to shock your body with another coffee break. Instead, you allow yourself to nod off to sleep in front of the TV. After a while, you wake up and go to bed.
But for many victims of this glucose-insulin seesaw, the torture does not end at bedtime. Many of these people also suffer from what is called the "night eating syndrome."8 This was initially described in 1955. The foods consumed in this syndrome are typically carbohydrate-rich, and often the late night refrigerator raids comprise over 50 percent of the daily consumed calories! This is because the chronically high insulin levels induced by the glucose-insulin seesaw keep the carbohydrate cravings high. Often these cravings disrupt sleep and contribute to the insomnia of many who follow this routine. Insomnia may be more related to this type of eating than many health care professionals might suspect. Carbohydrate-rich foods facilitate increased serotonin production, and increased serotonin levels promote sleep. People afflicted by the night-eating syndrome can literally wake up to consume more of the foods that will put them back to sleep. And even if the disciple of this caffeine-sugar-carbohydrate routine does sleep well, the cycle repeats itself again the next day, and the bodywide glandular overload with eventual glandular burnout to be described next can proceed to develop.
With minor variations, most Americans subject their bodies to some degree of this glucose-insulin roller coaster on a daily basis. So whaf s the big deal? In addition to the chronic over-releases of insulin throughout the day that can eventually result in insulin
60 Optimal Nutrition for Optimal Health
resistance, obesity, and compromised immune function, the body, especially its glands, is being literally burned out. No one would gun an engine to its maximum speed every time it was started and expect it to outlast an engine that was properly warmed up and driven at moderate speeds with moderate acceleration. The body is no different. Rapid glucose release into the bloodstream can be likened to a metabolic blowtorch. The accelerator is being pushed to the floor.
What do these wide swings of insulin and glucose do to the body? In a word, aging. Any biological system that is chronically run faster than it is designed to run will wear down more quickly, be diseased longer, and die sooner. The pancreas, testes, ovaries, adrenals, thyroid, and pituitary are all glands whose functions are intimately interrelated. Other lesser known glands are also involved as well. When the body is subjected to wide swings of insulin and glucose, these glands burn out. Eventually, the body loses its ability to deal with environmental stresses, including toxicity, as well as with the poor nutrition that makes the toxicity worse.
These glands all produce hormones or hormonelike substances that make sure the body runs efficiently. Dr. Melvin Page found that administering relatively small amounts of hormones in conjunction with his dietary recommendations could turn around many of the chronic diseases still considered unbeatable today. His patients' blood tests, as well as their senses of well-being, would consistently improve on his regimens, giving strong support to the validity of this reasoning.
One of the best examples of glandular overload and eventual glandular burnout is provided by the pancreas. When the pancreas has been overtaxed by wildly shifting glucose levels for a long enough period of time, insulin formation and release will become limited, and diabetes will result. While there are other reasons for the development of diabetes, pancreatic overstress is probably the most significant reason.
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Corn has a high glycemic index. This is a primary reason why the Pima Indians in the southwestern United States have the highest incidence of diabetes in the world.9 When modern, genetically engineered corn with large kernels and little fiber was substituted for much of the maize corn previously eaten by the Pimas, diabetes soared. Maize has a lower (but still relatively high) glycemic index compared to modern corn, but the more rapid release of glucose from the modern corn into the bodies of the Pimas was more than their metabolisms and pancreas glands could handle. To be sure, the Pimas would be even worse off if they washed all that corn down with soda pop and then had a candy bar. However, it is important to realize what an overdose of even a natural food such as corn can do to the metabolism. Even if you have no intention of giving up your favorite high glycemic index food, exerting some restraint and moderation can significantly lessen their negative impact.
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