Participants: Bill Santos
Series Code: IIWC
Program Code: IIWC201221
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00:02 BILL: On today's It Is Written program, another instalment in our Live
00:04 Healthy series. 00:06 Today we ask the question: "Is sugar really toxic? 00:10 " with our friend, Dr. Fereira. 00:13 It Is Written begins right now. 00:28 ANNOUNCER: It has stood the test of time. 00:30 God's book: the Bible, 00:34 still relevant in today's complex world. 00:38 It Is Written, 00:41 sharing the messages of hope around the world. 00:55 Bill: Well, let me welcome all of our viewers to this week's It Is Written 00:57 program. 00:58 Thank you for joining us today. 01:00 Let me turn to my special guest, Dr. Fereira. 01:03 Welcome, Doctor. 01:05 DOCTOR: Thank you very much, Bill. 01:06 It's a pleasure to be here. 01:08 BILL: You know, Doctor, in this Live Healthy series, we've tried over the years 01:11 to give folks some very practical advice and ways. lifestyle changes that 01:17 they can make to live life and live it more abundantly, because we 01:21 believe that that is what is God's desire for each one of his children. 01:25 And occasionally, we come across some articles or some studies that seem to 01:28 cause quite a stir. 01:32 DOCTOR: That's right, yes. 01:34 BILL: And this is one of them right here about sugar being toxic. 01:39 Now, before we get to that, give us a very quick biography of who you are 01:42 for the benefit of viewers that may be tuning in for the very first time and 01:46 haven't seen you on a program before. 01:49 Tell us a little bit about who you are. 01:51 DOCTOR: Well, I'm Portuguese by descent. 01:54 I was born in Angola in Africa and studied medicine in South Africa 01:55 and practiced in the U.K. 01:57 and the U.S. 02:02 And now, for the past few years, we've been in Portugal where we're 02:05 working a lot in preventative medicine, setting up a centre where 02:07 we can help people change their lifestyle. 02:11 And so we get involved in health education, not just here, but throughout 02:16 Europe. 02:18 It keeps us busy, but we love it. 02:21 BILL: Yes. 02:24 Well, I know that you're extremely busy and we appreciate you joining us. 02:27 One of the things I really appreciate about you is that you tend to 02:30 speak from facts and experience and not speculation. 02:35 So when I came across this article. there are a number of articles written 02:39 about the potential toxicity of sugar. 02:42 DOCTOR: That's right, yes. 02:44 BILL: You know, I fired it off to you right away. 02:45 DOCTOR: Immediately. 02:47 BILL: Yeah, 'cause I wanted your opinion on this. 02:48 Let me just share with you this one. 02:50 There's a number of them. 02:52 Just from the one I have here in front of me. 02:54 It says: "New research coming out of some of America's most respected 02:57 institutions is starting to find that sugar is a toxin and could be a 03:00 driving force behind some of the country's leading killers, including heart 03:04 disease. 03:07 " And then later on here in the article, it goes on to say that Dr. Dariush 03:10 Mozaffarian, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard, 03:16 told the magazine that anti-sugar crusaders are mostly concerned with 03:23 fructose. 03:26 Fructose specifically, not sugar in general, activates DNL in the liver 03:33 more directly than any other sugars and carbohydrates. 03:36 DNL, he says, is simply the process by which our body turns carbs into fat. 03:41 And with fructose, like alcohol and unlike other sugars, this occurs in the 03:47 liver. 03:50 This is part of the reason why people make the argument that sugar is 03:53 toxic. 03:56 What's your opinion on that? 03:58 DOCTOR: That's amazing. 04:00 Well, you know, let's go back and try and see the context of all this. 04:04 You know, people were born with taste buds. 04:08 And we've got specific taste buds for sweet things. 04:14 So it's natural; it's there. 04:17 And it's a very pleasant thing to eat something sweet, you know. 04:23 I know my son has never really liked cakes and things like that since he 04:27 was a little boy, a baby, really. 04:30 But most of us, you know, we've got a tendency to like these sweet things. 04:34 It's almost like a comfort. 04:36 And it's normal. 04:39 We were made that way. 04:41 So where do you get these sweet flavours? 04:44 Well, in nature, you get them. 04:46 For example, you eat fruit. 04:48 And fruit has fructose in small amounts. 04:53 And you don't need a lot of fructose to have the sweetness. 04:57 And then you've got sugarcane, for example. 05:00 Sugarcane is what we call sucrose. 05:04 And I don't know, I remember as a little boy in Africa, you know, just 05:07 chewing the sugarcane. 05:10 And it's lovely. 05:12 And you start getting fussy, you know, which ones are good and which 05:14 ones are not good. 05:14 Okay. 05:16 So we were born to enjoy that. 05:18 But even sugarcane, there's so much water in it, that the amount that 05:22 you take of that pure sugar is small. 05:27 Now, with industrialization, people found out that if they dry 05:37 the sugarcane and the syrup and make it into crystals, it's still very 05:41 natural. 05:44 You can see, it'd be a very natural process. 05:47 You get first the brown sugar, then molasses, and so on. 05:49 So you've got from sugarcane and from beets, for example, beetroot, you 05:56 get this sugar which is essentially sucrose. 06:00 And what is sucrose? 06:02 Sucrose is. give me your cup. 06:05 Okay. 06:08 Sucrose is a sugar that is a molecule that has two pure sugars or simple 06:15 sugars. 06:17 One is fructose; the other one is glucose. 06:20 The two together, bound together, make sucrose. 06:23 Now, that is the sugar that is present in sugarcane; it's present in 06:28 beetroot. 06:30 And what happens is that the body, when we eat things with that, which is 06:36 already. if you eat the pure sucrose, it's already concentrated. 06:42 You know, it's crystallized, and so it's already concentrated. 06:46 So you can have much more sugar per tablespoon than if you took the syrup of 06:50 corn sugar. sorry, sugarcane. 06:57 So what happens, then, you take that and put it in your mouth. 07:01 In the mouth. see, your body cannot use the two together. 07:04 It has to separate them. 07:07 In the mouth, there are scissors which are enzymes that start dividing them. 07:12 So you get fructose and you get glucose. 07:15 Sucrose is the combination of fructose and glucose. 07:20 But now that. and especially when people eat too fast, too quickly, 07:23 that only happens a little bit. 07:27 That sucrose has to travel down to your stomach and then to your intestine. 07:33 And there, again, the ones that were not separated before, they are 07:40 separated. 07:43 So you get the same percentage of fructose as you get of glucose. 07:47 And remember, we're talking about sucrose, which is from sugarcane 07:51 and beetroot. 07:52 Then where do they go? 07:55 Well, fructose enters the body. 08:00 So it's inside the gut now. 08:03 But it has to go to the blood and it has to go to the organs. 08:06 So it enters the body a certain way. 08:07 It goes through one door. 08:11 Glucose, which is the main sugar, for example, for the body's metabolism. 08:17 For example, my brain only uses glucose as its own fuel. 08:24 So glucose enters the blood through another door. 08:28 So they separate. 08:31 But it's important to know that when they get into the gut, they're together, 08:37 and then they have to be separated. 08:38 Then they go. 08:41 The fructose goes. it's metabolized essentially in the liver, where the 08:45 glucose goes to. you know, it can be metabolized by different 08:49 organs. 08:52 And so if there is an excess. let's say you take too much sucrose, which 08:59 happens. 09:02 I mean, just in the U.S., people take about 40 kilograms. 40 kilograms of 09:06 sugar. 09:09 One person, 40 kilograms of sugar per year. 09:13 I mean, that's a huge bag. 09:16 BILL: That's almost 100 pounds, I think. 09:18 DOCTOR: Yeah, that's right, yes. 09:20 That's almost 100 pounds of sugar a year. 09:21 That is an amazing amount. 09:24 If you think of how much fruit you would need to eat to get 40 kilograms of 09:27 sugar, it's bags and bags and crates. 09:34 It's just amazing. 09:35 And that's one person. 09:37 Now, of course, that has an effect in the body. 09:40 That sugar cannot all be used, so it's stored. 09:43 It's metabolized and it's stored. 09:47 Now, what happens with fructose, it goes a certain way and it's 09:51 mainly metabolized in the liver and it can have certain effects. 09:55 And sucrose, the same thing. 10:00 Now, one of the reasons for the huge obesity crisis. you know, it's 10:06 really epidemic. is that people are taking too much of that. 10:10 It doesn't matter if it is. and we'll talk about that, you know. the 10:15 modified sugars or if it's from sugarcane. 10:18 The reality is that people are taking too much sugar. 10:21 BILL: Too much of it, yeah, in any form. 10:23 DOCTOR: And so it's being stored. 10:28 And you know, by having a lot of weight, and it's stored in fat mostly 10:31 because the sugar, when it's to be stored in the muscles, in the fat cells, 10:34 it has to be transformed into fat. 10:36 So it's stored. 10:38 And that is associated with heart disease, with cancer, diabetes, and so 10:41 on. 10:43 So it's just amazing. 10:45 This is just the background for the sugar story. 10:48 BILL: Wow, okay. 10:51 So now, they make reference here to the idea that most experts seem to 10:57 be more concerned about fructose specifically. 11:03 I'm assuming they are not referring to fructose in fruit. 11:08 DOCTOR: No, no. 11:10 See, you need to eat a lot of fruit to have a lot of fructose, okay? 11:14 So what are they talking about? 11:19 Okay. 11:20 BILL: Where are we getting all of this? 11:21 DOCTOR: All right. 11:24 Now, this is. it's fascinating, you know, how trends in human nutrition 11:25 develop over the years. 11:29 If you look at the labels of most of your products today. 11:35 Go and take a cereal or a cake or a soft drink, one of these sodas. 11:43 Most of them, you read that it contains high-fructose corn syrup. 11:51 BILL: Yes. 11:53 DOCTOR:Now, it depends on where you are, how it's labelled. 11:56 In the U.S., it's high-fructose corn syrup. 11:59 In Canada, it could be just fructose/glucose. 12:04 Now, where does this come from? 12:09 The word "corn" says it all. 12:13 Okay, now, when you look at corn. when you look at sugarcane. 12:17 I was telling you, you know, I used to eat the sugarcane. 12:19 It's sweet. 12:20 It's extremely sweet. 12:22 If you take fruit, it's sweet. 12:24 Corn, if you take sweet corn, it's a little bit sweet because it has some 12:28 of the molecules already that are going to give you that sweetness. 12:33 But most of it is not sweet. 12:36 Where does that high-fructose corn syrup come from? 12:39 Well, corn has starch. 12:42 And starch. imagine if you had many mugs here, you know, many of these cups 12:46 here. 12:51 Starch is a collection of hundreds of them. 12:53 Each one of them has glucose in it and also some fructose. 13:00 BILL: Okay, got it. 13:03 DOCTOR: So what they do is, okay, they looked. and this is an economical war 13:07 and it's got things in between that we're not going to deal with. 13:13 But they looked at these and they said, "We've got a lot of corn in our 13:18 countries. 13:20 How can we make sugar out of this? 13:22 " So they break before they give. I mean, you don't want to take corn as 13:30 a source of sugar. 13:32 But they've separated all of this enzymatically, industrially, they 13:35 separated all the starch from the corn and they made the high-fructose 13:38 corn syrup. 13:41 And then you've got different percentages. 13:44 You know, you've got high-fructose corn syrup, which is 90% fructose; 13:47 you've got others which are 70% fructose. 13:49 You've got 55% fructose. 13:52 And it depends on what you want to use it for which one you're going to use. 13:56 But it's a high-fructose corn syrup. 13:59 Remember, it's not a natural process. 14:02 It has to be prepared before. 14:05 And when you take it, you're already taking the fructose separated. 14:09 It's not together. 14:13 BILL: Without the glucose. 14:14 DOCTOR: Without the glucose. 14:16 You're taking it separate, okay? 14:18 All right, in higher amounts. BILL: That's already unnatural for our 14:20 body. 14:21 DOCTOR: Yes. 14:24 So for you to take that amount of fructose from fruit and natural sources, 14:26 I mean, it would be impossible. 14:29 Now, I told you that about 40 kilos a year are taken by an average person in 14:34 the U.S. 14:36 You know how much of that is from high-fructose corn syrup? 14:38 It's close to about 40%. 14:40 It's about 17, 18 kilos. 14:42 That's 2008. BILL: Oh my goodness. 14:44 So nearly half of all the sugar intake is. DOCTOR: It comes from 14:47 high-fructose corn syrup. 14:50 Plus the other sugar that you take already has 50% fructose. 14:55 So you see, we've got a very unnatural situation. 14:58 You've got high amounts of fructose. 15:01 You know, fructose is healthy, but in appropriate amounts coming 15:03 into the body. 15:06 And it's a system that is not dependent on insulin to come into the cells. 15:11 It's different from the one from glucose going into the body. 15:14 And it's something that is directly affecting the liver. 15:19 The glucose, not so much, but the fructose is. 15:23 So that is why there have been studies that have shown that this is 15:31 potentially toxic to the liver itself, you know. 15:36 If you take too much of this. there's at least one study that says that it 15:40 could actually be potentially toxic to the liver and cause some liver 15:43 damage, okay? 15:46 It can cause. the liver can become very fatty because fructose is stored 15:52 mainly in the liver. 15:54 It can become very fatty. 15:56 And we know today that. and we've done a program on this before on 16:00 diabetes, that the fat in the liver is one of the most important predictors 16:07 of diabetes. 16:14 So there's a direct correlation between fat in the liver and diabetes, 16:18 for example. 16:20 And there have been fascinating studies on this, because you know, 16:23 it's not a normal situation to eat so much fructose. 16:26 So you know, for example, obesity. 16:30 Animals that are fed with high-fructose corn syrup, they are more likely to 16:36 become obese. 16:38 BILL: Which makes sense, yeah. 16:41 DOCTOR: So there's a lot of controversy. 16:43 And so you know, when people look at that, at the label, and they look 16:49 at high-fructose corn syrup, there's a natural tendency to feel, "Well, 16:54 this is probably healthier," because they know that sugar is bad, so 16:59 if you put there "sugar", somebody would look at it as, "Oh, sugar. 17:03 I don't want that. 17:05 " BILL: I don't want that, yeah. 17:07 DOCTOR: "You know, I don't want that. 17:08 " They leave it aside. 17:12 But high-fructose corn syrup, most people have no idea that this is sugar. 17:14 It's a modified sugar. 17:16 So they feel happier and so they take it. 17:19 BILL: Yeah, it's amazing that once you become conscious of this and you 17:22 begin to read the labels, that you find this high-fructose corn syrup 17:26 in everything. 17:28 DOCTOR: You know, it's interesting, yeah. 17:30 BILL: It's everywhere. 17:31 DOCTOR: That's right, it's everywhere. 17:33 BILL: It's incredible. 17:35 DOCTOR: And you know, it's becoming sort of bad news, if you look at that, and 17:37 because of all this controversy about the high-fructose corn syrup, 17:39 you know, people are starting to get informed and starting to look at 17:42 this high-fructose corn syrup, you know, beginning not to trust this. 17:45 "You know, I hear so much about this. 17:47 " But the thing is that there is a move. there has been an application in the 17:49 U.S. 17:51 for that to be relabelled and it just says "corn sugar" you know, or 17:55 something similar. BILL: Oh my goodness. 17:58 DOCTOR: .so that people. but you know, sugar from corn doesn't come in that 18:00 form. 18:02 Sugar from corn is different. 18:05 To say that that is sugar from corn, it's saying half the truth. 18:12 And personally, I don't think it is wise to go in that direction, but you 18:17 know, governments will decide whether they will move in that direction or 18:21 not. 18:23 BILL: And really, our role here is really to increase some awareness and have 18:25 people. DOCTOR:That's right, yes. 18:27 BILL: .engage in that kind of discussion and do some of the research and make 18:29 the decisions for themselves. 18:34 Now, one other thing that seems to be an area of some confusion. at least 18:40 it is for me. is, then, what would be potentially some substitutes for. are 18:47 there healthy or better alternatives, for example, for someone that, you 18:55 know, wants to make a cake? 18:58 Is there something that they could add? 19:01 I mean, we hear about things like. I know a lot of the drinks have 19:05 aspartame, stevia, sometimes people talk about, honey. 19:10 How do those come into play in this whole sugar debate and discussion? 19:17 DOCTOR: Well, I think that the use of sugar in a form that is as natural as 19:27 possible in very small amounts. 19:31 I would say it is. I can't say it's safe, but it's much safer than taking it 19:40 in the amounts that people usually take. 19:43 You know, let's say, making a cake. 19:46 Making a cake occasionally when a person has a balanced diet, exercises, 19:54 eats plenty of fruit, vegetables, making a cake, you know, it's okay. 20:00 It's not. that is not what is going to cause you to become obese or to develop 20:09 heart disease or whatever, you know, if you have this balanced diet. 20:14 What happens is that people are just not making one cake; many times, they 20:19 are eating not. you know, they just go out and they buy the cakes and eat it 20:23 almost every day. 20:25 But their diet is also full of refined sugars. 20:27 It's high on fat. 20:31 And so you know, when you ask, you know, what other substitutes. 20:35 Okay, the substitution that needs to take place is in the mind, okay? 20:39 BILL: Right, okay. 20:41 [chuckle] Yeah, that's a good point. 20:43 DOCTOR: How am I going to live? 20:44 How am I going to live? 20:45 BILL: Right, okay. 20:47 DOCTOR: Now, I can take. you know, I can use two or three tablespoons less or 20:50 four tablespoons less of sugar here in this cake and say, "Well, I'm going 20:56 to use aspartame," or "I'm going to use this, I'm going to use that. 20:58 " But come on, what about all the others? 21:01 Okay, so we need to see this in perspective. 21:04 BILL: I see your point, yeah. 21:06 DOCTOR: Now, it is most likely not needed for somebody to use a sugar 21:12 substitute if a person has a healthy lifestyle. 21:17 The little sugar that can be put into a cake. BILL: Reduce the amount of 21:20 sugar, yeah. 21:22 DOCTOR: You know, even the two or three tablespoons for a big cake, that is 21:24 not going to be the problem. 21:26 But you know, that's the ideal. 21:31 Everybody to get a healthy lifestyle so that you can have small amounts of 21:36 sugar and not have to worry about that. 21:39 Now, if somebody really wants to know, you know, what about aspartame, what 21:43 about stevia? 21:45 The reports out there are confusing. 21:48 But let's say, aspartame. 21:51 Let's look at aspartame. 21:53 Aspartame has been associated with certain types of cancer. 21:59 And you know, people have a disease, for example, phenylketonuria, which 22:06 fortunately are rare. 22:09 You know, we don't have many people with that disease; it's a rare 22:11 disease. 22:12 They cannot take aspartame. 22:14 So aspartame is not a clean substance, okay? 22:17 So there are problems associated with that. 22:20 Whether the cancer relationship is really true or not, you know, in 22:24 animals, yes. 22:27 We know that in animals they are. 22:30 In humans, there have been regulations in the past saying that if something 22:36 has a connection with cancer in animals, humans shouldn't take it. 22:40 You know, it's a big controversy. 22:44 But the point is that aspartame is associated with some problems. 22:49 You take saccharin, for example. 22:51 Saccharin as well, that used to be much more common. 22:55 BILL: That was very popular, yeah, in the past. 22:56 DOCTOR: It's been discovered over 100 years ago. 22:57 It was very popular. 22:59 And then, you know, controversy came also related to cancer and 23:02 other problems, you know, headaches and so on. 23:07 There's a new kid on the block now, you know, which is stevia. 23:12 Stevia is a plant. 23:15 And again, if you take the plant and you put it there, probably there is 23:20 no problem, but if you take it in concentrated form, packed in pills, in 23:23 powder, all of that, we don't know. 23:26 It seems to be safe. 23:27 It seems to be safe, but we don't know. 23:31 Maybe in five years' time, we will be finding out And what happens is that 23:34 many people take a lot of it. 23:35 They make cakes, you know. 23:38 You can go to any supermarket and you find even the diabetic's 23:42 chocolate, you know, with these substitutes, these sweeteners. 23:46 But I go back to the same thing. 23:50 You know, in small amounts, it may not do harm. 23:54 But the problem is that people are taking it in huge amounts. 23:57 And they are not forfeiting. 24:01 Actually, they're not giving up the other practices, that if they 24:05 were dealing with that, they would have no problem taking one or two 24:09 teaspoons of sugar. 24:11 BILL: You know, we've just zipped through this. 24:13 I've got so many things. 24:16 But interestingly enough, I worked with a lady that was going through a 24:18 lifestyle change and she was giving up smoking and sugar. 24:23 And she said to me, "Giving up tobacco was much easier than giving up 24:29 sugar. 24:31 " DOCTOR: Because sugar can be addictive. 24:37 Okay, not just psychologically addictive. 24:41 Okay, you can become addicted to something that it's a habit. 24:43 You know, it's emotional and so on. 24:51 But sugar can be addictive, chemically can be addictive. 24:56 It has to do with dopamine. 24:58 Dopamine is a substance that. neurotransmitter in our brain that gives us a 25:01 sense of pleasure. 25:04 It gives us a. it makes us more capable of reasoning and so on. 25:12 And so these sugars and high sugar content foods can become very addictive. 25:18 You know, let's take chocolate, for example. 25:20 Chocolate has a huge amount of sugar. 25:22 Let's take, for example, the sodas, the cold drinks, or soft drinks. 25:27 Some of them can have up to twelve, twelve teaspoons of sugar in them 25:33 in one drink. 25:36 Twelve. 25:38 Depends where you are in the world, but up to twelve. 25:42 Who would ever think of taking twelve teaspoons of sugar one after the other 25:47 and taking it? 25:49 And a lot of this now is high-fructose corn syrup, okay? 25:53 It's not even sugarcane. 25:55 And you know, Coca Cola, for example. 25:58 It makes brands. it's one brand, but it makes different Coca Cola 26:03 depending where you are in the world, okay? 26:06 In some countries, they use sugarcane; in other countries, they use 26:09 high-fructose corn syrup. 26:12 The fact is that there is too much sugar in most of those drinks, if not all. 26:18 And now there is a move to say, "Okay, well, this is sugar-free. 26:22 We are going to substitute it with one of the sweeteners like aspartame, 26:28 like sorbitol," which is another sweet substance that has nutritional 26:33 value, but also some problems associated to it and so on. 26:37 BILL: We could do a whole series of programs on this. 26:40 DOCTOR: A whole program, yes. 26:42 BILL: Thank you. 26:43 The bottom line is the lifestyle change. 26:45 DOCTOR: Lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle. 26:46 BILL: Thank you, Doctor. 26:47 Let's pray. 26:49 Gracious loving heavenly father, we thank you for your love. 26:52 Please help those that are in the valley of decision for that lifestyle change. 26:58 Give them the courage and the strength to make the kind of changes that will 27:04 lead to living life and living it more abundantly. 27:05 In Jesus' name, amen. 27:07 DOCTOR: Amen. 27:23 BILL: You know, if you'd like some more information about how you can make 27:24 some of these lifestyle changes, we'd like to send you this magazine. 27:25 It's a wonderful resource. 27:30 Here is the information you need to get your copy. 28:06 Bill: Well, Doctor, that was another program. 28:08 Thank you for being here. 28:09 DOCTOR: You're welcome. 28:10 Thank you. 28:11 BILL: Thank you to our viewers also for joining us. 28:13 Remember the website, itiswrittencanada.ca. 28:16 We will be back next week, be the good Lord willing. 28:20 In the meantime, you remember, it is written: Man shall not live by 28:24 bread alone, but by every word the proceeds from the mouth of God. 28:30 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ |
Revised 2015-02-06