Senior News October, 2002 Vol. 21. No.  10

 

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

Mayoral Hopefuls: Largest pool of candidates say why they want to lead Eureka

Remembering Spirit: Dreams come for my health and wholeness

Eureka Veterans Clinic: Dr Phillip Wagner receives well-deserved honors

Good health: How sweet it is

The Center for Integrated Health and Welness comes to Eureka

NutriMinute

Pick up a copy today! Better yet, subscribe and never miss an issue!

Good health: how sweet it is!
by Bill Sturgeon

One means of cancer tumor discovery is to feed the patient with radioactively labeled glucose (sugar). After a short time doctors make a Positive Emission Tomography (PET) scan of the body. Any cancer tumors present are revealed in the image because cancer cells demonstrate a three- to five-fold increase in glucose uptake compared with healthy cells. The tumor cells feed heavily on sugar. Thus, the tumor glows with radioactivity that blows its cover and reveals its presence in the scan. This disclosure makes early intervention possible.

Feed the immune system, starve the cancer

One scientific study found that the amount of glucose fed to breast cancer injected rats directly influenced their longevity-the more sugar they were given the quicker they died of the cancer. When something such as this is clearly dose related, cause and effect is considered firmly established. We know that cancer cells feed almost exclusively on sugar. It logically follows that removing sugar from one's diet will slow cancer growth, if present, and inhibit its formation, if not present.

People flock to the synthetic sugar substitutes. Concerned with weight control, they want to lower their caloric intake by displacing high-calorie sugar with a zero calorie substitute. Unfortunately that promised but questionable benefit is accompanied by serious health questions.

*Saccharin is known to cause brain cancer in rats. There is no reason to assume it does not impact humans as well.

*Aspartame, sold as Equal and Nutrasweet, contain phenylalanine and aspartic acid. A significant portion of these components is converted to methyl alcohol, a neurotoxin. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claims the amount of methanol is too small to do harm, although many disagree with this position.

A healthy alternative

How would you like to discover an inexpensive natural food sweetener that contains zero calories, causes no tooth cavities, is safe for diabetics to eat and has no known bad health effects?

It is called Stevia rebaudiana, a plant that grows in South America, and the powder made from the dried leaf is about 300 times sweeter than sugar. Is has been eaten by Indian tribes for hundreds of years, so it has a good track record for safety. A rat study was made in Japan to test safety. The rats that were given stevia for two years were lighter in weight than those not eating it. Additionally, the female rats had fewer breast tumors, and the males showed less kidney damage than the stevia-free control group rats.

The US Food and Drug people won't allow stevia to be added to processed food like soda pop. Ray Sahelian, MD, and Donna Gates, authors of The Stevia Cookbook speculate, "The FDA has no credible evidence questioning the safety of stevia. This appears to have more to do with protecting profit than public health."

You will find access to stevia at your health food store as white crystals and other forms and on the Internet. The Arcata Coop sells it as packaged tea bags. Eureka Natural Foods sells it in many forms. Mail order sources are cheapest.

There are three kinds of sugar: that which you buy in a sack of white crystals, that which has been inserted in processed food you eat such as soda pop and that which is contained naturally in fruits and vegetables. Now you have the means to eliminate the first of these, substituting stevia for white sugar or honey. Do yourself a health favor and switch from soda pop to stevia-sweetened tea or lemonade. Eat your fruit and vegetables!

Bill Sturgeon of Petrolia is a medical researcher and writer in alternative health and wellness. We appreciate his contributions since 1997 to our October health issue. His e-mail is sturgeon@asis.com.