Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

Eat to Live 35

It is not merely dental cavities that should concern us about

sugar. If we allow ourselves and our children to utilize sugar, white-

flour products, and oil to supply the majority of calories, as most

American families do, we shall be condemning ourselves to a lifetime

of sickness, medical problems, and a premature death.

Refined sugars include table sugar (sucrose), milk sugar (lactose),

honey, brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, molasses, corn sweet-

eners, and fruit juice concentrates. Even the bottled and boxed fruit

juices that many children drink are a poor food; with no significant

nutrient density, they lead to obesity and disease.^16 Processed apple

juice, which is not far from sugar water in its nutrient score, accounts

for almost 50 percent of all fruit servings consumed by preschool-

ers.^17 For example, apple juice contains none of the vitamin C origi-

nally present in the whole apple. Oranges make the most nutritious

juice, but even orange juice can't compare with the original orange.

In citrus fruits, most of the anti-cancer compounds are present in the

membranes and pulp, which are removed in processing juice. Those

cardboard containers of orange juice contain less than 10 percent of

the vitamin C present in an orange and even less of the fiber and

phytochemicals. Juice is not fruit, and prepackaged juices do not con-

tain even one-tenth of the nutrients present in fresh fruit.

Processed carbohydrates, lacking in fiber, fail to slow sugar absorption,

causing wide swings in glucose levels.

Empty calories are empty calories. Cookies, jams, and other pro-

cessed foods (even those from the health-food store) sweetened with

"fruit juice" sound healthier but are just as bad as white-sugar prod-

ucts. When fruit juice is concentrated and used as a sweetener, the

healthy nutritional components are stripped away — what's left is

plain sugar. To your body, there is not much difference between re-

fined sugar, fruit juice sweeteners, honey, fruit juice concentrate, or

any other concentrated sweetener. Our sweet tooth has been put

there by nature to have us enjoy and consume real fruit, not some

imitation. Fresh-squeezed orange juice and other fresh fruit and veg-

etable juices are relatively healthy foods that contain the majority of

the original vitamins and minerals. But the sweet fruit juices and

even carrot juice should still be used only moderately, as they still

contain a high concentration of sugar calories and no fiber. Still not