The Importance of making distinctions.

Currently, the word carbohydrate is being bantered around as if we knew what it meant. There is a tendency to think of all carbohydrates as basically the same.

That's not true. Coca cola, Cap'n Crunch and organic brown rice are all carbohydrates. Twinkies and honey are both carbohydrates. Potatoes and carrots are both carbohydrates. Are these really the same? Identical in their effect on our body? To think these are all the same is like thinking all water is good for you. Just as water can be fresh well water, or sea water, or a brackish pond that cows use to cool off, carbohydrates are no different. It is foolish to not learn the distinctions, and in the case of our long-term health, dangerous.

... same as... ?

Carbohydrates are a structural part of plants that grow in the sun (called photosynthesis plants). These structural parts—including sugars, starches, cellulose—are critical energy sources for humans. While scientists will divide carbohydrates into a few types—simple sugars/monosaccharides, double sugars/di saccharides, complex sugars/poly-sacchrides—these are more lengthy words than we need in order to understand how to stay healthy. Instead, here is the main rules of carbs:

• We need them. We can't live with them. While our muscle require protein, our brain's only source of fuel is carbs. Remove all carbohydrates, and you starve the brain.
• The more whole and complex your carbohydrates are, the easier and better they are for our health. This is critical, since so many of modern food choices are made largely of refined carbohydrates.
• Each type of carbohydrate will react differently in your body.

Example: take a spoonful of cooked whole grain barley and place it in your mouth for 60 seconds. Notice the effect (probably none).

Now take a spoonful of white sugar and place it in your mouth for 60 seconds. Notice the effect.

Obviously, these two forms of carbohydrates have a very different effect on the body. The extremely complex whole form (the barley) requires many steps in order to break it down into usable fuel. This is good. The body needs and wants each of those steps.

The extremely refined simple form (the white sugar) actually doesn't require any steps at all to digest. Matter of fact, it doesn't even need the digestive tract; white sugar's molecules are so tiny and in such a simple form that they are capable of entering the blood stream directly from the inner wall of the mouth. Over the long haul, this isn't good and wreaks havoc on your health

Are all simple simple sugars bad?

One of the most important parts of any cleansing program, at least for us modern day folks, is the removal/cutting back of foods containing white sugar. Until you have removed heavily processed, minerally voided sugar from your diet, you have no idea of its effect on your health. There is no other food that more closely resembles street drugs-in both the high, and the addiction- as sugar. Once a body is used to that kind of direct delivery of sucrose, it will crave it, scream for it, and complain when you try to feed it more complex forms of fuel, such as whole grains, etc.

Yet, you'll see us recommend things like the honey in drinks (example below), as well as fruit, even a bit of maple syrup. Aren't those simple sugars? Aren't those "bad"?

I say no. Removing all forms of quick fuel from your diet is a recipe for making you quit a cleansing lifestyle. It's just too difficult, and you will most likely ricochet back to candy bars and white sugar treats. It's silly to make ones eating habits so difficult that no one actually follows the rules, or completes their program and return to their old eating habits afterwards. Remember, your goal with this program is to produce new life long habits. The best way to do that is through *conditioning*, and that always requires going at a pace that is doable over the long haul. Look at all the things you are changing during your cleanse. Don't starve yourself of all simple fuels. Fruit, and a bit of mineral rich maple syrup is fine, and will keep you sane.

But it also helps to define what "sugar" is. Here's a helpful quote by Dr. Dean Ornish, MD: "There is a big difference between simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. When you eat a diet high in simple carbohydrates such as sugar, white flour, white rice, and alcohol, your body absorbs these very quickly. This causes your blood sugar to rise rapidly which, in turn, causes your body to produce insulin to bring down your blood sugar. In addition to lowering your blood sugar, however, insulin accelerates the conversion of calories to triglycerides, which is how your body stores fat. As a result, you gain weight.

"Complex carbohydrates are metabolized very differently. Fruits, vegetables, beans, and grains in their natural forms are rich in fiber. Fiber slows the absorption of these foods, so your blood sugar doesn't rise rapidly, and you don't provoke an insulin response."

The controversy starts in when you begin discussing just how simple of a carbohydrate (versus a complex one) our bodies can handle without damage. Examples of simple carbohydrates are sucrose (table sugar), fructose (fruit sugar), lactose (milk sugar), and glucose. In real terms, this means white sugar, brown sugar, organic cane juice sugar, corn syrup, honey, maple syrup, fruit juice, etc.

Which Simple Sugars to Use?

This is one of those questions where if you ask 10 cleansing authors, you'll get quite variety of answers.

In general, one of the reasons cleansing works so well to rid the body of symptoms is that we only feed the body complex, whole foods, and we give it a break from the daily simpler sugars that we have generally fed it since we were kids. Giving the body a break from high glucose sources, and forcing it to learn how to translate complex whole foods into energy again, can be one of the main reasons for healing.

That said, I have found that having some kind of "quick fuel" during a cleanse can be just fine. And I think crucial for most people finishing a cleanse.

I would stay far away from carbs heavily processed from sugar cane, beets, and corn. Yes, even the brown organic crystals. This also includes crystal fructose, sucrose, corn syrup, etc.

Fruit. I think the finest way to get quick energy into your body is through whole fruit. Sure, like anything else, you can overdo it. But an apple or two a day during the cleanse will keep you going.

Honey has too long of a history in healing to ignore. While it's molecular structure looks like mainly sucrose, I think that's not the whole picture. I think truly raw honey, in small amounts, can be part of a cleansing, healing, regenerative program. By "honey", I'm talking about truly raw, unfiltered honey, the kind that has a natural combination of pollen, propolis, and even a bit of royal jelly and honeycomb still mixed in it. It's often cloudy, and often has a lot of suspended stuff in it. This is quite a different product that much of the honey currently sold out there. Try this: a couple times a day, have some tea with a spoonful of honey. I think it's a great energy smoother, and keeps blood sugar levels more even. All the more important during a big change of diet, which a cleanse usually is.

Real Maple Syrup. One of the most popular and effective cleansing programs ever was outlined in a 1942 book called The Master Cleanser, by Stanley Burroughs. There is another HHWork Member Article that describes his program in more detail, but the essence of it is a drink you make each day, made from water, lemons, and real maple syrup. I've done it, and know many people who have as well. Tens of thousands of people have purchased his book and done this cleanse. Again: under a microscope, maple syrup looks like mainly sucrose. But in small amounts, such as sweetening tea, I find it to be a good thing. If you want to hear some of the amazing healing stories from The Master Cleanser, pick up a copy of The Lemonade Diet, a CD by Peter Glickman.

Brown Rice Syrup and Barley Syrup. If you want a more complex sugar to use during your cleanse, get either of these. Perfect for the occasional sweet during your cleanse.

How bad is white sugar?

With the sole exception of "The Sugar Association" (there really is such a thing), probably no single food substance has more agreement, in terms of "yes, it's bad for you" than sugar. Even those in the standard medical world will tell patients this.

Processed sugar is bad for us for the same reason cocaine is bad for you: it is so refined that it's brought down to a simple, single chemical, one not found in nature. Native people have chewed coca leaves for centuries, with only health beneficial results. Same goes for chewing sugar cane stalk. But when you take these plants—sugar in this case— and put them through the processes needed to create a pure chemical, and then you consume 151 pounds of it each year (average per capita consumption in US, as of 2003), you wreak havoc on many aspects of health. Here are a few sobering ones:

*** Processed sugar is the main cause of diabetes, hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia.

*** Processed sugar is either a significant or contributory cause of heart disease, arteriosclerosis, mental illness, depression, senility, hypertension, cancer.

*** Processed sugar has an extremely harmful effect in unbalancing the endocrine system and injuring its component glands such as the adrenal glands, pancreas and liver, causing the blood sugar level to fluctuate widely.

*** Processed sugar increases overgrowth of candida yeast organism, is associated with chronic fatigue, can trigger binge eating in those with bulimia, increases PMS symptoms, increases hyperactivity in about 50% of children, increases anxiety and irritability. And it can make it difficult to lose weight because of constantly high insulin levels, which causes the body to store excess carbs as fat.

If you're reading this during the summer...

One of my favorite drinks during these hot days is soda water (such as Perrier), the fresh juice from a lime or lemon, 1 tablespoon of dark maple syrup, and ice. A great cleansing pick me up.

Another is: frozen strawberries (you can get them in the frozen section at your health food store, or freeze them yourself), couple of frozen/fresh bananas. Place a combo of these in a blender, add water, a tablespoon of your favorite greens powder, and blend. I served this to our house cleaner yesterday, and she was amazed how refreshing it was.

PS:

All Cultures Love Sweets

In 1981, I found myself living in South Africa, in the middle of what turned out to be a 3 year hitch hiking trip around the world. During my stay, I found work on a 41' sailing boat that did a 91 day sailing trip out into the India Ocean. One of the other four crew members, Lenny, had just come out of the South African army, and he would tell us army stories each evening as we sailed to some new destination. One of his stories was about working with the local tribe trackers, who were (and still are) world-renowned for their ability to track through the desert. On one particularly tough mission they brought in a guy who was highly skilled. He asked that if he succeeded, he wanted to get paid in cookies. Sure enough, after four days of tracking, he found the lost person wandering in the desert. When they came back, the tracker was given a carton of cookies. Lenny said the tracker sat down right there, and proceeded to go through that entire carton of cookies over the next day and a half. Lenny said the tracker sat in one place the whole time, completely and happily stoned on all that sugar.

I would bet that all cultures love the rush of sweets.

Scott