SUGAR

Sugar is the hands-down, outright winner in the bad carbohydrates stakes. It should always carry the skull and crossbones symbol, like other lethal substances. For it is indeed a product that can be positively dangerous when consumed in large quantities as it unfortunately is by most people in our society, and especially by children.

Elsewhere I have devoted a whole chapter to sugar, so that you can be convinced once and for all of its evil role in our diet and of its nefarious consequences, not only in terms of excess weight, but also and most importantly because it is implicated in chronic fatigue, diabetes, gastritis, ulcers, dental caries and heart disease.

You may think it is impossible to do without sugar. Well, it is not. The proof is that for tens of thousands of years human beings did not have such a thing, and they were none the worse for that. Just the opposite, in fact.

Less than 200 years ago, sugar was still a luxury hardly ever available to most of the population. Today it does as much harm as alcohol and drugs put together.

But, you ask, if you cut out sugar completely, how do you maintain the essential minimum of glucose in your bloodstream?

A good question!

The answer is that the body does not need to get sugar from outside (this is just what upsets the blood glucose level). It can produce its own sugar in the form of glucose when it needs it, and this is far and away what it prefers to do. Glucose is, of course, the body's only fuel.

The body determines how much glucose it needs as it goes along, and as it does so, body fat is simply converted into the glucose needed. So no more sugar! You can take one of two courses; either do without or replace it with an artificial sweetener.