Author Dr. Mark Hyman attributes cancer, heart disease, depression, dementia, and infertility to sugar consumption
A National Health Emergency
According to Dr. Mark Hyman, foods, especially sugar, are slowly killing us. Numerous studies have shown that a high-sugar diet exposes how bad it is to our health and could be the source of chronic diseases.
Cancer is primarily caused by food and environmental toxins, but so does food. We know clearly that pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and many familiar can it’s pancreatic cancer are caused by some resistance, which is pancreatic cancer.
The link between sugar and depression
Study: Harvard and Stanford
There are psychiatric departments that study this metabolic psychiatrist at Stanford. They’re looking at the effect of insulin resistance, prediabetes, and poor metabolism from eating sugar and starch flour and how that affects our brains.
At Harvard, a department of nutritional psychiatry studies similar things as well as the gut microbiome. A Harvard doctor, Christopher Palmer, wrote a book called Brain Energy about how he’s cured schizophrenia and other mental disorders by putting people on a very low-sugar starch diet.
In short, the data is there, and there’s no question.
GLAD vs. SAD diet
An extensive study in Australia called a “Smile trial” studied the root cause of depression and how dietary interventions can treat this mental issue. They discovered that what we eat worked better than drugs in treating depression.
Dr. called the junk food diet (not limited to just eating chips) the Glad diet as opposed to the American diet, which is called the SAD diet (Standard American Diet).
In his book, The Ultra Mind Solution how to Fix Your Broken Brain by Fixing Your Body First, “a lot of the mood disorders, the depression, the suicidality, the violence we often see the sort of polarization of our society, I believe, in part is related to our diet,” he said.
Where prediabetes can lead
About 93.2% of Americans have poor metabolic health, meaning they have some form of prediabetes or insulin resistance. They have high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, are overweight, or have a heart attack or stroke.
That means 6.8% of us are not sick at some level. And that poor metabolic health is driving all these conditions, whether it’s cancer, heart disease, diabetes, dementia, depression, infertility, many different things, even acne. In other words, our food system is the biggest killer on the planet.
Study: Reduction in violence by following a healthy diet
According to Dr. Hymen, a study found a 97% reduction in violence in juvenile detention centers. A study published in the Journal of Correctional Health Care (for the poor and undeserved) indicated a link in the nutritious quality of juvenile food. [NCBI., 2019]
- It led to improvements in the overall health, behavior, and mood of the detainees.
- There was a decrease in disciplinary incidents among detainees.
- There was a 75% reduction in restraints and a 100% reduction in suicides.
Healthy food definition, it’s reducing the amount of sugar, according to Dr. Hymen.
Healthy food definition, it’s reducing the amount of sugar.
Addictive effects of sugar
Sugars are biologically addictive. In the book, Hooked by Michael Moss, a study looked at overweight guys; they gave them two kinds of milkshakes on separate days.
They were identical food: protein, fat, carbs, and fiber. Everything was the same except the kind of carbohydrate in one of the drinks was a “rapidly absorbed carbohydrate like sugar.” The other drink had low amounts that didn’t cause a spike in sugar levels.
- The group with the high-spiking sugar milkshake had more adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormone.
- They had more blood sugar elevations, insulin, and cholesterol, all that went up, and they were hungrier.
- They did brain imaging and found that the addiction lit up by cocaine, heroin, or cigarettes, can also be lit up by sugar.
THREE BIGGEST FOOD SCAMS IN THE USA.
Obesity and it’s our fault: Our biology is being hijacked
Much of the narrative about health and what we eat comes from the food industry. The government, professional associations, Academy, Nutrition Dietetics, American Heart Association, and Diabetes Associations, is that basically all you do to lose weight is eat less and exercise more.
The implicit message is that it’s your fault you’re fat. However, according to Dr. Hyman, science does not support that fact.
The food industry drives our behavior toward what we eat. It’s probably unintentional, but the fact is that the food industry is driven by profit. When the age of processed food arrived, obesity spiked.
Study: Calories from processed food
One study looked at ultra-processed food consumption versus real regular food. When people were allowed to eat whatever they wanted in a controlled environment, the people who were given ultra-processed food ate 500 calories more a day.
And you add that up over a year, that’s a ton of excess calories eating ultra-processed food. Therefore, you can think of it as a recreational drug.
When the age of processed food arrived, obesity spiked.
Twelve fold increase in obesity over one generation
About four decades ago, obesity was 3.4%, but today, it’s 42%. A twelve-fold increase in one lifetime.
When Dr. Hymen went to medical school, no state had an obesity rate of over 20%. Now, no state has an obesity rate under 20%, and most have 40%. So that’s not genetic, he explains.
