42-Sweet Suicide

Sweet Suicide

Fat, salt and sugar: the trifecta of flavor. Why are they so good? Evolution. They are necessary to sustain life. But a little goes a long way and in the modern-age where they are ubiquitous, they have become poisonous. Certain fats in excess suppress the immune system; salt raises blood-pressure. But the most serious is sugar. To ignore the sugar threat is to commit sweet suicide.

There are mountains of reasons why sugar is important. Fat and salt are the mortar and wires of our bodies but sugar is the energy of will. Studies show increased willpower directly results from a spike in brain glucose levels. Want the guts to ask for that raise? Follow Ronald Reagan’s lead and chew a jellybean. But sugar itself isn't energy. The mitochondria is an ancient parasite that lives in each of our cells and creates energy by transforming sugar into adenosine triphosphate – cellular batteries. Plug in a phosphate, break it off, and watch the cellular motor run. These fascinating little energy factories have their own DNA, passed through the generations via the mother's egg. Because it's found in fossilized bone, it has led to many scientific discoveries about human history. However, sugar's most vital role is forming the scaffolding of the DNA helix. Genes taste sweet.

Sugar is so heavenly because nature prioritizes this basic molecule. The primal feelings produced as it passes our lips create a kaleidoscope of chemicals in both brains – the one in our head and the one in our gut. Yes, we have a brain in our belly; gut feelings are more than mere metaphor. Neurotransmitters such as serotonin are produced and stockpiled here. Serotonin is directly connected to mood. Serotonegics (aka anti-depressants) attempt to regulate levels by either adding serotonin or interfering with the brain's ability to reduce its concentration (re-uptake inhibitors). The brain in the gut is the stage on which the brain in the head acts upon. What our gut wants our head gets. We think something sounds good when in reality the guy in the basement has issued a formal request for supplies. A craving is hunger based upon specific elements. 

The sugar-cycle is not terribly complex. It involves two hormones: insulin and leptin. High insulin levels equals hunger. High leptin levels equals full. When blood-sugar levels rise, insulin levels rise, moving sugar into cells for energy production or storage (body fat). When our blood-sugar drops, we get hungry, eat, and leptin is produced. In a healthy body, it remains in the blood-stream until it's time to eat again. The Vagus nerve transmits a signal from the brain, to the pancreas, producing insulin and creating hunger. The process of refining carbohydrates into sugars for use in the body is fundamental to health. Too much, too pure, too fast overwhelms and cripples the equipment, leading to diabetes. So it's all about the rate of refinement and fiber is the key. Fiber is the filter. There are two kinds of fiber: soluble and insoluble. They work together to create an effective delivery system. 

The strongest materials have opposing parts: flexible and inflexible. Consider a toucan’s beak. This bird is capable of sporting such a formidable tool because of the combination of two, light-weight materials with very different properties. The hard outside is a thin, fragile sheet like an egg-shell. The inside is soft and smash-able like Styrofoam. Separately, a child can trash either. But together, the strongest of men will not make a dent. 

Fiber also comes in two parts. Soluble is soft, spongy, sticky. It's everywhere (think dietary fiber). Insoluble is tough, ridged, connected. It's in raw fruits and vegetables; but once frozen, processed, or exposed to prolonged heat it becomes soluble. It isn't enough to 'eat our fiber.' We must also pay attention to the type. Cavemen had plenty of insoluble fiber but found fat, salt and sugar challenging – hence, our desire. The modern diet has flipped the ratio with plenty of the trifecta but little of the other. 

By industrializing its availability, we transformed sugar from a treat to a staple; the '80s only made it worse. When mullets and stretch-pants were considered fashionable, experts made the erroneous, yet logical, conclusion that eating fat makes us fat. We didn't want to be fat. We wanted bronzed abs. So we replaced fat with salt and sugar. Bad idea. That just made us "fatter" and hypertensive. Now we know ingested fat must be turned into sugar in order to become fat. On the other hand, ingested sugar just becomes fat.

When we trick the brain with zero calorie sweeteners, we turn-on the Vagus, create insulin, and transform whatever calories are in the blood-stream into fat. The remaining insulin stokes our hunger which means we eat sooner and with a more sensitive palette, demanding richer food. Sugar-free is the ultimate cognitive-dissidence as it incurs a greater toll yet does not satisfy. Without satisfaction, we repeatedly return until we are sick.

Changing the way we eat is like pushing a bolder. We will spend eighty-percent of our effort getting the mass to move but only twenty-percent to keep it going. Feeling bad and not knowing why perpetrates the cycle. Feeling good and knowing why perpetrates the cycle. It takes resolve and interest to feel good. It is more than resisting a piece of cake. It takes understanding the chemistry of mood and the mastery of the insulin-leptin cycle. A simpler lifestyle moderates the modern-day dragon that is the abundance of fat, salt but especially sugar.