TALKS ON HEALTH

Taranaki Daily News, 1 June 1927, Page 8

TALKS ON HEALTH

IMPORTANCE OF DIET. ARTIFICIAL SUGAR TRAGEDY. (By W. H. Powell, New Plymouth.) In the good old days—the days when man was content with what is now called “old fashioned brown sugar,” there was no refiner to collect tribute by changing the nature of the raw material. In those days—l speak of the England of a hundred years ago, theNew Zealand of eighty years ago—we fashioned men of steel whose endurance, determination and fortitude have made our nation what it is to-day. Have we of this younger generation—the grandsons and great-grandsons of that hardy race of pioneers—have we the same initiative, the same determination, the same courage as our forefathers! You know we have not. The tumult and adventure of war may stir up in us the latent heritage of our ancestors for a time, but in the ordinary, everyday problems of life, is it not a fact that we are found wanting? We lack the kick,, the ideals, the “ginger” of our forebears. Why? Are we not the same flesh and blood? Does not the same breath move in our nostrils? The same ambition fire our thoughts Yes, but you have not the power to realise your ambitions, because you no longer follow the natural laws that guided your forefathers, and which built them into strong men and women, with a reserve of energy sufficient for every emergency. And I want you to understand just what part artificial sugar plays in making you so manifestly inferior in physique to your grandparents. The old-fashioned brown sugar was a more or less crude article obtained from the sugar cane. To-day we do not know whether our sugar is derived from the cane, the beet, or the honey reed. All we know is that it is sweet and that it comes to us from the refiners’ mills in different grades. The supply of old-fashioned brown sugar was not so great, by any means, as the supply of modern refined sugar. Keep this fact in mind, as it has a very particular bearing on what has to follow, for it .is obvious that sugar is consumed to-day in far greater quantities than ever in the past. Now sugar, refined sugar, yields nothing to the body but heat! It is “burned” in the body without contributing one particle of building or repair material to the structure. Its end products are only acids; when it is burned it gives off only acids. Refined breadstuffs, refined breakfast foods, and large quantities of meats, when burndd in the human furnace, also give off large quantities of acids as end products. But refined sugar is the greatest curse, for it is rapidly breaking down our nation’s resistance to these great enemies of

ivilisation—anaema, tuberculosis, pneumonia, heart disease, cancer and diaictes.

In the good old days when our forebears consumed unrefined grain they also ate more vegetables, fruits and greens. Thus the supply of alkalis was kept at the normal level so essential to health. Now, Nature makes all the sugar she needs in the body from the fruit, cereals and vegetables that are eaten in their natural forms. Nature has no use for commercial sugar—it is the greatest curse of our enlightened age. You want the reasons for such a sweeping statement. Here they are:—

The circulating blood cannot carry more sugar than one-tenth of one per cent, of the total volume of blood. In health, the pancreas sets up a barrier against the entrance into the blood of more sugar than one-tenth of one per cent. We consume to-day many hundreds of times the maximum amount of sugar necessary to the blood. The excess has to be got rid of, and the organ that first has to cope with the excess is the pancreas. It works overtime and works hard, but to no purpose, so long as the intake of artificial sugar exceeds the maximum limit. The pancreas is beaten, It allows sugar to enter the blood. The kidneys, liver, lungs and skin are whipped into greater activity than is normal, in an endeavour to eliminate the poisonous by-products of sugar. Just how long it takes these overworked, underfed glands to completely break down we do not know. But we do know they will break down. Therefore we classify excessive sugar eating as a deadly sin, because it is nothing more or less than slow suicide!

It is laying a curse upon prospective mothers, unborn children, bread-winners and workers, who pass through their years of sorrow and sickness as blind folk seeking light in a world of darkness. The light is shining now! Reduce your sugar intake and Hope at once lights up the Eastern sky, heralding the approach of happier, healthier days. It is frequently asserted in certain quarters that we are growing healthier. Certainly we should be growing healthier, with the amount of scientific knowledge we possess to-day. Perhaps that is what is meant when it is asserted that we are growing healthier. But let common-sense investigate this oft-re-peated statement. If we are becoming more healthy, whence come the amazing array,, the ever-increasing regiment, ot doctors and dentists. In the days of yore more than one gentleman of England was disinherited for entering the medical ranks. Medicine was not held in the esteem then that it is to-day. There was not the need for streets full of doctors in those days, because people had not learned to produce disease in their bodies, by the utter contempt that is displayed by we moderns, for all natui<al laws relating to food. The same applies to the sister profession—the dental. In the days of our fathers, disease of the teeth and oral tissues was so rare that it was taken care of by the barber! or the country smith! To-day dentistry dias become a great science, employing thousands of men where, a hundred years ago, one was employed. What a world of pain and suffering has been introduced by changing the diet of mankind! What a curse has fallen upon our people who sought to change the gifts of God by such an absurd contempt for His laws. If this generation were to cease the abnormal consumption of refined sugar and stareh, absolutely and completely, it would mean the saving of millions in hard cash to the people of the next generation who earn it, to say nothing of the saving of millions of lives made valuable by a condition of perfect health.