wws@ukma.UUCP (Bill Stoll) (09/07/85)
carbohydrates
Since dentists learned that sugar caused cavities they have been in
the forefront of the research involving sugar. The medical profession
has been "johnnie come latelies" in this field.
As far back as 1964 dental research had shown that a moderate dose of
sugar was sufficient to drastically reduce the "phagocytic index".
For those of you who don't know: The phagocytic index is a measure of
how many bacteria a white blood cell ingests in one hour. It is a
very accurate measure of one form of immunity. Now that AIDS research
$ has made it possible to measure many aspects of immunity in fine
detail, and sugar has hit the "big time" by being on the cover of
Newsweek, I'm sure it won't be long before these studies are repeated
measuring many more parameters.
I will just list the table that summarizes that first study and wait
for the predictable denials from those who still don't want to know:
Phagocytic Index Before and Forty-five Minutes
After Varying Amounts of Ingested Glucose
---------------------------------------------------------
grams of mean
glucose phagocytic
ingested index
0 13.2
25 10.0
50 5.5
75 2.2
100 1.2
Kijak, E., Foust, G., and Steinman, R.R., RELATIONSHIP
OF BLOOD SUGAR LEVEL AND LEUKOCYTE PHAGOCYTOSIS, Jour.
South. Calif. St. Dent. Assn. 32:#9,349-351, September
1964
This study has, of course, been replicated many times. The last time
that I am aware of was by Emanual Cheraskin, MD, DDS, who was Chairman
of the department of Dentistry at the University of Alabama Dental
School at the time. He has gone on to dedicate his life to educating
the public, and any professionals who will listen, of the pervasive
health burdens caused by refined carbohydrates.
The same amount of glucose ingested in an unrefined state (in other
words, with all the 48+ nutrients it grew up with--in the exact
proportion that it existed in nature) causes no reduction in the
phagocytic index.
You know, a grain of wheat is alive. No matter how long it is in
storage it is slowly running its own "Krebs cycle"(the same metabolic
cycle we humans use to process all forms of carbohydrates). Those 48+
nutrients are present in the exact proportion, and in the exact amount,
necessary to digest exactly the amount of carbohydrate in that grain
of wheat. Nature is pretty tidy that way.
If we eat the grain of wheat as it is we get everything needed to
metabolize exactly that much starch. If we allow the food processors
to remove the 48+ nutrients first, then, when we eat the refined
product, our bodies must take those 48+ nutrients from storage in
order to run the "Krebs Cycle". So long as a certain % of refined
foods is not exceeded the human has reserves enough to get along. The
best estimate by those who have taken the time to understand the field
(so far as we do understand it) is that we can tolerate about 15% of
our carbohydrates refined. Above 15%, even with our presently
available crude measuring techniques, measurable decreases in function
occur. The present average in this country is 60% refined &
increasing every year. We have but to look at comparable statistics
from Guam (which has persistantly led our % here in the US by about 5
years--presently 65%+) to see what we can expect of our future chronic
disease incidence.
The problem is not a lack of research data but the unwillingness to
accept things that hit so close home as our own eating habits--one of
the most personal of things.
cbosgd!ukma!wws(Walt Stoll)
--
Walt Stoll, MD, ABFP
Founder, & Medical Director
Holistic Medical Centre
1412 N. Broadway
Lexington, Kentucky 40505