The Free Use of Sugar by G. H. HEALD, M. D.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jan 12, 1905

The Free Use of Sugar

By G. H. HEALD, M. D.

G. H. HEALD, M. D.

“The free use of sugar in any form tends to clog the system, and is not unfrequently a cause of disease.”—E. G. W.

PRACTICALLY all the heat and energy of the body is developed from the oxidation, or burning, of a form of sugar. This form of sugar is found in ripe fruits and in honey. It is produced from starch and from other forms of sugar by the processes of digestion; and may be produced artificially from starch, though in the artificial process the work is usually incomplete. By the process of heating with a dilute mineral acid, starch is turned into commercial glucose, a mixture of dextrose (sugar ready for absorption into the blood), maltose or malt sugar, and dextrin. Digestion must finish the process of converting the maltose and dextrin into dextrose.

By the process of malting, starch is largely converted into maltose, which must be converted by the digestive ferments into dextrose.

Cane-sugar, in order to be absorbed, must first be converted into a simpler form, but in this case two sugars are formed, dextrose and levulose.

Levulose, or fruit sugar, is generally believed to be superior to dextrose, for the reason that diabetic patients can use levulose when dextrose would produce unfavorable results. For this reason it would seem that cane-sugar might be somewhat superior to malt sugar. It has the disadvantage, however, that in concentration it is more irritant to the stomach than other forms of sugar. But in the process of canning fruit, or of heating sugar with a fruit acid, the cane-sugar is partly turned to dextrose and levulose.

This mixture, known as “invert sugar,” is less irritant to the stomach than cane-sugar, and it is not so sweet; but its food value is as great as the cane-sugar, and it is ready for immediate absorption, being practically the same as the fruit sugar.

As a rule, the cane-sugar is not completely converted into invert sugar in the cooking or canning process.

Why, it may be asked, is it, if sugar is the great fuel supply of the body, that its free use is harmful? Why would it not be better to use sugar than starch, and save a lot of digestive energy?

There are several important reasons:—

1. Sugar in concentration is an irritant. Though nature furnishes sugar ready made, it nearly always does so in diluted form.

2. Sugar in concentration may be absorbed more rapidly than the liver can take care of it. When starch is eaten, the process of digestion is slow enough to permit the liver to take care of it.

3. Sugar in large quantity favors fermentation.

4. The use of sugar nearly always leads to excessive eating; for when food is sweetened, more is apt to be eaten, when, by rights, less ought to be eaten, as the sugar is itself a food.

5. Desserts are nearly always eaten after a full meal, and nine times out of ten are an out-and-out injury.

Cane-sugar is more often used than other sugars for this purpose. In concentration it is more irritant than other sugars, but aside from this it remains to be proved that cane-sugar is more harmful than other sugars.

In the language at the head of this article, which to me seems significant and well chosen, “The free use of sugar in any form tends to clog the system, and is not infrequently a cause of disease.”