Therapeutic Sugar

Just because white sugar wasn’t available in the local grocery store, in one kilo bags, for three dollars, four thousand years ago, that’s not proof that you can’t use sugar therapeutically, and very effectively.

And it isn’t proof that using more than what you consider to be a ‘moderate’ amount, is necessarily unhealthy. It isn’t even proof that you don’t need way more sugar than you think, to achieve the best results. It isn’t actually proof of anything at all.

But don’t be fooled. Lack of any legitimate form of proof, won’t be enough reason to stop most people from using that kind of argument, in response to biologically (and logically) valid reasons why sugar is good for you, and why it can be therapeutically fruitful.

And sugar therapy really is good therapy. But almost every ‘expert’ in the world will tell you that’s not true. And if you ask them why, that’s when all the balderdash, codswallop and flapdoodle starts to flow. I suppose truth is just a social construct these days anyway, so it kind of makes sense.

Fortunately though, there has been some good quality, honest science, performed over the last couple of centuries, providing explanations regarding how metabolism functions. When you put the pieces together, you can start to work out for yourself what is accurate and what isn’t.

One thing that is basically true, is that when you’re under lots of stress, you can use up more sugar than normal, and if you become low in sugar, that is tantamount to stress. And biochemical stress, in a general sense, can be understood to promote every kind of disease.

All metabolic systems are interlinked, and so it doesn’t make sense to say things like ‘sugar increases insulin’ or ‘sugar gets turned to fat’ or ‘sugar feeds cancer’, without looking at the big picture, unless all you want to do is repeat something you heard, or worse still, push an agenda.

You see, the problem is sugar does increase insulin, and it does get turned into fat, and it does feed cancer, but just not in the way you think. And so if you look at it in isolation, it’s easy to be mislead, and believe me, there are people out there that don’t care if you are being mislead. I might even go as far as to say, they’re happy if you are.

You don’t have to go too far down the rabbit hole to know why accepting the truth behind some of the popular anti-sugar catchphrases, does not change the fact that sugar is therapeutic. In fact it can even help prove the point, but only if you see things from a more holistic point of view.

When you take a big picture biological perspective, it’s easier to see what can promote diseases like diabetes and cancer. Chronic thyroid dysfunction, systemic inflammation, blood sugar dysregulation, insulin resistance, digestive issues, and general metabolic energy system suppression, are all connected to metabolic function, and can all be part of the disease process. It’s hard to accept sugar as therapy, until you see how metabolism really works, and doesn’t work.

So what causes the things that damage metabolism, and can lead to disease? For starters, low blood sugar promotes adrenaline and cortisol, and adrenaline and cortisol increase the release of the polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) out of storage. All three of these things are known to be involved with insulin resistance, and insulin resistance is connected to inflammation, thyroid dysfunction, blood sugar dysregulation and overall metabolic suppression.

Just that knowledge alone, can be enough to wake you up to ‘the big lie’ about sugar and insulin issues, and disease in general. Because sugar lowers cortisol and adrenaline and free fatty acids, and sugar does not cause insulin resistance, but rather it protects against it. Problems with sugar metabolism are not caused by sugar. And no, this is not me saying that you can use sugar as therapy alone, with no restrictions, and without being aware of the importance of protein, and certain vitamins and minerals. That goes without saying.

But back to sugar therapy. Sugar also promotes digestion. Promoting digestion helps to protect the liver, which uses sugar to function properly. Improving liver function lowers exposure to inflammatory stress substances (like estrogen, serotonin, nitric oxide and endotoxin), that increase when sugar is low, and interfere with thyroid energy system performance. Raising thyroid function, also makes digestion work better, and lowers stress, inflammation, adrenaline, cortisol and free fatty acids, helping insulin function. Is sugar starting to sound better yet?

The same kind of argumentation can help explain why sugar does not cause the growth and spread of cancer, even though sugar helps to fuel cells, including so called cancer cells. And it can be used to explain why sugar does not cause obesity, even if sugar can be turned into fat.

There is a lot more that can be said about all of the interconnected ways that stress, low blood sugar and the PUFAs, promote metabolic dysfunction and disease. I’m hopefully just giving you a look at a better way to look at it. I’m not a doctor and this isn’t medical advice, but check out the science for yourself, and start asking questions.

What happens if sugar is replaced with protein and fat? Doesn’t protein require insulin? Isn’t sugar always necessary? Doesn’t the brain need sugar? What has to happen to maintain sugar supply, if it isn’t being consumed? Does fat interfere with the use of sugar? Does it matter which kind of fat? If the cell can’t use sugar properly, what happens to sugar in the blood? If replacing sugar with fat and protein worsens insulin and blood sugar issues, why is sugar so bad? If sugar can lower cortisol and free fatty acids, is that not a good thing? And on and on.

In fact the list of things that sugar can be shown to help with goes on practically forever. Sugar lowers cortisol and adrenaline. Sugar lowers free fatty acids. Sugar improves thyroid function. Sugar fuels the liver. Sugar lowers endotoxin exposure. Sugar helps protect against estrogen, nitric oxide, serotonin, histamine and lactic acid. Sugar promotes pregnenolone and progesterone and other protective things. Sugar improves immune system function and reduces inflammation. Sugar increases carbon dioxide production. Sugar lowers stress.

It’s true you need protein and vitamins and minerals (like calcium and sodium) to be included in your diet. But whether you eat sugar or not, you still need the other nutrients. Eating sugar isn’t to blame for lack of nutrition, and can even help regulate nutrients. And avoiding sugar won’t prevent the consequences of a bad diet. But it will make it more stressful and damaging.

So how did people survive without sugar therapy all those years ago? First of all, they didn’t. Sugar has always been available in one form or another. Secondly, maybe more sugar could have come in handy, as perfect health wasn’t guaranteed back then either. And thirdly, lots of things have changed in the last century.

Technology has created new and more powerful metabolic stressors. Diet is not the only solution to the problem of excessive biochemical stress, but using varying amounts of sugar therapeutically, can be very effective.

Sugar therapy is just one tool of many, but it is a fundamental way to bring stress down, and to enable the protective effects of a well functioning metabolism to kick in. Without enough sugar, many of the other tools will be less effective, sometimes even counterproductive.

There are some things to keep in mind when using sugar therapeutically, many of which I have talked about in previous articles here. Even though I’m not a health practitioner, I’m convinced that all things being equal, if you observe symptoms (including digestion, sleep, mood and energy levels), and learn how to track pulse and temperature (to reflect changes in the state of metabolism), you can work out how to safely and effectively use white sugar as part of an approach to improving metabolism and health.

A diet avoiding the PUFAs and too many hard to digest grains, seeds, nuts, beans and under cooked veggies, with enough protein from milk, cheese and gelatin, and plenty of nutrients from sweet ripe fruit and fruit juice, is one way to enhance the effectiveness of sugar as therapy.

Some other pro-metabolic things that can assist with sugar use include aspirin, biotin, thiamine, glycine, minocycline, coffee and caffeine, taurine, famotidine, niacinamide, cyproheptadine, methylene blue, activated charcoal and coconut oil.

How much sugar does one need, and how much is too much? It depends on lots of factors. It depends on the state of your thyroid metabolism, and the condition of your liver and digestive system. It depends on how much PUFAs and other inflammatory things you have stored in tissue. It depends on nervous system condition, and levels of biochemical stress and inflammation throughout the body. And it depends on availability of the protective substances like progesterone and testosterone. Which is why tracking symptoms, and pulse and temperature can be so helpful.

But as far as I’m aware, there’s no one magic answer to this question, and yet there’s a long list of helpful answers to this question. You have to research the subject a bit and experiment, in order to figure out what works. Some people use (and need) a lot more sugar than others, and some can only deal with smaller amounts at first, gradually increasing intake as metabolism starts to work better. Sometimes small amounts of sugar are enough. I’m not aware of any single fixed rule, except that completely removing sugar from the diet isn’t the solution. You can get your sugar in a variety of different ways, but that being said, you don’t want to use lots of white sugar as therapy for long periods of time without the nutrients that need to go along with it.

There’s plenty more to be understood in relation to this subject, and there’s more to life and health than just diet. I’m not intending to oversimplify matters. The purpose of this article is not to give specific advice, but rather to increase awareness of the fact that sugar is necessary for metabolic function, and there are powerful and safe ways (backed by biological science and logic) to use plain white sugar as a protective and curative substance, contrary to popular opinion.

If you like what I have to say, and you want more information (including lots of studies), showing simple ways to use sugar to improve metabolism, please check out some of my other articles, including Insulin Can Be Irresistible and Blood Sugar Beliefs. And please share this and sign the email list up top.

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