Wellness Coaching – Our Bodies Are Not Designed for Sugar

The average American is over ten times more likely to contract diabetes today compared to fifty years ago. Heart disease, cancer, and stroke continue to increase in epidemic proportions. In 2006, the United States was number 1 in terms of health care spending per capita but ranked 39th for infant mortality, 43rd for adult female mortality, 42nd for adult male mortality, and 36th for life expectancy. So why do we spend so much and get so little in return?

Chinese documents confirm that on at least two missions to India, beginning in 647 AD, the technology for sugar-refining was obtained. Before that, sugar was not consumed by humans. When you consider our human species is about 250,000 years old, that means that for roughly 245,997 years, homo sapiens man has lived a sugar-free diet.

Today, the average American consumes about 140 lbs. (a dumpster full) of sugar annually. This, compared to an annual consumption of only 4 lbs. in 1750 means that our annual sugar intake has increased by 3,500% in 260 years. When you consider that this time period is a mere 1/10 of 1% of the age of our species, you begin to question whether our human physiology has a defense against this exponential onslaught.

But refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup (found in all processed foods) are only the tip of the iceberg. We are taught by nutritionists and the FDA that starchy foods such as bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, legumes, and corn, are also healthy enough to eat every day. The truth of the matter is that all nonfibrous forms of carbohydrates (not just refined sugar) is always metabolized by the body as sugar. Sugar is sugar is sugar. Your body can’t tell the difference between a teaspoonful of honey or a teaspoon full of refined sugar. Obviously the honey will be a little better for you because it’s not bleached or refined. But that’s where the advantage ends.

Before the advent of agriculture, our grains were very scarce to our paleo ancestors and were consumed rarely. The paleo diet consisted mainly of grass-fed wild game and cold water fish, wild plants and fibrous vegetables, and on occasion, some nuts, seeds, and seasonal (low fructose) fruits. And that was it.

So, this is our genetic history whether we like it or not. The body of homo sapiens is not meant to be dependent on sugar or starchy carbohydrates. If it were, our bodies would require it to maintain perfect health, but they do not. In fact, not one crumb of sugar or starchy carbohydrate is required by the body to be in optimum health. Not one. We do, however, need saturated and unsaturated fat, protein, and high amounts of fiber. You can’t argue with nature. In her bestselling book, “Primal Body Primal Mind,” author and nutrionist, Nora Gedgaudas says that “it is literally astonishing that the obesity, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease (to name a few sugar-related diseases and conditions) epidemics aren’t far worse than they are. Our ancestors wouldn’t even know how to begin to comprehend this sort of insanity.

Jason Lincoln Jeffers is a health Coach, Spiritual Life Coach and the founder of The Art of Transformation, a company dedicated to teaching Spiritual Enlightenment to the masses. His Spiritual Life Coaching program uniquely combines spiritual wisdom with ego transcendence, holistic health, life path astrology, heart-based intention, the power of presence, and the law of attraction.