From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Apr 25 2003 - 12:34:23 MDT
Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
> gts wrote:
>> All we really know, Rafal, is that modern medicine will help protect
>> us from dying in mid-life. Given the typical American diet, I shudder
>> to think what the national health picture would look like today
>> without the help of antibiotics and other miracles of modern
>> medicine.
>>
> ### Explain?
Among other things, simple sugars suppress the immune system. This makes
modern Americans in principle more vulnerable to bacterial and viral
infections, and possibly also more vulnerable to cancer and other disease.
Were it not for antibiotics, vaccines, and the huge advances in cancer
treatments and other medical treatments over the last century, infectious
diseases and cancer and other diseases would likely be much, much worse than
they are now. We're living longer now largely because of medical science
rather than diet.
Aside from the fact that Americans eat too much simple sugar, far more than
paleos, we also as a group eat too much complex carbohydrate from grains and
other starchy foods like potatoes. Complex carbs are broken down into simple
sugars before being absorbed.
America is addicted to sugar and other carbs. Carbs are everywhere. The
worst kind is that which comes hidden in processed foods, making it
difficult to know the amount of sugar one is actually consuming. It is
almost impossible even to find a meat sauce that (e.g., A1 Sauce) that isn't
full of sugar.
The average American now eats 149 *POUNDS* of refined sugar each year.
(Cordain, 2002)
And this is without even mentioning the cardio and other health problems
that come from excessive saturated fat from dairy products and corn-fattened
farm-fed meats.
-gts
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