As my loyal readers know, I have been on an anti-sugar crusade of late. Why is this? What is an Encino dentist doing here? Read on. So why is sugar so bad? Is there a simple way to explain this? Here is a different angle on the problem. Think of your poor teeth and heart and follow along.
For many, many years people have been assuming that fat was the enemy because it produced cholesterol, which was blocking arteries. The problem is that’s not true. I think it shows some important things in terms of how we sometimes misinterpret health science.
The misinformation began in the ’70s. In fact, it came from a U.S. Senate Commission that saw that people with high levels of cholesterol tended to die early of heart disease. And then there were other studies that showed if you ate a diet high in fat, it raised your cholesterol. I am already confused.
So now we try to eat low fat in this country. And nothing much changed with the low fat diet. Things got worse. Cardiovascular disease remains the biggest killer of men and women. Diabetes rates are higher than ever. Dental decay increased in adults.
The problem is that what we replaced fat with was sugar. And sugar may be more of a problem than fat for someone who’s worried about heart disease and their health.
Let me try to understand what you say, doc: It’s not that fat is good for you, it’s that if you replace fat with sugar it’s worse for you? That’s right. Sugar is Worse.
First the sugar goes to the liver. The liver says I don’t know what to do with all this sugar, so it gets turned into what are known as low density lipoproteins, fats. And that is the worst kind of cholesterol.
Regretfully for the body, a slice of white bread and a packet of sugar are essentially the same. The body sees them as the same. White bread for the body is sugar. It gets turned into sugar just the same way as the bread.
So what is to be concluded from all this. Sure, sugar causes lots of tooth decay. But that’s not the worst of it. Our liver turns the sugar into a very bad form cholesterol. I hear your exasperation. I feel your pain.
Can science genetically engineer a food that’s good for us? If that ever happens, I bet it will look like a vegetable.
Tip of the Day: In my Encino dental office I now have available a medication that treats cold sores. It is a long lasting paste and is remarkably effective. Ask me about it.
Allan Melnick DDS
