First of all, he says, a single lump of refined sugar would kill you if the body did not instigate a survival response to cope with it. The sugar is acidic to a potentially lethal degree and the body protects itself by releasing massive amounts of calcium into the system from the bones and teeth.
Obviously, there comes a point where so much calcium has been used for the body to survive that the bones and teeth begin to show the consequences and one of these is osteoporosis when the bones lose strength and density and are far more prone to fracture. But how many doctors will tell you that consuming lots of sugar could lead to osteoporosis? Probably none, because they are not informed and open-minded enough to connect the dots.
Mike was telling me of another sugar connection: the consumption of sugar affects the pineal gland in the brain and with that the production of the neuro-transmitter called serotonin. When this is depleted it triggers depression. People in this state are often attracted to sugar products like chocolate, Coke and Red Bull to lift their mood and energy levels - comfort eating and drinking - and the cycle is repeated even more destructively.
A can of Coke contains nine teaspoons of sugar, Mike says, 'and just one could kill you without the body's calcium response'.
We are now seeing an explosion of sugar-related disease because of our sugar-saturated society. The hormone insulin carries sugar in the form of glucose to the cells and too much sugar (including the glucose/sugars derived from carbohydrates) means that either the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to cope or the whole system is scrambled through overload with multiple consequences. One is that when glucose is not being absorbed and used as energy by the cells it is stored as fat - one massive reason for our increasingly obese society.
Insulin imbalance can, through the domino effect, lead to prostate and breast cancer, diabetes (now an epidemic), and imbalance the thyroid, the master gland, which maintains the body's temperature, metabolism, strength of the immune system and hormonal stability. When the thyroid is malfunctioning, the whole system follows and chloride in public drinking water is a major source of thyroid 'attack' because it depletes iodine, which is critical to thyroid function.