This is a review of Hans-Ulrich Grimm’s book “Garantiert Gesundheits—Gefährdend – wie uns die Zucker-Mafia uns krankt macht” as I wanted to write up notes and important points from the book, as well as bringing in other related sources, solely for personal reference.
Key:
“text in quotes” is a direct quote either from Grimm or from the source mentioned;
information without quotes is what Grimm describes;
(a few comments are in brackets are my own observations and notes)
p – is the page number, refer to the source in iBooks for more details.
Introduction/Einleitung/Quote:
Zahl des Tages an der Münchner U-Bahn 25.04.2018, “wie viel liter Fruchtsaft trinkt jede Deutsche durchschnittlich pro Jahr?”
33 litres
The REVIEW and SUMMARY of the book is for personal, private reference only
1. Achse des Bösens – Die giftige Wahrheit über den Zucker
sugar is playing a leading role (tragende Rolle) in many of the illness which are becoming worldwide epidemics (p14):
overweight
heart disease (with previous focus on blood fat levels in terms of cholesterol, now focusing on the origins of the fat, mostly verwandelter Zucker/altered or stored sugar)
diabetes, which was always associated with sugar and its associated illnesses
cancer, cancer cells love sugar and can grow and multiply with it uncontrollably
the UN reckons 35M people per year are dying from such diseases (NCD – non communicable diseases), more than from catastrophes, plagues, wars (p15).
sugar or better energy is needed by the body, that’s why we can get it from all substances, carbs, proteins, fats etc, for instance the brain especially, 2% of the body weight, but needs 20% of the energy or 25W (p16).
sugar was the first product of industrialisation of food with massive success, became part of culture, la dolce vita
earlier history:
Persians had learned how to crystalize sugar 600 AD and brought sugar fields to Spain during the conquest
Boston Tea Party 1773, just as much about taxes paid to UK as part of the Sugar and Molasses acts, could have been Boston Sugar Party
(p23/24) current thoughts – Dr Robert Lustig, when there is too much sugar in the bloodstream, it raises the insulin level in order for the liver to convert energy to glycogen where it’s stored, but the insulin level is raised throughout the body converting energy to fat cells and this affects the brain’s ability to register that we’re full, so we eat yet more, a vicious cycle
Lustig lists various illnesses related to high sugar consumption: cancer, dementia, ovarian problems, strokes, diabetes, overweight, all metabolism illnesses (Stoffwechselkrankheiten)
(p24/25/26) some of the earliest studies of the effects of sugar by John Yudkin, Queen Elizabeth College London, “Pure, White and Deadly” 1972
he reckons that if sugar would have to go through its regulatory testing now, it would not pass as a safe foodstuff
found in his experiments that sugar raises the blood fats, particularly the tri-glycerides, which are a risk in heart disease
and how fat was falsely being diagnosed as responsible for high cholesterol levels – sugar gets changed into fats and leaves no trace of itself
“Diese Fähigkeit des Körpers, Zucker in Fett zu verwandeln, wird ihm nun zum Verhängnis. Was eigentlich eine Überlebensstrategie war, wird nun zur lebensgefährlichen Falle. Denn es kommen keine Notzeiten, es kommen wieder Colas …
An den Laborwerten nach der Blutuntersuchung sieht niemand mehr, dass das Fett eigentlich verwandelte Gummibärchen und Kinder-Milchschnitten sind …
Der Zucker hat sozusagen seine Spur verwischt, die Verfolger sind abgelenkt. Alle starren auf das Fett, auf die Fettwerte im Blut.”
p27 one of the earliest successful law suits against sugar, was the case between a consumer organisation / Verbraucherverband who published a brochure titled “Schadstoff Zucker” and the sugar lobbyist organisation, “Wirtschaftliche Vereinigung Zucker” with the judgement that sugar contains a not a negligible potential for health dangers “im Zucker ein nicht zu vernachlässigendes Gefährdungspotenzial steckt” (3 U 11 / 87 74 C235 / 86), Hanseatische Oberlandesgericht.
p28
Another key early critic of sugar belonged to the consumer organisation, Dr Max Otto Bruker, who saw it as primarily responsible for cavities in teeth, heart attacks, fat/fettsucht, diabetes, liver damage and cancer. Also rheumatic illnesses like arthritis, spine and disc / backbone problems, gall stones, kidney stones, gout etc, also for constipation, arteriosclerosis, strokes, reduced immunity, allergies and nerve illnesses.
p29
National Health and Nutrition Survey in the US analysing 200 teenagers between 12 and 18, found they were consuming 120g sugar, 20% of their calorific intake. Those with the worst cholesterol measurements: lowest values for the good cholesterol (HDL – high-density lipoprotein) and highest values for the bad cholesterol (LDL – low-density lipoprotein), had the highest sugar intake.
Many scientists speak of the “Achse des Bösens” between insulin, diabetes and cancer, eg. at a congress / Fachtagung at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität in Düsseldorf.
p31 statistics from IDF, Internationalen Diabetes Föderation, Jean Claude Mbanya: “alle sieben Sekunden stirbt auf der Welt ein Mensch an Diabetes.”
IDF estimates the number of diabetic worldwide will rise from 170M in 2000 to 500M in 2030.
Experts talk of the ticking time bomb of twin global threats: obesity and diabetes.
The Guardian also warns of how this is developing and creates a risk to national health systems, eg. the UK currently spends 10% of its budget on diabetes treatment (£14bn):
There are many related stories to follow up on at the bottom of the article, eg. this on the types of diabetes:
p32 to 37 – sugar statistics:
Coca-Cola has a yearly turnover of €36bn, €7bn in profit.
RedBull has a €4bn turnover, the owner is richest person in Austria; Ferrero has a €6bn turnover and the head is the richest person in Italy!
worldwide consumption of sugar is 165M tonnes; 30M in Europe, 35kg per person per year in Germany – interestingly only 17% of this is directly related to pure sugar, the reset is added sugar to all kinds of foodstuffs (“versteckten Zucker”), experts reckon 50% of products in supermarkets contain added sugar, and it even escapes the “no additives” warning, being classed as a “natural” product.
Most of the food producers are in any case pushing responsibility to the consumer and diverting their own responsibility in the matter, stressing that no one is forcing consumers to eat sugar.
Dr Robert Lustig counters this about the toxic environment created around sugar, it’s everywhere in vending machines, bakeries, at check-outs (next to all the other dependency type foods, schnapps, cigarettes etc and of course, in foodstuffs as “allgegenwärtig”:
“Niemand setzt Ihnen eine Pistole an den Kopf. Aber: Wenn Ihr Gehirn kein Sättigungssignal bekommen kann, haben Sie keine Wahl, als zu essen. Es ist keine freiwillige Entscheidung. Es ist eine biochemischer Ablauf”.
2. Voll auf Zucker – Über die Sucht nach dem Süßen
p40/41: can be likened to creating a dependency, like alcohol or even tobacco, the author Ruth Alice Kosnick writes in her book “Frei von Zuckersucht. Ein 10-SChritte Programm, as if treating alcoholics.
p42/43: the sugar branch defends itself against the inference they are like tobacco or alcoholic spirit firms, defence comes from American Beverage Association and the BDSI (Bundesverband der deutschen Süßwarenindustrie), the latter having commissioned an analysis of 160 studies by David Benton from the University of Swansea and found no evidence it was harmful, “keinerlei Bestätigung”. Benton is however, working with the sugar companies’ experts, who are teamed up in task forces around carobohydrates, organised by the ILSI (International Life Sciences Institute), which is the most important lobby grouping for the entire food industry. Also Professor Hauner from TÜM, who is on a scientific panel of the firm Danone and has previously said in the trade magazines for the Bundersverbandes der Deutschen Erfrischungsgetränke-Industrie, that there is “keinen Beleg zwischen zuckerreicher Ernährung und Übergewicht.”
p44/46: a wonderful faux-pas from the head of Südzucker, Wolfgang Heer in this quote: “Es gibt keine guten oder schlechten Lebensmittel, es gibt nur schlechten Ernährungsgewohnheiten.”
which is nonsense even on as a logical statement, since if all foodstuffs are the same, there can be no wrong decisions with respect to eating habits.
Sugar activates the receptors for the hormone dopamin (reward centre) and how sugar when eaten in largish quantities, can make one dependent, like a drug.
“Zucker erzeugt im Gehirn die gleiche Aktivitätsmuster wie süchtig machende Drogen”, says Anthony Sclafani, psychology professor at Brooklyn College in New York.
Experts have located where sugar acts – in the area where there are the Dopamin hormone receptors, type D1, when these are activated it releases pleasant sensations / Glücksgefühl. The area is the so-called reward centre of the brain, Belohnungszentrum.
There seems to be a reason for this, sweet fruits have the same effect and were maybe designed to trigger a reaction so that in earlier times, man took advantage of such fruits, typically in the summer months, to stock up for the coming winter.
“Süße ist in der Natur ein Signal dafür, dass etwas kalorinreich und nicht gifitg ist.” Anthony Sclafani.
As long as there was only a little sweet stuff, it was not necessary to have a brake on consumption, an Essbremse; in fact in those days it would have been dangerous. Robert Lustig:
“Zucker lässt den Insulinpegel ansteigen, das Insulin aber blockiert Hormone, die dem Körper normalerweise sagen, es solle aufhören zu essen.”
this would have been useful in times when it was necessary to stock up for times of scarcity.
Clearly in modern times, a constant diet of sugar is not what the body was designed to process – it’s only designed to take on sugar when it is in short supply.
p55: It’s not helped by the constant advertising pressure: Levitsky investigated 100 studies about eating behaviour and decisions about food. He finds that 30 years ago our decisions were much freer and since then there has been a growing dominance of “Umweltfaktoren” whose role has grown over the years as a result of the “Folger der Kommerzialisierung des Essens” and concludes “Die freie Wahl ist eine Illusion.”
Even worse, a study by the Max-Planck-Instituts für Psychiatrie found that food advertising actually raised the level of the appetite raising hormone Ghrelin, “der Körper reagiert auf diesen Drunk – mit Hunger.”
p56: New York nutritionist (Ernährungsprofessorin) Marin Nestle (no relation to the big food firm!):
“Wir treffen die freie Wahl nicht in einem Vakuum … Wir treffen die Entscheidungen über unsere Ernährung in einer Marketingumgebung, in der Milliarden ausgegeben werden, um uns zu beeinflussen.”
Grimm: “Und die Entscheidungen fallen in einer Umgebung, in der ein bestimmtes Angebot vorhanden ist. Jeder kann nur aus dem auswählen, was es gibt.”
Professor Kelly D Bronwell Direktor des Zentrums für Lebensmittelpolitik und Fettleibigkeit an der Yale Univerität, US characterizes this as a “giftige Umgebung” / toxic environment.
3. Mach dir Freude auf – Das Süße als Basis ganzer Wirtschaftszweige und das seltsame Schweigen über den Zucker
p68/69: Grimm talks about drinks firms and what image they portray through advertising:
Coca-Cola was always designed to be everywhere right from the beginning: “Unsere Strategie ist Allgegenwart” Coca-Cola President Robert Woodruff said in 1923!
Various slogans, eg. “Life tastes good” or “Coke adds life”. The sugar content becomes invisible, no-one thinks when they watch the Christmas adverts with the red Coke truck driving along, about obesity, diabetes, strokes etc. “Menschen greifen zum ‘Gift’ und denken, es sei das Glück. Werbung als Ablenkung vom Inhalt ..”
Similarly Red Bull creates in its marketing, “eine Welt volle Energie und Abenteuer und Grenzüberschreitung.” Wide-ranging sponsorships, eg. Red Bull München, Ice Hockey. Aber …
p 71: “von den Schattenseiten von Red Bull so gut wie gar nichts mitbekommen.”
Das Bundesinstitut für Risikobwewertung (BfR), which is the highest state body in Germany when it comes to dangers from food, has a long list of fatal cases associated with energy drinks.
He gives many examples of heart related deaths: a 31 lady in a Stockholm disco who’d taken 2 Red Bulls with Vodka (3 similar mysterious deaths in Sweden), a 23 year old Greek who played football, an 18 year old basketball player in Ireland, a 19 year girl, 28 year old Australian motocross rider etc.
These are the most extreme or public cases, but clearly there are underlying issues.
p75: a study by the University of Miami found that 90% of American children and teenagers consume soft drinks every day, the average US teenager taking on the equivalent of 15 to 20 teaspoons of sugar each day – these figures have doubled in the last 10 years.
In Germany, in the age range 14 to 18, the average consumption of soft/sweet drinks is:
girls – 0.25 litres
boys – 0.5 litres
The study by the University of Miami states:
“Weil das Übergewicht epidemische Ausmäße angenommen hat, wird die erhöhte Kalorienaufnahme durch Energydrinks wichtiger.”
Particularly worrying is the upward trend of consumption in Africa.
p76: there are so many studies of soft drinks showing the causal relationship of consumption with overweight, diabetes, raised blood pressure, raised cholesterol values, heart problems. Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) has judged soft drinks to be damaging to health.
George A. Bray from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana concludes that:
“Die gegenwärtige Übergewichtsepidemie kann mit dem Verzehr von zwei 0,3-Liter-Dosen Softdrinks am Tag erklärt werden.”
A related article in the Guardian backs this up:
p80: Pharma concerns increasingly see the treatment of the problems from sugar consumption as a business that is good for turnover and profits, eg. the production of Insulin for diabetics is a massively growing market as the problem increases.
p85: there are problems, insulin makes the problem worse, can make you put on weight, “Masthilfsmittel”, and that with diabetic people who are normally pretty large anyway.
Insulin also raises the same risks that sugar creates: raised blood pressure, raised cholesterol values, raised risk of heart problems.
“Die Behandlung macht den Patienten nicht gesund, sondern alles nur noch schlimmer.” This is known by Diabetic specialists.
p86/87: Report from Newcastle University by Professor Roy Taylor reported in the magazine Diabetologica that by simply fasting they reached an improvement in only a week:
“Die Bauchspeicheldrüse hatte sich erholt, der Körper reagiert wieder besser auf Insulin, und auch die Fettwerte in der Leber hatten sich verbessert.” Reminds me of the chap in the Pavelka interview, who’d achieved a similar result over a period of 2 years, even though his doctor said he would be a diabetic for the rest of his life.
The Guardian also has some details on this:
This is however, not what the Pharma industry and certainly not the sugar industry wants. Often family doctors feel unprepared to recommend what is essentially just a lifestyle change.
4. Kleine Vampire – Wie die Kinder auf Süßes programmiert werden
p96 Universitätsklinik Ulm, has specialist department dealing with difficult or problematic births, they have a growing problem with babies which have a higher than normal “Zuckerlast”, typically this represents 4% but the number have doubled in the last 10 years, the phenomenon is called “Schwangerschaftdiabetes”.
p98 stats and various notes:
mostly the tendency to suffer or develop disease/illnesses from an overdose of sugar is genetically programmed, without the sugar they would stay in check, “erst durch die Übersüßung werden sie aktiviert und lösen Krankheiten aus.”
“Der Zucker prägt auch das Gehirn, die Lernfähigkeit und die Intelligenz, das Verhalten … hat das auch Auswirkungen auf den Beruf, die Karriere, natürlich das Einkommen.
Der Zucker prägt auch die Gefühle, die Stimmung und damit auch Glück und Wohlbefinden.
Der Zucker wird zum Schicksal.”
there’s currently sugar overkill, a typical child in Germany consumes more sugar in a year than it weighs!
only 0.4kg pure sugar and sweeteners;
10.3 kg cakes, biscuits, bakery products
5.7 kg ice cream
3.6 kg chocolate
3.3 kg sweets
3.2 kg spreads on bread, eg. Nutella
23.2 kg soft drinks!
(1.2 kg not accounted for or miscellaneous)
total 50.9 kg
source: Donald study of the Dortmunder Forschungsinstitut für Kinderernährung.
(this suggests to me, one should buy as much as one can in the fresh aisles of fruit and veg at a supermarket, not the stuff within the aisles and when one is aware of how much hidden sugar there is in food, you realise that many aisles in supermarkets are like adult candy stores/sweet shops!)
p99 manufacturers claim that children have a natural tendency to prefer sugary things and that Muttermilch is also sweet etc (which it is but only slightly)
BUT: a study in 1928 by the childrens Doctor Clara Davis from Canada and published in the American Journal of Diseases of Children showed that when given a free choice between 34 different foodstuffs / lebensmitteln, including apples, bananas, fish, even offal (Innereien) and bone marrow (Knochenmark) and drinks including water, orange juice or milk; everything without additives, just as nature had left it.
Interestingly, the Bio magazine picks up exactly on this study and others in its June 2018 edition:
https://schrotundkorn.de/ernaehrung/lesen/iss-was-dein-koerper-will.html
p100
The surprising results from this and other studies showed that children eat according to their individual needs, it’s not unusual for a child to eat 4 bananas one after the other or seven eggs!
A 3 year old ate a pound of lamb one evening.
“Ein Kind mit wenig Magensäure aß vorzugsweise Saures, eines mit Rachitis (rickets, deficiency of Vitamin D) nahm sogar freiwillig Lebertran (cod liver).”
“Nur vom Süßen wollten sie nicht übermäßig viel.”
(this kind of contradicts what he says that with sweet stuff we don’t get the natural eating stop signals)
Over many years and studies, the conclusion is that children spread their nutrition over fresh fruits, eggs, fats and meats ..
“die Lust auf Süße im Angebot sich aber in Grenzen hielt. Das bedeutet: Es gibt von Natur aus kein ngeborenes kindliches Verlangen nach Süßem und schon gar nicht nach Süßigkeiten.”
p102
Nestle has no children’s cereal/flockenprodukt with less than 30g sugar per 100g; Kellog’s Smacks are 43g per 100g, some of Aldi’s own are even higher
“mit den Kinderprodukten aus Supermarkt und Drogerie werden die kleinen fürh auf Zucker eingestellt.”
p103 problem is that mother’s are often just trusting the marketing and nice packaging, choosing the unhealthiest of products:
“Gewonnen hat bei den Kindern und Müttern ganz klar die weniger gesunde Variante – vor allem wegen des Geschmacks.
Bei Kinderprodukten geht es primär nicht um den Gesundheitsnutzen.”
Ingo Barlovic from Munich market research institute Iconkids & Youth
p106
“Karies ist die erste, ganz offentsichtliche Folge des Zuckers, ein Zeichen sozusagen, das er schon beim ersten Körperkontakt setzt, eine Signal, dass hier ein potenter Schadstoff am Werk ist.”
caused by Bifidobacterium dentium which attacks tooth enamel/Zahnschmelz; leads to black cavities in teeth.
p107
this first effect of cavities, was detrimental to the sugar industry, so there followed intense behind the scenes lobbying to hush up and guard against this damage – hence the successful implementation of government fluoride programmes in drinking water or toothpaste, for example in Germany the lobby group Informationskreis Mundhygiene und Ernährungsverhalten (IME); the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) whose chairman of the mouth hygiene group is from Suüdzucker. They arrange congresses, publish “research” and work with world health organisations, for example in Germany, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zahn-, Mund- und Kieferheilkunde as well as the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Kinderzahnheilkunde.
p108
They hammer on about this and it’s mostly successful, countries such as the US, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Ireland, Malaysia and Vietnam have fluorine in water, about 5.7% of the world’s population.
Again the link between cavities/Karies back to sugar is masked: “heute durch den zunehmenden Gebrauch von Fluoriden nicht mehr immer in gleicher Weise offentsichtlich.” write Staehle und Strippel in Zahnärtzlichen Mitteilungen and Grimm concludes:
“Karies gilt nicht mehr als Folge des Zuckers, sondern als Folge mangelnder Sorgfalt beim Zähneputzen. Die Kinder sind selbst schuld, “
(again the responsibility, like with diet the blame is spun over to the consumer/abwälzen in order to mask the real root cause of the problem)
Grimm writes later in the chapter, that eventually the national health systems and Krankenkassen will eventually have to start taking on the sugar companies, otherwise the spiralling costs will get out of control to national economies.
(will write much less now for each chapter, since am taking too long and writing too much!)
5. So schmeckt Glück – Sklaverei und Kinderarbeit: die bitteren Seiten des süßen Lebens
tells the story of the Fanjul brothers who are owners of a massive empire of sugar companies, American Sugar Refining Inc and Tate & Lyle; how they married into the family and became sugar barons
p124 “Das ‘weiße Gold’ ist auch ein weißes Gift, das Millionen Menschen Armut, Krankheit und Tod gebracht hat – und immer noch bringt.”
the other side of the story, Andrea Stuart’s book “Sugar in the Blood: A Family’s Story of Slavery and Empire”, which starts with a quotes from William Faulkner by the Americn author and nobel prize winner: “Das vergangene ist nicht tot. In Wahrheit ist es nicht einmal vergangen.”
In the book Andrea Stuart talks about tracing back her roots to her ancestor George Ashby who built plantations on Barbados, but she also goes back to the origins of sugar which started in 1493 as Columbus brought back sugar cane from the Dominican Republic.
The sugar plantations spread throughout central America, not just driven on by the Brits and Spanish, but also the Danes, French and Dutch.
The work from cutting the cane, then milling and boiling needed lots of manual/slave labour, and still does, including child labour in some countries to this day.
The poor conditions were exploited by Che Guevera in the mid 20th century to bring about Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba; from where the Fanjul family fled as their properties and plantations were confiscated by the state.
Today, the rich and powerful sugar company bosses meet once a year under the guise of the World Sugar Research Organisation (WSRO) — needless to say there is not much science and research, WSRO is a lobbying organisation which represents the modern sugar industry, members include the Fanjuls, the german sugar concerns Pfeifer & Langen (12th richest family in Germany), Südzucker and Nordzucker have representatives, also Coca-Cola, British Sugar etc.
Grimm did not get any information from asking WSRO directly, says you can follow more closely what they get up to in the minutes of the Deutsche Bundestag, how national governments protect theirs and the sugar company’s interest and by the successful global growth in sugar consumption – which leads into the next chapter of course.
6. Süße Macht – Von Krankheit keine Rede: die Zuckerförderung als Staatsaufgabe
Grimm goes in search of the HQ of the International Sugar Organisation (ISO) to their offices at 1 Canada Square, London, headed by the german Dr Peter Baron, who’d been at the WSRO yearly congress, various quotes from the interview with him. p146:
“Wenn einer krank wird, ist Zucker schuld. Quasi. Und das ist eben absoluter Nonsens, … dass Zucker im Grunde genommen ursächlich nichts von diesen Dingen verursacht als Teil der Ernährung, wenn die einigermaßen ausgewogen ist.”
although he is representing as a servant of various states German republic and all 27 EU states, he’s fully in line with the sugar industry’s aims.
Talks about the history of sugar and how it’s been supported since the origins, even though the dangers were known, they were considered a private thing, hushed up, was a lucrative trade, for profits and taxes. Many wars fought over sugar.
p150
How there are many subsidies for sugar concerns, eg. Tate & Lyle got €827 Million over 10 years in farm subsidies (farmsubsidies.org). Various other facts
Oxfam found that 6 sugar refineries profited from €819M in 2003; others like Südzucker and the french company Beghin Say got subsidies over €200M.
Bringing sugar to the masses was also subsidised, Red Bull, Coca-Cola, Schwartau, Storck, Ritter Sport, Haribi, Ferrero etc profiting.
p151
FT Deutschland reported that the 3 main german sugar companies had:
“die deutsche Politik weitgehend im Griff” and the Wirtschaftliche Vereinigung Zucker (WVZ) had:
“bei fast allen für sie relevanten Volksvertretern den Fuß in der Tür.”
Grimm: “Die Zuckerindustrie, die Nahrungsindustrie, die Agrarindustrie, sie sind alle eng verbunden und gemeinsamen Druck, wenn es um ihre Pfründe (sinecure/benefice/advantage) geht.”
p152
situation in the UK is that the sugar beet industry is represented by the National Farmers Union (NFU), but is closely tied with the large sugar concerns like AB Sugar, formerly British Sugar as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, (MAFF) now called DEFRA, so closely that MAFF was/is considered the political wing of the NFU.
p156/157
more history and the success of the Royal Navy and in particular Sir Francis Drake, a specialist “pirate” in the service of Queen Elizabeth I.
how the City of London was built on the success of sugar and how the main companies are represented there.
p158/159
how the ISO now sits between industry and government, now that the sugar production is not controlled directly by nations as it historically was.
how this chiefly exists to expand its remit (from 39 to 86 countries) and to increase consumption per head, lower taxes for the sugar industry – this historical tradition continues without public debate or much political questioning.
7. Graf Dracula in der Blutbank – Wie die Industrielbobby die Zuckerpolitik der Weltgemeinschaft beeinflusst
8. Im falschen Film – Der Fall Fruchtzuckers: vom Hoffnungsträger zum Bösegewicht
p 205 alternatives include:
xylit
mannit
maltit
modified starches maltodextrin or FOS, fruchtooligosaccharides, also called Inulin.
Grimm observes:
“Sicher ist: All die Zusätze sind in erster Linie von Vorteil für die Nahrungsindustrie. Für die Konsumenten sind sie höchst verwirrend und eher schädlich.”
p206
“Die Sache mit der Fruktose ist einer der verhängnisvollsten Missverständnisse in der Geschichte der modernen Ernährung.”
previously was considered the better, healthier sugar, but particularly the industrial fructose can disturb the hormonal control balance in the body.
p210
pure fructose doesn’t exist in nature (it always appears with other things, usually surrounded by fibrous material), but can exist in industrial quantities due to modern chemical mass production.
p212
an apple contains 7g fructose per 100g, a pear 8g per 100g. so the safe amounts of fructose would be 400g apples or 300g pears per day, ie. < 30g.
problem is 0.5l coke contains 25g fructose.
Hamburger Verbraucherzentrale reckons an average person could consume 115g of fructose a day, starting with chocolate muesli and then soft drinks like cola and lemonade.
problem is the liver can deal with that amount once and store there for emergencies – unbeknown that it has to deal with the same amount the next day, and the day after that etc
9. Urwald auf dem Dach – Die Hoffnung der Konzerne: mit Stevia-Süßstoff aus der Krise
talks about the origins of the Stevia plant in Paraguay enouraged by a Swiss exile, Moises Bertoni and his biochemist wife, Eugenia Rossetti, who founded a commune there (Puerto Bertoni) in 1887 and whose name is used as a suffix: Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni. Grimm talks with the leading german expert on Stevia, Dr Udo Kienle. Prior to the First World War the plant was tested by the German army to drink as Mate Tea. Also in the Second World War it was used as a sugar replacement by the British army, during the U-boot blockade, which made sugar hard to come by. Thereafter it disappeared from view. Until rising concerns about the dangers from existing sweetener additives chiefly in the following areas:
they tasted pretty awful and nauseous, eklig
there was a risk of cancer, krebserregend
they were potentially harmful, especially for babys
they were not effective in weight reduction (with the damming verdict “Aroma und appetitanregende Stoffe” – even though the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung concluded that there were no hidden dangers and they could be an option for losing weight).
To conclude, the consumer was getting confused and was less sure about their effectiveness. This drove the search on for viable alternatives to the existing sweeteners and their problems, culminating in consumers and retailers getting edgy on their use:
Aspartam (E951) – studies indicating a cancer risk, even with doses of 20mg per kg of body weight, half the European limit.
Acesulfam K (E950) – US worries about genetic damage, other studies not confirming this however.
Cyclamat (E952) – banned in the US in 1969
Saccharin (E954) – banned in Canada in 1977 and only allowed in US with warnings; experiments with rats showed a link with bladder cancer, although the link to humans is unproven.
Furthermore the patents for many of the sweeteners have run out, eg. Aspartam (E951), patent ran out in 1992, the Sucralose patent ran out in 2005), making them less valuable for western producers as generic and cheaper producers take over.
In recent years, there were initial problems in getting Stevia certified (although it has been used as a foodstuff in Japan since 1975, where they had produced in China, where still most of the world’s production is carried out). One of the difficulties was that Stevia was judged an additive/Zusatzstoffe, although it has been eaten like a vegetable in South America for centuries. Eventually Coca-Cola and its supplier Cargill got the necessary certifications sorted out. Problem is the big concerns are really influencing the mass production of Stevia and there are a variety of concerns about the credentials of this new industrial product, these are mainly posited by Dr Kienle in his interview with Grimm:
– the current crop of “grafted” Stevia derivatives don’t have much to do with the original plant from South America, including gen-modified concerns, although that is a concern going back to the Japanese adoption of the plant (as another aside the Japanese taste is not as sugar-centred as Western taste, eg. 20kg per person per year on average, about half that of German consumption);
– that there’s a fear Stevia acts like a contraceptive at least in studies from 40 years ago, although nothing recent confirms this /“Antibabypille” (Kienle);
– during manufacture, there is Stevioglycoside produced, which has pharmocological side-effects, eg. reducing blood pressure, but Kienle emphasises that this is not a problem if one stays within the recommended “dosage” guidelines;
– the manufacturer uses quite a complex chemical process to get rid of the bitter taste and green colour, so that a white powder results (if it replaces sugar, it has to look like sugar, doh!) and at the end there is only a substance which consists of 95% Steviolglycoside and 5% which is typically unknown. The actual cleaning process after first the juice is obtained by maceration, uses metal salts like Aluminium Hydroxide, typically 80kg per Tonne of Stevia leaves, then these salts have to be removed due to their poisonous nature of course, via another process of ion exchange/ Ionenaustacherharzen. Then to colour it white, there are absorbers / Absorberharze. Finally to get the substance to crystallize, alcohols like methanol and ethanol are used. Even at this stage, it tastes metallic and still bitter, so there is another process of masking this taste with various flavourings, so it’s no wonder the concerns have their own trade marks on their final products:
Coca-Cola/Cargill: Truvia (registered trade mark)
Tate & Lyle: Tasteva (registered trade mark)
He concludes that Stevia as it is then delivered to us from the “industriellen Parallelwelt … hat ganz andere Eigenschften als die grüne Urwaldpflanze und ganz andere Wikrungen auf den menschlichen Körper.” No wonder that it has its own raft of complainants and lobbyists from both sides, resulting in it only being allowed in the with clear descriptions, depending on country, eg. here Austria allows use of:
with Steviolglycoside/mit Steviolglykoside (from plants / aus pflanzlicher Quelle)
with Rebaudiosid A
with Sweeteners from Stevia
and in Austria, the following is obligatory:
either Süßstoff Steviolglykoside or Süßstoff E960.
Not sure what the regulations are for Germany and the UK with regards to Stevia sweetener packaging descriptions.
As Grimm concludes about the whole saga:
“Viele hatten ja gehofft, dadurch werde das Süßkraut endlich seinen Weg in europäische Wohnküchen finden. Doch ..
Konzerne wollten ja kein grünes Kraut in ihren Produkten, sondern einen neuen Süßstoff und von der Urwaldpflanze nur das Image transferieren.”
So, unfortunately, the only thing that got legalised in the process was Sweetener E960.
10. Von Natur aus gut – Weniger ist mehr: die neuen Wege zum süßen Genuss
Organisations
Pro – Sugar Lobbyist Organisations
Contra – health and consumer-oriented bodies
Obesity Task Force (US)
References:
short version
WHY Sugar is as Bad as Alcohol (Fructose, The Liver Toxin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_4Q9Iv7_Ao
“That Sugar Film”
or the longer version to the lecture by Dr Robert Lustig, “Sugar: the bitter truth”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
covers the different metabolism cycles and the function of the liver as a de-toxifier for the body — once you understand how sugar (in the form of fructose) is metabolised in the body, it leaves little debate as to whether sugar (fructose) is a toxin or not:
- Glucose (which is a non-toxic carbohydrate) — 80% is metabolised by the cells of the body as energy and typically only 20% is processed by the liver, but in order to get in there, Insulin is activated by the Pancreas. Most of the Glucose in the liver is stored as Glycogen (this energy store is in addition to that which is stored in the gut). As an aside, plants manufacture Glucose during photosynthesis of water and CO2 and store it as Starch. In the human body, Glucose is stored as Glycogen and then uses a process called De Novo Lipogenesis (“making new fat”) to convert the Glycogen to fat, but this fat is not desirable, so it is converted to VLDL. Perhaps 1/50 of the amount you eat as Glucose will get converted to VLDL. VLDL contributes to heart disease, but clearly given the relatively small amounts, this typically becomes a problem only in the later years of life.
- Alcohol/Ethanol – is a toxin (just think of the after effects, hangovers, recovery time) – 10% is processed by the stomach, 10% by the brain, muscle and kidneys, but the majority, 80% is processed by the liver where it gets converted to Acetaldehyde. The liver does not need to activate anything to process the Alcohol. Then alcohol breaks down to VLDL (fat). VLDL increases the risk of heart disease and leads to fatty liver disease (beer belly), the Alcoholic variant.
. There is much more fat to deal with and this results in free fatty deposits within the liver and pushed out in the body. This results in fatty liver disease is that it releases fatty acids into the blood which are Insulin-resistant. - Fructose – is not necessary to the body, so treated as a foriegn substance (toxin). Almost all of it is therefore processed by the liver and it also follows the same cycle as Alcohol, getting converted via Glyceraldehyde to VLDL, and again leading to fatty liver disease (soda belly), the Non-Alcoholic variant. There are the same problems as with alcohol, with regards to the problems caused by VLDL and fatty liver. One further complication with fructose is the creation of Xylulose 5-P (Phosphate), which further stimulates the Novo Lipogenesis. The Phosphate production results in Uric Acid, resulting in higher blood pressure and hypertension.
- Fibre in fruit reduces the rate of intestinal absorption, which allows the liver can easily handle the steady stream of sugar to the liver, in contrast to a glass or apple juice or fruit smoothy. In processed food, the fibre is removed to increase the shelf-life.
- Source: the above 2 youtube videos.
Chemistry: sucrose consists of one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule. Glucose is C6H12O6, classed as a hexose. D-Glucose is the D-isomer, widely known as Dextrose. It is one of the 16 aldohexose stereoisomers (the handedness of the molecular structure), there is also the L-isomer, which does not occur in nature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose
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