It is, therefore, essential to understand a bit of the chemistry of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are divided into complex long-chain carbohydrates and short-chain carbohydrates or sugars. Each carbohydrate is composed of a large number of molecules, which have five, or more commonly six, carbon atoms in a chain. The sugar glucose consists of individual molecules attached to one another in a chemical bond. Glucose is called a monosaccharide. Monosaccharides are usually glucose, fructose, and galactose. The main sugar in the blood and body is glucose—all the cells of the body depend on glucose, the brain more so than the rest of the body. It is an essential sugar in the body but it is not essential as a pure substance in our food. Glucose is made in the body by splitting complex sugars or carbohydrates into their basic units, yielding mostly sugar. This process begins in the mouth, where saliva contains enzymes that split (hydrolyze) these carbohydrates into simple sugars. Hydrolysis continues in the stomach until the process is inhibited by the acidity of the stomach, but it begins again when the food enters the small intestine, especially after the pancreatic juices are mixed with the food.
Glucose is the energy sugar. But the food industry, when it claims that sugar is a good source of energy, leaves the impression that sucrose, the common table sugar from beets or sugarcane, is a good source of energy. It is, on the contrary, the cause of a large number of physical diseases—all manifestations of the sugar metabolic syndrome—and of many cases of depression, anxiety, alcoholism, and other addictions. Glucose in its pure form is probably as dangerous. The apparent paradox arises from the fact that only the slow release of glucose from food, in conjunction with the release of the other nutrients, makes it safe. Pure glucose, devoid of any other nutrients, is nearly as harmful as sucrose. Patients who develop violent reactions after drinking 100 g of glucose before a sugar tolerance test have no doubt about this. The severe nausea and vomiting, headache, and other equally unpleasant reactions can be very persuasive.
Another monosaccharide is fructose. It is present in fruit and is probably somewhat less toxic than either glucose or sucrose for two reasons. It tastes sweeter, weight for weight, and less is used in order to achieve the same sweetness satiation. And it does not stimulate the pancreas to release insulin. However, consumed in large quantities, it is unhealthy since it too does not contain a normal quota of other nutrients. Like glucose, when fructose is released in the body from food, it is not harmful and is a useful source of energy. But there is no physiological need for free fructose from external sources. Fructose, either in the form of tablets or as a free-flowing crystalline material, is just as harmful as sucrose, even though it is available primarily in health food stores. It is not a safe substitute for pure sucrose or glucose or for any other pure sugar.
The third common monosaccharide is galactose, present chiefly as one of the components of lactose, the sugar present in milk. It tends to be less sweet than either glucose or fructose.
Disaccharides are sugars that have two monosaccharides linked to each other chemically. The two common ones are sucrose, which consists of one glucose and one fructose molecule, and lactose, which consists of glucose and galactose. These more complex sugars must be hydrolyzed into the simple monosaccharides before they are absorbed into the blood. If they are not split, they will remain in the bowel and become a source of calories for bacteria. They can produce serious gastrointestinal upsets. The body has enzymes that split these double sugars, sucrase (hydrolyzes sucrose) and lactase (hydrolyzes lactose).
Sucrose is by far the most common sugar. The average consumption of this sugar is about 120 pounds per person per year. Of course, an average means that half the population consumes more. This figure is arrived at by dividing the total sugar consumption by the total population. It includes sugar used in confectionaries, candies, soft drinks, breakfast foods, canned soups, and so on. Sucrose is so ubiquitous that it is very difficult to follow a sugar-free program because it is found even in foods where one would least suspect its presence. When sucrose is consumed, it is rapidly hydrolyzed and absorbed and then quickly shunted into the liver and converted into triglycerides. These fats are then released into the blood and stored in the fat depots. Of all the common sugars, sucrose is converted into triglycerides the most quickly.
Sucrose is very toxic because it does not carry with it the normal quota of other nutrients and because it is released into the blood too quickly. When sugar beets or sugar cane are consumed, they are not nearly as toxic, since they are present in diluted form in a bulky vehicle that cannot be consumed too quickly. In other words, the sucrose present in natural food is not toxic but commercial or household sucrose is. To advertise and promote sucrose as a pure energy-producing food is fraudulent. Sucrose ought to be barred from human use.
These monosaccharides and disaccharides are processed into highly refined sugars, as they do not commonly exist in this pure form in nature. One exception is honey, which contains large quantities of glucose, fructose, and sucrose. In the spring, when there is insufficient pollen for the foraging bees, some beekeepers feed them sucrose syrup. This is then deposited into the honey. Later during the year, as more pollen becomes available, less and less sucrose is fed. If one is allergic to beet or cane sugar, it would be as reactive in the honey as in the pure state. For this reason, late summer and fall honey are preferable, but this means getting honey from a beekeeper and not from the supermarket. In areas where sucrose is never fed, this would not be a problem. Honey is somewhat safer than sucrose because it is sweeter due to the fructose content, so that less is needed, and because it is not as pure and as refined as sucrose, it contains very small quantities of vitamins and minerals. If used to replace sucrose in the same quantity, it is just as toxic.
The complex saccharides are composed of very long chains of glucose molecules attached to each other, which vary in length from the rather short-chain carbohydrates, such as glycogen, to the very long, fibrous foods such as fiber. These carbohydrates are called polysaccharides. They have different properties: they are not sweet but tend to be bland, like potatoes; they are not easily dissolved in water, as are the simple sugars; and they have structural properties not found in simple sugars. They are, therefore, not as toxic as are simple sugars. Because of their bulk, it takes more time to eat them, and because they are hydrolyzed slowly in the digestive system, the sugar (glucose) released does not enter the blood as quickly, producing a more even flow of sugar, compared to the water-soluble sugars. For example, it would take a while to eat five apples (or potatoes or carrots) one after the other. The mechanical problem of chewing and swallowing slows down the rate of consumption, and there is a natural process of becoming satiated. On the other hand, the same amount of glucose or sucrose can be dissolved in a few ounces of water and swallowed in ten seconds. Furthermore, since these complex polysaccharides are not sweet, they do not pervert one’s palate, as do the sweet sugars.
Pure complex carbohydrates are also artifacts, as they are not found in a refined state in nature, where they are surrounded and mixed with protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals. For this reason, the foods naturally rich in carbohydrates are good food, not dangerous. These are called natural, unrefined, or unprocessed carbohydrates. The processed carbohydrates are substances such as starch. They are toxic but not as bad as the mono- and disaccharides. The unprocessed carbohydrates also contain very complex polysaccharides that cannot be hydrolyzed in the body and there are no enzymes that can process them. These substances are the celluloses like wood, husk, or bran. As they are not hydrolyzed, they soak up liquid as they pass through the digestive tract, playing a very useful detoxification role.
In general, unprocessed (unrefined) carbohydrates are safe and processed (refined) foods are not. The degree of toxicity depends on the degree of refinement. Whole wheat is nontoxic unless one is allergic to it. During processing, it is cracked and ground and the central portion, the endosperm, is sifted out. The outer coats, bran, germ, and the layers next to the bran and germ