The Craving For Sweets Natural

A beautiful problem in chemistry is the building up or oxidation of starch. As a laboratory experiment we can take ordinary starch, and by means of heat and oxidation by chemicals we can convert it first into dextrin or dextrin compounds, thence into maltose, thence into sucrose or cane sugar (candy), thence into glucose, alcohol, and vinegar or acetic acid, respectively. Sometimes one may appreciate in preserved fruits or confections which are just "turning" three features at one and the same time: the sweet of the cane sugar, the vinous, wine or alcoholic fermentation, and lastly the acetous or vinegar ferrnentation. Vinegar is the final outcome of the "turning" process. It is interesting to notice that the counterpart of this laboratory experiment (the oxidation of starch) is duplicated by the saliva and the intestinal secretions, aided by the epithelial cells. Though the sugar formed from starch by the action of the saliva is maltose (malt sugar), that found in the blood is levulose, which is formed from the maltose by the intestinal juice or secretions, aided by the action of the epithelial cells through which it passes. Cane sugar (candy) and milk sugar are also converted into levulose before absorption into the human system. Under normal conditions it will be noticed that the oxidation of starch in the body stops at levulose or fruit sugar, any process beyond this being abnormal and productive of mischief.

Perhaps the most interesting and remarkable of all the sugars is levulose, or fruit sugar. This is found in all sweet fruits; in some, especially grapes, it is associated with a certain proportion of dextrose, also called grape sugar or natural glucose. Honey, a natural sweet, contains large quantities of levulose, with some dextrose or grape sugar. Levulose is the sweetest of all the sugars, and is of special interest from the fact that it is the form in which sugar is naturally found in the blood. Starch, in the process of human digestion, is converted into maltose, which is, during absorption, rapidly transformed into levulose. Levulose and glucose are removed but a step from each other.

Cane Sugar Is Not A Natural Food

Cane sugar is not a food, but a food element, a fact which should always be borne in mind. In its natural state it is well diluted, and is never found in the concentrated form in which we are accustomed to use it. This is a matter of very great importance, for physiologists have demonstrated the interesting fact that ptyalin, the active principle of the saliva, acting as a starch ferment, in order to continue its work of converting the starch into sugar, is effective only when the sugar resulting from the action of the ptyalin is absorbed as rapidly as formed, otherwise the action of the ptyalin ceases. It thus appears that when sugar is taken with starchy foods, its effect is to interfere with their digestion, as it will at once render the mixture so highly saccharine that the ptyalin will not act upon the sugar as efficiently as it would otherwise do. Cane sugar can not be absorbed as such, but must be digested. It is converted by the action of the intestinal juice into malt sugar, which prepares it for absorption; but this action does not take place until after it enters the intestine, consequently cane sugar is neither absorbed nor digested in the stomach; and so long as the food substances remain in the stomach, it is also present, interfering with starch digestion. Further interference with digestion is occasioned by the fermen-tation ofthe sugar, which, under the influence of the germs which are always present in the stomach, may ferment, although it does not digest; and the fermentation thus started may extend to other of the food substances, vitiating the products of digestion, and interfering with the whole digestive process. Sugar, like fats, when separated from its natural association with other food elements, and used in a concentrated form is capable of producing highly injurious effects. These effects are much more far-reaching than is commonly supposed. They include not only irritation of the stomach, but disturbances of the liver, kidneys, and various nutritive disorders, the effects of which are in the highest degree far-reaching and damaging. Many diseases of mal-assimilation as outlined elsewhere are directly traceable to the use of sugar alone.

Starch Indigestion. The Evil Effects Of Cane Sugar

While a description of the disposition of sugar in the human system is exceedingly interesting as well as instructive, yet to follow this out would take us outside of the limits and intention of this work; conciseness therefore requires that we touch only on the main and more important points. Briefly the main disturbances, evil effects, and diseases connected with the excessive use of sugar are Catarrh of the Stomach. In its concentrated form, sugar gives rise to an excessive formation of mucus in the stomach. The irritation of the mucous membrane by the products resulting from the fermentation of sugar is also provocative of catarrh. The free use of sugar is unquestionably one of the most common causes of gastric catarrh. In fact some of the worst cases of this disease are from this source. The irritation produced by a concentrated solution of sugar is at first transient, but when often repeated a chronic condition of catarrh is established.