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Jan 03
2013
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Sugar's Toxic EffectsPosted by Bruce Robinson in Untagged |
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It's addictive, unregulated, and linked to multiple adverse health effects. It has even been branded a toxic substance. Yet sugar remains an almost inescapable ingredient in the modern American diet.
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US policy for decades has emphasized making cheap food available, promoting dairy, corn and other grains. This has successfully supported those sectors of American agriculture, says Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California San Francisco. But while farmers, and especially food producers have profited, consumers are paying a double price.
Federal crop subsidies have effectively held down food prices for American consumers. But Dr. Lustig suggests there is a downside to that, too.
French farmers stuff geese with carbohydrates to produce fatty livers for pate. Humans are doing much the same to themselves by consuming too much sugar. The consequences, only now becoming apparent, will likely be devastating, in an emerging epidemic of what Lustig terms, fatty liver disease.
In Lustig's view, sugar, and fructose in particular, should be regulated as a toxic substance that can have adverse health affects, just as we do with alcohol, which has similar metabolic consequences. But he knows that's not likely to happen any time soon.
Bushels of apples rotting in the ground in back yard orchards. Kids who can't eat the lettuce from their school garden. New county rules taking effect this month will help ease these situations.
Small farmers who seek the new "Approved Produce Gardener" Certifications, will have to abide by a set of Best Management Practices, but Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner Tony Linegar says they are not terribly burdensome.
Home-based food producers, or "cottage food operators" are blocked from selling meat pies or tamales under the state Health Department's regulations, as those are considered "potentially hazardous" food items. But it is possible to petition the state to make changes to their list of allowable products, says Christine Soskol, of the Sonoma County Environmental Health Department. She adds that the list of approved foods is lengthy.
Art exhibits, film and literary events, classes in drawing, painting and ceramics and even piano lessons now share the Sebastopol Veteran's building with the local VFW chapter. And everybody's happy with the new arrangement.
Vitamin D and variations in how women metabolize it, could play a role in Marin County's high breast cancer rate, suggests recent research. Kathie Dalessandri, a surgeon and research in Pt. Reyes Station, 
