- David Kindopp
COCAINE CAPPUCCINO
I went through a phase a while back when I couldn’t drive by an OXXO (those ubiquitous “short stop” markets in every neighborhood in Mexico) without stopping for, or at least longing for, one of those icy café cappuccino/mocha libations dispensed from the magical machines constantly swirling that enticing, intoxicating blend. That slushy, mixture concocted of some kind of coffee flavoring, shaved ice and what must certainly be enough sugar to mess with my body and mind for at least a week. If my friend Roberto was along, he would always kid me when we had stop for my “sugar fix.”
And I know better. I get it that a healthy human body can metabolize about four grams (one teaspoonful) of processed (white) sugar over approximately twenty-four hours. I know that the American Heart Association suggest an adult male consume a maximum of twelve grams of sugar (all sugars, natural and processed) in a twenty-four-hour period. I understand that every gram of sugar over those amounts is, for most of us, converted to fat and does mindboggling harm to our bodies in a myriad of ways. I know all that yet made three OXXO stops one evening to find a functioning diabetes machine that was dispensing my poison of preference.
I was addicted. Or, as Deepak Chopra would more gently say, “habituated.”
I have almost always been realistic about what I put in my body, exercising a modicum of self-control when it comes to ice cream, mounds bars, pasta, beer, chocolate cake, liquor (admittedly, I do over-use wine on occasion) and chocolate covered cashews. Why then were those sinister café cappuccino/mochas able to hijack my car, yank me through those glass double-doors and lure me to that swirling, blend of irresistible toxicity? I told myself because it was hot and I wanted a cold drink. Yeah, right, like they didn’t have icy cold water eight steps away. The reason that potion of nastiness could hijack me and my car is because it had hijacked my brain.
Sugar, processed granulated white sugar, is more addictive than cocaine.
I’ve always known sugar is a drug. More ‘pure’ (which simply means there is no food value at all) than cocaine. The chemical formula for sugar is C12H22O11. The chemical formula for cocaine is C17H21NO4. For all practical purposes, the difference is that sugar is missing the “N”, or nitrogen atom. Sugar and Cocaine are highly similar on a molecular level and so have similar effects on the mind and body. Except that processed white sugar is even more detrimental.
Researchers at Princeton University studying bingeing and dependency in rats have found that when the animals ingest large amounts of sugar, their brains undergo changes similar to the changes in the brains of people who abuse illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin.
In 2007 there was a lab study done on the effects of sugar addiction compared to cocaine. “…when rats were allowed to choose mutually-exclusively between water sweetened with saccharin–an intense calorie-free sweetener–and intravenous cocaine –a highly addictive and harmful substance – the large majority of animals (94%) preferred the sweet taste of saccharin. …the preference for saccharin was not surmountable by increasing doses of cocaine and was observed despite either cocaine intoxication, sensitization or intake escalation–the latter being a hallmark of drug addiction.”
The conclusion of the study was this:
“Our findings clearly demonstrate that intense sweetness can surpass cocaine reward, even in drug-sensitized and -addicted individuals… In most mammals, including rats and humans, sweet receptors evolved in ancestral environments poor in sugars and are thus not adapted to high concentrations of sweet tastants. The supranormal stimulation of these receptors by sugar-rich diets, such as those now widely available in modern societies, would generate a supranormal reward signal in the brain, with the potential to override self-control mechanisms and thus to lead to addiction.” (Bold words printed as such in the report.)
Certainly, the company that sells me café cappuccino/mochas knows it’s addictive. They made me into one of their lab rats. I’m not so sure I’m comfortable with that arrangement.
Where does Mexico fit into this sugar addiction cycle? Much like many folks in the U.S., Mexicans apparently don’t fit into much of anything anymore, including old clothing and airplane and bus seats.
“With a 32.8 percent adult obesity rate, Mexico just past the 31.8 percent obesity rate in the United States, according to a study released by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. That makes Mexico the most obese country in the hemisphere and one of the fattest countries on the planet. The problems caused by obesity are causing a public health crisis in Mexico, with children growing fatter and adults increasingly dying from heart disease and diabetes.
Mexico, surpassing the U.S. as the most obese nation in the hemisphere. Wow. Less manual labor and more convenience aren’t the only things that keep Mexico plodding along the path toward obesity -- it's also terrible eating habits, paradoxically fostered in part by low incomes. "The same people who are malnourished are the ones who are becoming obese," physician Abelardo Avila with Mexico's National Nutrition Institute told CBS News. "In the poor classes we have obese parents and malnourished children. The worst thing is the children are becoming programmed for obesity. It's a very serious epidemic."
Barry Popkin, an obesity expert at the University of North Carolina, attributes much of the spike in Mexican obesity to increased consumption of cheap sugary drinks and mass-marketed snack foods (the type of things that got Americans fat as well), which have displaced home-cooked meals, along with fresh fruits and vegetables.
As Al Jazeera stated in a recent article: “The speed at which Mexicans have made the change from a diet dominated by maize and beans to one that bursts at the seams with processed fats and sugars poses one of the greatest challenges to public health officials. “
In a nutshell: An obesity expert attributes much of the spike in Mexican obesity to “increased consumption of cheap sugary drinks and mass-marketed snack foods.”
Sugary drinks. Sugary processed foods.
So what the heck is refined white sugar? Well, it isn’t food, that’s for sure. Check it out.
Making sugar from both cane and beets, they are heated and calcium hydroxide (lime), which is a toxin to the body, is added. This is done to remove ingredients that interfere with the complete processing. Carbon dioxide, which is another toxin, is then used to remove the lime. The sugar turns from a sticky black substance to a clear juice which is heated to remove other compounds. After the crystals condense, they are bleached snow-white usually by the use of pork or cattle bones. During the refining process, 64 food elements are destroyed. All the potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, manganese, phosphate, and sulfate are removed. The A, D, and B, vitamins are destroyed. The sugar is processed at least three times before it takes the form that we would normally use and by that time it no longer a food and is now a drug. A completely artificial substance. Amino acids, vital enzymes, unsaturated fats, and all fiber are gone. The chemicals used in sugar processing (phosphoric acid, acid calcium phosphate and others) are potent and health-debilitating. Sugar has a tremendous amount of carbonic acid which disturbs the nutritional balance in the body. Sugar robs the body of almost all nutrients, especially the minerals chromium, zinc and calcium, and vitamins C and B-complex.
According to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) it is estimated that as little as 100 years ago individuals in the US ate around one pound of sugar per person, per year. The average person in the US now consumes 180 pounds of refined sugars every year. That’s almost a half a pound a day. 100 grams of sugar has been found to stop immune cell production and function for up to 5 hours and any time we have extra sugar in the body it absorbs it into the cells or the liver where it gets converted into fat.
We’ve all seen the plethora of Coke bottles littering the grocery store and tienda shelves and just about everywhere else in the overall landscape of Mexico. Infants drink Coke from baby bottles in the Yucatan. In a 16-ounce Coke there are roughly 44 grams of sugar. Two cans and your immune system is down for about five days. A Coke a day and your immune system is never on task. Scary. According to a 2010 report released by Coca-Cola, the average person in the United States consumes 399, 8-ounce servings per year (that’s 266 16-ounce cans – why they do the math that way is anybody’s guess). What is it in Mexico? 665 8-ounce servings per person, per year; the highest of any country in the world. How the folks in management at Coca-Cola can sleep nights is a mystery to me.
Obviously, is not just Coke that is loaded with sugar. It’s in all those processed foods that the US is exporting to Mexico (and the rest of the world). It’s in pasta sauce, salad dressing, energy drinks, granola bars, yogurt, dried fruit, granola, barbecue sauce, bottled tea (50 grams in one brand), apple sauce, canned peaches, fat free Jell-O, pop tarts, muffins, instant oat meal and on and on and on. OXXO in Mexico and Circle K in the US are an addicts’ nirvana. And again, every one of those companies marketing and selling all that poison, to all of us, knows what it is - and is doing everything possible to make their ‘food’ addictive.
After putting this piece together I’m all fired up and pissed off. This is one lab rat that is going to yank out the sugar drip, bust out of this maze, clear my syrupy daze and tell all of those corporate drug dealers to f_ _ k off – right after I have this one, last, chocolate-chip cookie.
References.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/mexico-obesity_n_3567772.htmlMexico has overtaken the United States as the fattest country on this half of the globe, CBS News reports.
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/sugar-shockers-foods-surprisingly-high-in-sugar?