Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: caffeine, alcohol, sugar, and fat.

--Alex Levine, as quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle

Unless you've been stranded on a deserted island for the past few years, you've probably read and heard all the "good news" about booze--especially red wine. First came several studies suggesting that wine can lower your total cholesterol, raise your "good" high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and dissolve any plaques in your arteries. Then 60 Minutes treated us to the so-called French paradox: The fat-loving French have a low rate of heart disease, presumably because they drink wine with their meals. And finally, scientists revealed the discovery of resveratrol, a heavily hyped phytochemical in wine that might help protect against heart disease.

Waves of ecstasy sloshed through the wine industry. Its bread and butter was not only chic and trendy but healthy, too. Suddenly, moderate to heavy drinkers of every ilk had a good reason to engage in a bad habit. Guilt became a thing of the past. It was all too good to be true.

Doctors, zeroing in on one small feature of a very broad landscape, seemed to forget all of the toxicology and pharmacology they had learned. Seduced by statistical artifact and in defiance of all common sense (not to mention cold, hard scientific fact), many physicians began prescribing wine--Spiritus medicamentosum--to head off heart disease.

There was no shortage of support for the notion that wine protects the heart. Media reports told us that regular wine drinking reduces heart attack risk by up to 50 percent, while protecting us from other scary stuff like bad oysters and flabby abs. One (industry-supported) Boston University wine and heart disease researcher, apparently intoxicated with the idea of healthy hooch, broke the credibility barrier when he proclaimed that alcohol abstention constitutes a "major risk factor for coronary heart disease."

This was heady stuff. It was almost enough--if we suspend the grizzly realities of widespread alcohol-related disease--to temporarily lull us into believing that drinking might actually be a good idea.

But you'd be hard-pressed to find a substance that causes as much sheer human tragedy as alcohol. According to an estimate by the federal Office of Technology Assessment, alcoholism and alcohol abuse cost the United States up to $120 billion annually in lost productivity, law enforcement, property damage, health care, and alcoholism treatment programs. This sum doesn't reflect the immeasurable losses from human pain and suffering. More than 100,000 deaths per year are directly attributable to alcohol. After cigarettes, alcohol is the second most avoidable cause of death in the United States.

Clearly, alcohol abuse causes grave problems. But what about "moderate" drinking? How does a glass or two of wine or a couple of beers affect your life span?

Booze as Health Food

Though drinkers would love to feel that their habit is healthy (and the redefinition of wine as health food has helped grape growers to harvest nifty profits), the very notion of "booze for health" is clearly flawed.

First, alcohol is a toxin. If you don't believe me, ask any first-year medical student who has watched through a microscope as vigorous, healthy cells shrivel up and die when slipped a drop of ethanol.

Ethanol is a cardiotoxin, meaning that it adversely affects the heart. Alcohol consumption causes fat accumulation in the heart muscle, heart rhythm irregularities, heart failure, and other damage to the heart and circulatory system. When matching drinking habits and health records of more than 4,000 Framingham Heart Study participants, epidemiologist Teri A. Manolio, M.D., of the National Institutes of Health, discovered that even a little alcohol contributes to the enlargement of the heart's main pump. (The landmark Framingham Heart Study, under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health, monitored the health status of the residents of Framingham, Massachusetts, over the course of several decades.)

Alcohol impacts the entire body, not just the heart. Its most dramatic effects are on the brain and the liver, which is responsible for detoxifying the blood. None of the body's systems escapes alcohol's adverse effects: It causes an array of diseases from cancer to cirrhosis. So even if it did somehow confer heart protection (which it doesn't), moderate drinking would still raise your risk of many other diseases.

Moderate drinking also generates age-accelerating free radicals, causing massive oxidative stress. If you drink more than two glasses of wine a day, have some blood drawn for an oxidative stress panel. (This test measures the extent of free radical damage in the body.) You will be surprised to discover that alcohol has effectively depleted your antioxidants by virtue of adding to your body's free radical load. The small amount of antioxidant (resveratrol) that alcohol supplies has no net benefit.

But perhaps most telling is the fact that the studies that have supposedly shown that alcohol protects the heart have looked only at people gorging themselves on the typical high-fat Western diet, which is low in antioxidants and phytochemicals. These are malnourished individuals under extreme oxidative stress, who are already on the road to heart attacks. Three-quarters of them will eventually die of atherosclerotic heart disease. They are so in need of nutritional support that in their case, a little resveratrol will make a huge statistical difference--even if it comes dissolved in a cellular toxin (ethanol).

If anyone ever gets around to studying the effects of alcohol consumption on the health of low-fat vegans--whose antioxidant intakes are naturally high and whose arteries are clean and clear--we'll see that booze does nothing to benefit the heart. Drink and get healthy? I don't think so.

Debunking the French Paradox

What gives red wine its supposed protective effects--and what's responsible for the French paradox--are substances called phenols. These antioxidant phytochemicals actually do protect against heart disease and other degenerative diseases by neutralizing free radicals and inhibiting the oxidation of "bad" low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

But why would you want to ingest antioxidants dissolved in ethanol when you can get them in a much more potent form from nontoxic sources? Fruits and vegetables abound in phenol antioxidants. And supplemental grape seed extract (containing proanthocyanidins) and pine bark extract (containing pycnogenol) are the most potent phenols of all.

At some point in the debate, proponents of moderate drinking invariably trundle out the major study (reported in the British Medical Journal) that showed that ethanol itself--not red wine per se--exerts a protective effect. They contend that ethanol raises levels of HDL cholesterol, which whisks fatty deposits from arteries and reduces the stickiness of blood platelets, the tiny blood cells that can adhere to fatty deposits in the arteries and form clots. This means that all types of alcohol can help keep arteries clear, although red wine may do it best because it has the most antioxidant phytochemicals.

Well, this is all well and good. But again, I must remind you that all these studies have focused on developed nations, where high-fat, highly processed, coronary-causing diets are the rule. People in these countries are most likely to benefit from a "morning-after" antidote to the destructive effects of their eating habits.

If you are already well on the way to a coronary, booze might help dilute the fat in your blood and prevent that life-threatening clot from forming. But if you are following the Anti-Aging Diet, with plenty of antioxidants, phytochemicals, and natural artery cleansers and clot-busters, imbibing will do more harm than good.

An 11-year Harvard University study of 22,000 men determined that the ideal rate of alcohol consumption to reap cardiovascular benefits is two to four drinks per week. For those consuming more than one drink per day, the heart-protective effects disappeared and the risk of other alcohol-induced problems skyrocketed. For those consuming two or more drinks per day, the death rate was 63 percent higher than for teetotalers.

Advocates of "healthy drinking" ignore the well-documented fact that alcohol impacts other body systems besides the heart. It is a tissue toxin and a known carcinogen. And it affects the brain by poisoning nerve cells.

More than two glasses of wine (or any other alcoholic beverage) daily dramatically increases the risk of death from several other diseases, such as cirrhosis of the liver, cancer, and stroke, according to Eric Rim, M.D., a Harvard University researcher who is considered one of the leading experts on the relationship between alcohol and health. When the drinking habits and death rates in 21 countries were compared, premature deaths from these other alcohol-related diseases outnumbered the coronary deaths prevented by the drinking.

To correctly interpret the data that makes alcoholic beverages look like they protect the heart, we must look closely at the makeup of the populations studied. Were these people at low risk for heart disease in the first place? Decidedly not. The statistical benefits that wine appears to confer were derived exclusively from studies of populations at significant risk for heart disease. Sadly, this includes more than 90 percent of the adults in Western industrialized nations. Three-quarters of these people will die of heart disease because they eat a high-fat, highly processed, fiber-depleted, chemically poisoned diet composed primarily of unnatural cardio-toxic foods. I'm talking about animal-derived foods, sugar, white flour, and hydrogenated oils. For individuals who undermine their health with this diet, wine is a fantastic "morning-after" drug.

No one has ever looked at the effects of alcohol on people who eat a health-supporting diet and have minimal heart disease risk, like those who espouse veganism. It's no accident that the only groups shown to get significant coronary benefits from alcohol are those at high risk of heart disease.

So drink if you will, but don't delude yourself into believing it will prevent or cure anything. It won't.

A Toxic Prescription

The idea of doctors prescribing "a few glasses of wine to protect the heart" is especially inappropriate. Consider Alphonso, a 48-year-old with early-stage coronary heart disease and elevated cholesterol. He eats few fruits and vegetables, exercises rarely, and is under high job stress. His doctor's advice was fairly typical: "Watch your diet, get more exercise, and have a glass or two of red wine with your dinner."

Alphonso needed to hear from his doctor that his diet of burgers and fries and chicken and cheese is deadly, and that he could benefit from an exercise program. But he didn't need to hear that it's okay to drink.

Previously an occasional drinker, Alphonso--with the green light from his doctor--has started imbibing every night. By following his doctor's prescription for two glasses of wine per night, Alphonso is shortening his life and increasing his risk of virtually every single major degenerative disease. What's wrong with this picture?

The booze he drinks is toxic to his brain and central nervous system. In low doses, it blurs his consciousness. In large doses, it causes confusion and delirium. Alcohol destroys about 1,000 brain cells per drink, hastening the onset of age-related cognitive decline.

Seething with free radicals, Alphonso's nightly glasses of wine deplete his already deficient supply of antioxidants and damage his immune system. Compromised immunity not only shortens Alphonso's life but also increases his risk of cancer in every tissue and organ the alcohol contacts on its way through his body. At two drinks a day, Alphonso's drinking increases his risk of cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, colon, and rectum.

Phenolic protective content and Teflon-coated blood platelets notwithstanding, alcohol is an artery-hardening agent par excellence. It not only accelerates the progression of Alphonso's coronary heart disease but also increases his risk for high blood pressure, heart rhythm abnormalities, cardiomyopathy (damage to the heart muscle), and heart failure.

His doctor's advice might have been particularly tragic if Alphonso and his wife, Allison, were trying to have another child. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol is directly toxic to the testes, causing impaired sperm motility, reduced testosterone levels, impotence, and testicular atrophy.

And if Allison joins her husband in his nightly medically approved drinking ritual, she'll experience some particularly nasty consequences. In addition to all of the diseases that alcohol causes in men, women also risk infertility, reduced sexual responsiveness, and significantly higher risks of breast cancer. Alcohol increases circulating levels of estradiol, the hormone implicated in the induction of breast cancer. If Allison happens to be one of the 25 percent of women on postmenopausal estrogen replacement therapy, her estradiol level will shoot up as high as 300 percent of baseline within an hour or so of drinking. And it will stay at that abnormally high level for several hours. One study revealed that just one drink per day can increase a woman's breast cancer risk by 50 percent.

As a nutritional doctor, I'm concerned about the wholesale depletion of essential nutrients and antioxidant nutrients. Drinking destroys vitamins, especially the B-complex vitamins, while flushing out minerals and blocking essential fatty acids from doing their vital work.

Should doctors be prescribing alcohol? Is this really the message we ought to be giving? Have we lost our senses?

In a letter to the New York Times a few years ago, Nicholas Pace, M.D., assistant professor of clinical medicine at New York University School of Medicine, expressed the outrage felt by many doctors: "It is dangerous in the extreme to promulgate the notion that alcohol consumption is a healthy practice. . . . One should keep in mind the tremendous number of medical complications that alcohol, even in meager amounts, can cause. For example, one of the leading causes of arrhythmias is alcohol; the worst thing one can prescribe for a failing heart is alcohol in any amount. . . . With 24,000 killed and 500,000 injured each year on the highways due to drunken driving, to suggest that we should be drinking for our health is ludicrous."

The Truth about Resveratrol

What about resveratrol, the antioxidant phenolic phytochemical in red wine that has been hoisted onto a makeshift pedestal (mostly by researchers on the wine industry payroll)? In test tubes, resveratrol protects bad cholesterol from oxidation and prevents clots. But serious doubts remain about its effectiveness. Is it absorbed in significant quantities in humans? We don't know. Wine contains only minute quantities of resveratrol. You would have to quaff dangerously copious quantities of wine, according to Dr. Rim, to equal the antioxidant protection you get from a few daily servings of fruits and vegetables.

"The past several years have witnessed intense research devoted to (resveratrol's) measurement in wine and the factors likely to promote its enrichment in this beverage. Up to the present, conclusive evidence for its absorption by human subjects in biologically significant amounts is lacking, and it is questionable (but not yet excluded) that its powerful and beneficial in vitro activities are reproduced as a consequence of sustained moderate red wine consumption," wrote researchers at the University of Toronto, reporting in the Journal of Biochemistry.

We do know that when resveratrol is given to rabbits with high cholesterol levels, it accelerates atherosclerosis rather than reversing it. You do need potent antioxidants like resveratrol, but in a broad spectrum. And you don't need to drink alcohol to get them. One colorful salad, with a variety of vegetables in it, provides many times more phytochemicals than a glass of wine. And if you just can't live without a little resveratrol, dowse your salad with red wine vinegar salad dressing.

And just for the record: Purple grape juice contains more resveratrol than an equal amount of red wine. (Although if you're following the Anti-Aging Diet, you really don't need the grape juice, either.)

The Bottom Line

Before you write me off as a reincarnation of temperance advocate Carry Nation, let me assure you that I'm not opposed to drinking. I live in the heart of California's picturesque wine country, surrounded by world-class wine producers. For many years, I drank a glass or two (usually two) of cabernet sauvignon with dinner. But in recent years, as I've discovered the importance of reducing free radicals and oxidative stress, I've limited my consumption to special events. At home, we never drink with dinner. When my wife and I eat out, we sometimes share an exquisite glass of Sonoma County cabernet. When we have dinner with friends or family, as often as not some wine will be on the table.

An occasional glass of wine at social events is no cause for concern. Although I'd suggest a maximum intake of three glasses per week, even a glass a day probably won't hurt you. Heavier consumption, however, is inconsistent with achieving optimum health and maximum life span.

Caffeine: Stimulation by the Sip

Talk about dilemmas. I love the taste of coffee and the zippy effect caffeine has on my brain. Most adults are familiar with the wonderful sense of well-being brought on by a steaming cup of java. On the other hand, I can certainly do without the elevated cholesterol, brittle bones, anemia, and adrenal gland exhaustion associated with caffeine consumption. Though I know I'd be healthier if I gave up coffee altogether, I enjoy it too much to quit.

The Cause of the Kick

Caffeine is a stimulant (chemically, a methylxanthine) with powerful effects on the central nervous system and adrenal glands. On the upside, it produces mental clarity and temporarily relieves fatigue. On the downside, it triggers the release of adrenaline, increases the metabolic rate, causes nervousness, increases stomach acid production, and boosts both cholesterol and blood pressure.

Most caffeine consumed in the United States comes from coffee--either Coffea arabica beans from Central or South America or Coffea robusta beans from Africa or Indonesia. The kola nut is the caffeine source in colas, while the cocoa bean supplies the caffeine in chocolate. Caffeine is also found in tea as well as in weight-loss products, pain relievers, and cold remedies.

The American appetite for coffee is ravenous. Upward of 500 million cups are consumed each day. The average person drinks 25 gallons a year.

Women and Caffeine Don't Mix

Women seem to be more at risk for health problems associated with caffeine consumption. Research has shown that caffeine exacerbates premenstrual syndrome and causes fibrocystic breast disease, a painful, potentially precancerous condition. (Interestingly, fibrocystic breast disease usually goes away on its own when caffeine and other methylxanthine compounds are eliminated from a woman's diet.)

Caffeine has also been linked to an increased incidence of birth defects, premature births, and miscarriages. It can cross the protective placenta to reach the fetus and, in animals, has been shown to cause malformed fetuses. According to one study, women who drank more than the equivalent of one cup of coffee per day were half as likely to become pregnant as women who drank less. For these reasons, women who are pregnant or who are trying to become pregnant should avoid all caffeine-containing products.

The Heart Disease Debate

Does coffee promote arteriosclerosis? Probably only in heavy users. A review of eight studies of people who imbibed more than five cups of coffee per day indicated that they were 60 percent more likely to develop heart disease. Several other studies have shown that those who consume more than five cups of coffee per day have an increased risk of death from heart disease. There's also a correlation between a high coffee intake and high levels of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. When people with elevated cholesterol stop drinking coffee, their cholesterol drops by about 10 percent.

Interestingly, drinkers of boiled coffee have higher cholesterol levels than drinkers of filtered coffee. The filters may help remove cholesterol-raising culprits, several of which have been identified.

The Bottom Line

Caffeine clearly places extra stress on your body. But a low intake--say, 100 to 200 milligrams of caffeine or one to two cups of coffee a day--has no proven link to disease. Many studies have put caffeine and coffee under the microscope. If there were a significant increase in risk of disease, we'd know by now.

With a higher intake--500 milligrams of caffeine or five or more cups of coffee a day--all bets are off. At this level, there is no question of increased risk of many serious diseases.

Some people should avoid coffee and caffeine altogether. You should abstain if you have a heart rhythm disorder, high blood pressure, panic disorder, or fibrocystic breast disease. Same goes if you're a woman who is pregnant or trying to become pregnant.

For the rest of us, quitting caffeine is also a good idea. But if you--like me--can't fathom saying goodbye to good ol' joe, just remember to keep your total daily caffeine intake below 200 milligrams. (That equals about one to two cups of drip coffee or two shots of espresso.) Do that, and you should be fine. I'm confident that as long as I keep my intake low, caffeine won't compromise my good health or shorten my life.

If you drink more than three cups of coffee a day, you're addicted to caffeine. You should cut back until you can enjoy just an occasional cup. Going cold turkey may cause severe headaches, so you're better off gradually tapering your consumption. For adrenal support, take B-complex vitamins, especially pantothenic acid (500 milligrams twice daily); vitamin C (1,000 milligrams four times daily); and ginseng. Following the nutrient-rich Anti-Aging Diet can help, too.

If you're thinking of just switching to decaf, you may want to reconsider. When coffee is decaffeinated, some of the chemicals used to extract the caffeine are left behind. Trichloroethylene is a particularly nasty cancer-causing agent (the Food and Drug Administration allows up to 10 parts per million in instant coffee and 25 parts per million in ground, roasted decaffeinated coffee). But other commonly used chemicals--trichloroethane, ethyl acetate, and methylene chloride--are also potent carcinogens. Drink only water-extracted decaf.

Sugar: Steer Clear of the Sweet Stuff

The average American consumes 130 pounds of sugar each year--an astounding 40 teaspoons (more than ⅓pound) each day. As a nation, we eat our collective weight in sugar every year. That's a lot of sugar.

Where does all this sweetness come from? Most of it, about 75 percent, is tucked away in processed foods. In fact, sugar is the most commonly used food additive.

The top two sugar sources are soft drinks and cereals, which also happen to be the two best-selling foods in America (beef is third). Other major sugar sources include candy, ice cream, baked goods, and similar desserts.

The nine teaspoons of sugar in just one can of soda supplies 180 calories, almost 10 percent of the daily calorie requirement for an average adult. Sugar accounts for an average of 640 calories per day, or 24 percent of total calories, more than half of the carbohydrate content of the standard American diet.

Many cereals contain more sugar than grains. Even seemingly healthful granolas can be as much as one-third sugar (and are usually high in fat).

One Name, Many Faces

Sugar takes many forms. Sucrose, which includes brown sugar, raw sugar, and white sugar, is a disaccharide (that is, two sugar molecules connected by a chemical bond) derived from sugarcane and beets. Enzymes in the digestive tract break down sucrose into equal parts glucose and fructose. These simple sugars can then be absorbed into the bloodstream.

Brown, confectioners', invert, raw, and turbinado sugars are slightly less refined than white sugar. Otherwise, they're identical.

Fructose is fruit sugar. It occurs naturally in fruit but can also be manmade from corn and other grains. Honey is a combination of sugars: fructose, glucose, maltose (a simple sugar), and sucrose.

Foods labeled "sugarless" often contain sorbitol, mannitol, or xylitol. These naturally occurring sugar alcohols have the same number of calories as table sugar. They are absorbed a little more slowly than glucose or sucrose. While they don't cause cavities, they do cause diarrhea in some people. As little as 10 grams of sorbitol, the amount in about five pieces of hard candy, can cause problems.

A Nutritional Wasteland

Unlike real foods, sugar provides only empty calories. It has no fiber, no vitamins, no minerals, no essential fatty acids (EFAs), no antioxidants, no phytochemicals. All sugars are devoid of nutritional value.

To make matters worse, your body must tap into its precious supply of essential nutrients in order to process sugar. In effect, sugar's empty calories double your nutrient deficit.

Sugar poses a particularly serious health hazard for children. Because kids consume large quantities of soda, cereals, and other sweets, they aren't getting the vitamins and minerals they so desperately need to grow up healthy.

Given the role of sugar in malnutrition and the quantities of sugar that we Americans eat, the proliferation of health problems linked to excessive sugar consumption comes as no surprise. Heart and blood vessel disease, high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, diverticulosis, and impaired immunity are just some of the conditions that have reached epidemic proportions thanks in part to sugar overload.

In laboratory experiments, animals fed sugar die significantly sooner than animals fed the same number of calories as complex carbohydrates such as whole grains and beans.

Pulling Insulin's Trigger

It's not as if you don't need sugar. Your body depends on a constant supply, in the form of glucose, to fuel cellular energy production. (Your cells generate energy by burning glucose in the presence of the oxygen we get from air.) Glucose is made from dietary carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. We are burning glucose day and night, so we need a constant supply. A set of finely tuned mechanisms keeps blood glucose levels very stable.

Eating sugary foods triggers excess insulin production. This sabotages your blood sugarregulating machinery, placing inordinate stress on the pancreas (which has to make a lot of extra insulin to clear the extra sugar from the bloodstream), on the liver (which must transform sugar to glycogen in order to store it), and on the adrenal glands (which are stimulated to increase their output of adrenaline).

A Big, Fat Fiasco

All sugars are rapidly digested, absorbed, and--unless you immediately burn them off through exercise--converted to fat. You already know the difference between good fats and bad fats. Wouldn't it be handy if sugar gave rise to the good fats, the EFAs? No such luck.

Unfortunately, sugars generate the saturated, killer kinds of fat molecules. Here's how it works: In the process of generating energy, the body breaks down sugar molecules into acetates, fragments containing two carbon atoms. Acetates are the basic building blocks from which both cholesterol and saturated fatty acids are made. The more sugar (or white flour or other refined carbohydrates) you consume, the more acetate molecules you'll have in your system. This pushes the body's chemistry in the direction of making extra saturated fat and cholesterol. Sugar literally becomes fat. How much this sugar-generated fat contributes to hardening of the arteries and to heart attacks is not widely appreciated. (More on this in a moment.)

Interestingly, because they are burned much more slowly, complex carbohydrates do not trigger fat production.

Undermining Immunity

Renewal depends on a healthy immune system. Sweets impair your ability to resist infectious diseases, allergies, and even cancer. They are immunosuppressive, that is, they impair the normal functioning of the immune system. Specifically, they hamper phagocytosis, the capacity of white blood cells to engulf bacteria and other invaders.

In one study, healthy volunteers developed a significantly decreased phagocytic index (a measure of the ability of white cells to engulf foreign invaders) after ingesting various types of sugar, such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, honey, and orange and other sweetened juices. The maximum decrease in phagocytic activity occurred between 1 and 2 hours after ingestion, and levels remained below normal for 15 hours. Starch ingestion did not have the same effect.

Another study vividly demonstrated that sugar impairs the production of antibodies, the immune proteins that attack invaders. The diets of mice were progressively diluted with sugar (which is exactly what happens when humans ingest foods containing sugar). As the sugar content of the diet went up and nutritional quality went down, the production of antibodies decreased proportionately.

No Friend of EFAs

Sugar disrupts the EFA production in two ways. First, it blocks the release of the EFA linoleic acid from tissue storage areas, causing a deficiency. Second, it destroys delta-6-desaturase, the delicate enzyme system necessary for transforming EFAs into prostaglandins and cell membranes.

Stealing Precious Metals

As mentioned earlier, sugar's empty calories induce across-the-board malnourishment. Certain nutrients are particularly hard-hit.

Excess sugar consumption depletes the essential mineral chromium, which has been shown to extend life span in laboratory animals. Because of its importance in sugar metabolism, chromium is also known as glucose tolerance factor. Of the 43 essential nutrients, chromium is the one most likely to be deficient in people consuming the typical, sugar-laden American diet. Chromium deficiency is a risk factor for atherosclerotic heart disease: Heart attack victims are virtually always deficient in chromium.

People who find it difficult or impossible to eliminate the sweet stuff from their diets can get a modicum of protection from chromium depletion (and the shorter life span associated with it) by increasing their chromium intakes to 400 to 800 micrograms per day. (This range exceeds the 200 micrograms recommended in the Anti-Aging Supplement Program, outlined in chapter 23.) Chromium supplementation will actually decrease sugar cravings and assist in weight loss.

In addition, sugar depletes calcium and other minerals necessary for strong bones. In this way, it increases the risk of osteoporosis.

Sugar also has a profound, though indirect, effect on dietary fiber. We need fiber in order to prevent a massive array of diseases. Whenever sugary, processed foods replace whole, unprocessed foods, fiber intake goes down.

Breaking Hearts

In 1953, a high correlation between fat consumption and coronary heart disease was discovered and publicized by Ancel Keys, Ph.D., emeritus professor of public health at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. This revelation precipitated a ton of research about cholesterol, fat, and heart disease and led to millions of people changing their eating habits in the direction of less cholesterol and fat.

More recently, a somewhat different view has been propounded by John Yudkin, M.D., professor emeritus of nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College of London University. He concluded that dietary fat may not be nearly as responsible for the cholesterol problem as sugar. He argued that a much stronger correlation exists between sugar consumption and heart disease rate than between fat consumption and heart disease rate. Noting that "no one has ever shown any difference in fat consumption between people with and people without coronary diseases," Dr. Yudkin found that people who had been ingesting a lot of sugar were much more likely to have developed heart disease.

More evidence incriminating sugar as an artery-hardener par excellence comes from a 15-country study. It revealed that death rates from heart disease were five times higher among people who consume 120 pounds of sugar per year (less than our national average) compared with people who consume only 20 pounds of sugar per year (still a hefty load if you are interested in living longer).

And fructose sweetners, which seem to be showing up in everything these days, are even harder on the arteries than white sugar (which is only 50 percent fructose). When the amount of fructose in their subjects' diets was increased, researchers noted significant elevations in LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and other blood fats associated with increased risk of hardened arteries.

You might reasonably ask how sucrose (white sugar) and fructose raise fat and cholesterol levels, thereby encouraging heart disease. Sucrose is a disaccharide that the body breaks down into two components: glucose and fructose. The glucose fraction is used by the body to produce energy for cellular metabolism. The fructose fraction is transformed into acetates, those two-carbon units that are used as raw material for the assembly of the cholesterol and saturated fat molecules. In this way, fructose increases levels of the bad types of cholesterol, which are known to promote arterial hardening, heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure.

Because fructose is a monosaccharide--in other words, it contains no glucose--it generates twice as much acetate as sucrose does. For this reason, fructose sweetners have an even greater ability to provoke heart disease. Unfortunately, even larger amounts of fructose are finding their way into the American diet, as manufacturers increase their use of pure fructose sweetners in packaged and processed foods and beverages. This means our bodies are getting more raw material from which to make cholesterol and saturated fat.

Almost all soft drinks, for example, now use fructose sweetners exclusively (nine teaspoons in every 12-ounce Coke or Pepsi). Millions of tons of these sweetners are consumed annually around the world.

Whether it's caused by fat or sugar or both, no expert questions the connection between elevated blood cholesterol and increased risk of heart disease. Lowering blood cholesterol by reducing sucrose and fructose (as well as fat) is guaranteed to reduce your risk of heart disease and promote longevity.

What Gall

A study conducted at the University of Auckland in New Zealand correlated gallstone formation in young people with a high sugar intake (through soft drinks and sweets) as well as a high fat intake. Since sugar increases cholesterol synthesis, it is not surprising that it also increases the probability of cholesterol gallstones.

Giving Rise to Yeast

Candida, or yeast, normally inhabit the skin and the mucous membranes that line the respiratory, digestive, and (in women) vaginal tracts. Yeast overgrowth is a common condition in which the immune system, for a variety of reasons, has been weakened and can no longer keep the organisms under control.

Millions of individuals, mostly women, suffer from yeast syndrome (also known as candidiasis or Candida hypersensitivity syndrome). The symptoms of this disease are caused not by the infection per se but rather by a systemic allergic reaction to the absorbed products of billions of yeast organisms, which live and die in the digestive tract.

Sugar causes and/or exacerbates yeast overgrowth by serving as food for yeast organisms, thus encouraging them to aggressively colonize the digestive tract. Symptoms of candidiasis include fatigue, weakness, depression, headache, sugar cravings, gastrointestinal dysfunction (indigestion, cramps, gas, constipation, diarrhea, foul-smelling stools), inability to concentrate, poor memory, sleep problems, premenstrual syndrome, aches and pains, heightened allergic reactions, recurring infections, and low body temperature.

Although all sugars cause yeast overgrowth, other factors play roles as well. Antibiotics destroy intestinal bacteria, yeast's main competitors for food and living space. Oral contraceptives and other steroid hormones create a more hospitable environment for candida by weakening immune response. Additional predisposing factors include a diet of refined and processed foods, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, EFA deficiency, recurrent infections, allergies, smoking, and exposure to drugs and other chemicals.

Yeast thrive in a warm, moist environment. Though they can survive on other foods, they love sugar. Eating sweet things causes them to flourish. People suffering from yeast syndrome typically crave sugar and sweets. In fact, sugar addiction is often a symptom of candidiasis.

Periodically eating sweets temporarily relieves the symptoms of yeast syndrome because it allows the yeast organisms to grow and stops (at least temporarily) the release of symptom-causing toxins into the bloodstream. Unfortunately, the longer-term outcome of sugar consumption is more yeast and a bigger problem.

Curing candidiasis requires following a strict regimen for several months. Most important, all foods containing sugar and white flour must be removed from the diet. No treatment program will succeed unless this is done. Starchy complex carbohydrates--brown rice and other whole grains, and potatoes, squash, and beans--are acceptable, so eat as much of these as you wish.

The combination of a high complex-carbohydrate diet and long-term administration of antifungal medications, such as citrus seed extract, caprylic acid, fluconazole, or nystatin, gradually suppresses yeast growth. Garlic, with its potent antifungal properties, can help to suppress its growth as well. I usually include the herb in yeast treatment programs for my patients. Repopulating the intestinal tract with an acidophilus supplement and sweeping out toxins with a fiber supplement are important adjunct therapies.

Mainstream physicians frequently misunderstand yeast problems. They remember only what they were taught in medical school: that Candida albicans, the responsible organism, proliferates in people with severely compromised immune systems, such as patients with terminal cancer. These doctors mistakenly think of candidiasis as just an infection rather than as evidence that the body's ecological balance has been disrupted, causing symptoms of general immune weakness--including not just infection but multisystem allergic reactions as well. These doctors usually miss the diagnosis, not infrequently suggesting that the symptoms of candidiasis are "all in the head."

Alternative-minded and ecologically oriented physicians understand candidiasis better. They are better equipped to diagnose and treat it.

Learning Label Lingo

Sugar and its camouflaged equivalents are everywhere. Masquerading as harmless ingredients, they find their way into a variety of processed foods from crackers to ketchup. So reading labels is especially important.

The ingredients in a processed food are listed on the label in order of amount. Manufacturers can sneak more sugar into foods while keeping it low in the ingredients list by using several different forms--such as dextrose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, fruit concentrates, honey, malted barley, molasses, and sorghum--in the same product. I've seen as many as five or six sugar equivalents mentioned on one label. Many products that appear low in sugar actually contain more sugar than all of the other ingredients combined.

As I mentioned earlier, carbonated beverages may disguise sugar as "fructose" or "high-fructose corn sweetener." These sound a lot healthier than "sugar"--almost like you're getting some fruit. Don't be deceived. Your body responds in basically the same way to all of these sugars. They supply empty calories, deplete nutrients, trigger insulin release, raise cholesterol and saturated fat, increase oxidative stress, and weaken your immune system.

Artificial sweetners: Real Health Hazards

Switching to artificial sweetners may do more harm than eating the real thing. Despite popular perception, foods containing these sugar substitutes (as well as those labeled "sugar-free" or "sugarless") are not necessarily lower in calories. Although many people have tried, no one has been able to demonstrate that any artificial sweetener actually makes a difference in weight control.

Artificial sweetners have other problems as well. Aspartame, sold under the brand names NutraSweet and Equal, is the most widely used artificial sweetener in the United States. It is known to cause the formation of highly carcinogenic nitrosamines. Aspartame may trigger migraines in people who are sensitive to it.

Saccharin--sold under the brand names Sprinkle Sweet, Sweet 10, Sweet 'N Low, and Sugar Twin--is also carcinogenic. Research has shown that the sweetener causes bladder cancer in rats. The fact that saccharin-containing products remain on the market is more a testimonial to the demands of the food industry for artificial sweetners than to the common sense of the Food and Drug Administration, which approves them.

The Bottom Line

Most of us have a sweet tooth. To satisfy yours, eat a variety of fresh (preferably organically grown) fruits every day. Choose from apples, bananas, berries, grapefruit, kiwifruit, melons, nectarines, oranges, peaches, pears, tangerines--the possibilities are endless. Because these foods contain such miniscule amounts of fructose (not to mention a bonanza of nutrients), they're 100 percent risk-free.

Some other suggestions: Try unsweetened applesauce. Use fruit purees and conserves on toast and to sweeten desserts. Drink fresh, unadulterated fruit juices, avoiding those labeled "from concentrate." Make fruit smoothies. Snack on dates, dried fruits (unsulphured only), figs, and raisins (organic only). Replace the sugar in recipes with small amounts of honey or fruit concentrate.

Finally--and perhaps most important--learn all of sugar's pseudonyms and watch for them on labels. Steer clear of foods with added sweetners as much as you can.

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Now that you know all the do's and don'ts of eating for Renewal, you can use what you've learned to start reshaping your own dietary habits. To help out, the next chapter profiles the New Four Food Groups--the grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables that provide the foundation for the Anti-Aging Diet.