Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter # 211

White Flour Contains Diabetes-Causing Contaminant Alloxan

http://www.newstarget.com/z008191.html

Sunday, June 19, 2005

You may want to think twice before eating your next sandwich on white
bread. Studies show that alloxan, the chemical that makes white flour
look "clean" and "beautiful," destroys the beta cells of the pancreas.
That's right; you may be devastating your pancreas and putting yourself
at risk for diabetes, all for the sake of eating "beautiful" flour. Is
it worth it?

Scientists have known of the alloxan-diabetes connection for years; in
fact, researchers who are studying diabetes commonly use the chemical
to induce the disorder in lab animals. In the research sense, giving
alloxan to an animal is similar to injecting that animal with a deadly
virus, as both alloxan and the virus are being used specifically to
cause illness. Every day, consumers ingest foods made with
alloxan-contaminated flour. Would they just as willingly consume foods
tainted with a deadly virus? Unless they had a death wish, they
probably would not. Unfortunately, most consumers are unaware of
alloxan and its potentially fatal link to diabetes because these facts
are not well publicized by the food industry.

How does alloxan cause diabetes? According to Dr. Hari Sharma's Freedom
from Disease, the uric acid derivative initiates free radical damage to
DNA in the beta cells of the pancreas, causing the cells to malfunction
and die. When these beta cells fail to operate normally, they no longer
produce enough insulin, or in other words, they cause one variety of
adult-onset type 2 diabetes. Alloxan's harmful effects on the pancreas
are so severe that the Textbook of Natural Medicine calls the chemical
"a potent beta-cell toxin." However, even though the toxic effect of
alloxan is common scientific knowledge in the research community, the
FDA still allows companies to use it when processing foods we ingest.

The FDA and the white flour industry could counter-argue that, if
alloxan were to cause diabetes, a higher proportion of Americans would
be diabetic. After all, more consumers consume white flour on a regular
basis than are actually diabetic. This point is valid, but it does not
disprove the alloxan-diabetes connection. While alloxan is one cause of
adult-onset type 2 diabetes, it is of course not the only cause. As the
Textbook of Natural Medicine states, "current theory suggests an
hereditary beta-cell predisposition to injury coupled with some defect
in tissue regeneration capacity" may be a key cause. For alloxan to
cause injury to an individual's beta cells, the individual must have
the genetic susceptibility to injury. This is similar to the connection
between high-cholesterol foods and heart disease. Eating
high-cholesterol foods causes heart disease, especially in people who
have family histories of heart disease. The link between alloxan and
diabetes is as clear and solid as the link between cholesterol and
heart disease.

If you've been eating white bread for years and you have a family
history of diabetes, all hope is not lost for you. Studies show that
you can reverse the effects of alloxan by supplementing your diet with
vitamin E. According to Dr. Gary Null's Clinicians Handbook of Natural
Healing, vitamin E effectively protected lab rats from the harmful
effects of administered alloxan. Now, you're not a lab rat, but you're
a mammal and vitamin E is definitely worth adding to your daily regimen
of nutritional supplements, especially if you have a history of eating
foods made with white flour and are at high risk for diabetes.

Even if you are already diabetic, some simple changes to your diet can
help treat your diabetes. First of all, stop eating foods made with
white flour. Even though you already have diabetes, vitamin E
supplements can still help you, as can many common foods. Garlic, for
example, does wonders for diabetes. As Dr. Benjamin Lau states in his
book Garlic for Health, "When fed garlic, the rabbits' elevated blood
sugar dropped almost as much as it did when they were given the
antidiabetic drug tolbutamide. Researchers postulated that garlic may
improve the insulin effect."

If you can't handle the taste of natural garlic, you can take it in
widely available supplements. Aloe vera is a traditional diabetic
remedy in the Arabian Peninsula, and its therapeutic characteristics
are now gaining worldwide acceptance in the treatment of diabetes.
According to both human and animal research studies, aloe vera lowers
blood glucose levels by an unknown mechanism. According to the
Clinicians Handbook of Natural Healing, this natural hypoglycemic
effect extended over a period of 24 hours. Adding onions to your diet
(along with the garlic) can also significantly reduce your blood sugar
level. Additionally, as Dr. Michael T. Murray writes in The Healing
Power of Herbs, studies show that ginseng controls glucose in both
diabetic humans and diabetic laboratory animals.

It all comes down to asking if putting yourself at risk for diabetic
coma, blindness, limb amputation and death is worth eating white bread.
If you're willing to risk your quality of life and your life itself,
then go ahead and eat all the foods made with white flour you want.
However, if you want to stop poisoning yourself with alloxan, a known
toxic chemical, then make a few simple dietary changes. Eat groceries
(see related ebook on groceries) made with whole-grain wheat flour, not
processed white flour.