Our Modern Diet - The Bad / White Flour Is Like Sugar

White Flour is Like Sugar

As far as your body is concerned, eating white flour is almost the same as eating sugar.

As far as your body is concerned, eating white flour is almost the same as eating sugar. Food has three main sources of energy: carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Carbohydrates contain single sugars or combinations of sugars. Glucose is an example of a single sugar. Sucrose or common table sugar is a double sugar. Starch contains thousands of sugar molecules bound together, while fiber contains millions of sugars bound together so tightly that your body cannot break them down.

Only single sugars can pass from your intestines into your bloodstream. Double, triple, other combinations of sugars and starches must first be split into single sugars before they can be absorbed. These reactions occur so rapidly in your intestines that most starches cause rises in blood sugar that are not much lower than those of single sugars. On the other hand, the sugars in fiber are so tightly bound together that they cannot be separated from their parent molecule and therefore cannot be absorbed in the small intestine. They bind to and delay absorption of sugars that are in the intestines at the same time, which helps to prevent the steep rises in blood sugar levels that cause aging and nerve damage.

Diabetics do not want blood sugar levels to rise too high because it causes sugar to attach to the outer surface membranes of cells. Sugar, by itself, is harmless, but after being attached to membranes, sugar is converted to sorbitol which damages cells to shorten life. That's why diabetics who carry high blood sugar levels suffer extensive nerve damage which causes blindness, loss of hearing and feeling, burning feet, a feeling that bugs are crawling over you, amputations and even kidney damage.

Nowhere in nature do you find sugar without fiber. Humans take whole grains, remove the outer husk and grind the inner endosperm to make white flour -- just as they take sugar beets, sugar cane, maple trees, apples and grapes and extract the sugars, leaving the fiber, vitamins and phytochemicals behind. Do your body a favor and eat mostly foods that have not been refined to remove the fiber and valuable nutrients.