Lyme Disease and Parasites Love Sugar

Sugar was my drug of choice long after I quit drinking alcohol. Well….that and caffeine, but we’ll leave that for another time. My favorite dessert has always been a chocolate brownie with lots of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and strawberries. I mean, who can top that?  Back in the day, I wouldn’t pass up a blueberry pie with ice-cream, or chocolate bars, butter tarts, Tim Horton’s doughnuts and all of the sugar found in my beloved processed foods either. I remember days when all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and eat ice cream non-stop. It was a compulsion set in motion by parasites and chronic infections. I just couldn’t get enough. I was overweight, fatigued, in pain with so many other debilitating symptoms. I just craved the sugar.

After beginning this healing journey in 2009, I drastically cut down on my sugar consumption. However, I was still binging several times per month on chocolate, ice cream and a few other sweets. In August, 2014 I plunged head-first into the Wahls Paleo Diet and got very serious about my sugar intake. I had been sick for over twenty years battling Lyme disease, intestinal parasites and several other co-infections. So I stopped eating anything with a label and went completely over to real foods with no additives, chemicals, sugar, dyes etc.

Sugar is a drug that should be used recreationally,
occasionally and in moderation.

Sugar is an addictive toxic poison,  has no nutritional value whatsoever and is a leading contributor to many chronic illnesses. It has been associated with diabetes, tooth decay, heart disease, cancer, and many other serious health problems. It is not a traditional human food, and Westerners only started eating it around the year 1700. At that time, the average consumption was roughly 4 lbs per year. Today we are averaging 150 – 180 lbs per person, per year.

We often don’t think sugar is as bad as it really is. Why is that? Perhaps it’s because we’ve become so used to eating it from a very early age. Many of us have fond childhood memories of going to visit Baba (Granny) and being offered a homemade cookie or ice-cream (or both). These were often special occasions or treats for good behavior.  However, nowadays sugar is a regular part of the standard Western diet, and we have come to accept (and expect) it as such.  Sugar is everywhere and in almost all processed foods. It is a major ingredient in breakfast cereals, soft drinks, bread and buns, snack foods, prepared sauces and of course, candy and desserts.

If we truly wish to get well, we must face the cold reality that sugar is a toxin that needs to be eliminated from our diet.  The urgency of this task becomes more and more apparent as we begin to recognize that sugar is slowly killing us and robbing our children of great health.

Here is what researchers have to say about the connection between chronic infections, immune function and sugar.

1. Sugar can suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.^1,2 
This is the last thing that anyone with Lyme Disease needs, because we are already immune-compromised. It is believed that the immune system is suppressed for 4-6 hours after consumption of sugar. If sugar is being consumed throughout the day, then this leaves the immune system in a perpetual state of suppression and more vulnerable to colds, flus and other opportunistic infections that come along.

2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body:  it causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.^3,4,5,6
I was extremely deficient in chromium, copper, calcium and magnesium (see this article). It took me several years to bring my levels up into the acceptable range. My levels improved dramatically over the last year after being on the Wahls Paleo Diet, which also involved cutting out sugar.

3. Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.7,8,9,10,11,12,13

4. Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal system including:  acidic intestinal tract, indigestion, nutrient malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis.14,15,16,17  
I had serious gastrointestinal problems for many years, especially around nutrient malabsorption and chronic constipation.

5. Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections).18
I struggled with yeast infections for over thirty years. These completely resolved when I stopped eating sugar and other simple carbohydrates – such an easy remedy to a longstanding problem.

I can’t help but wonder if sugar is playing a significant role in the progression of Lyme Disease and other co-infections in persons already suffering with these conditions. Is it possible that our love of immune-suppressing sugar has led to an explosion of infectious diseases in Western societies? For those of us with chronic infections, eating sugar is like throwing gasoline on a fire.

The sugar-parasite connection:  a match made …

There are in fact, several sugar-loving parasites that will cause insane sugar cravings. I know; I have had them.  Sugar also creates a very acidic state in the body.  In order to neutralize or buffer this state, the body will draw on its own mineral stores present in tissues and bones.  This constant draw on our precious mineral stores is just one more unnecessary stressor that will undermine the body’s response to Lyme and its coinfections.  If we have a parasitic infection, we will crave sugar; and eating sugar will lead to lower mineral levels, especially calcium and magnesium; and this in turn will leave us feeling sicker, weaker and craving more forbidden foods.

“Make no mistake about it, worms [i.e., parasites] are the most toxic agents in the human body. They are one of the primary underlying causes of disease and are the most basic cause of compromised immune system.”
(Hazel Parcells, D.C., N.D., Ph.D., 1974)

So to summarize, parasites and sugar both compromise our immune system!  They tend to perpetuate one another in a vicious cycle.  The only way out is to get rid of the sugar and start deworming.  Working on diet, parasite cleansing and healing the gut are important first steps in turning your life around!

I can honestly say that I have cut back to one sugar treat about every three months now. This allows for a treat at Christmas, Easter, a birthday or special occasion. You get the idea. I never crave it anymore. It is just not a part of my healthy diet and lifestyle. I don’t eat honey or maple syrup very often either. My health has been restored and I have loads of energy that I haven’t had in decades. I don’t plan on going backwards with my health.

Today, I can choose what I put in my mouth. “When I ate junk, I felt like junk”. I don’t want to feel like junk anymore!

Blessings and Best of Health!

Brenda

References

1. Sanchez, A., et al. Role of Sugars in Human Neutrophilic Phagocytosis, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Nov 1973;261:1180_1184. Bernstein, J., al. Depression of Lymphocyte Transformation Following Oral Glucose Ingestion. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.1997;30:613
2. Ringsdorf, W., Cheraskin, E. and Ramsay R. Sucrose, Neutrophilic Phagocytosis and Resistance to Disease, Dental Survey. 1976;52(12):46_48.
3. Couzy, F., et al. “Nutritional Implications of the Interaction Minerals,” Progressive Food and Nutrition Science 17;1933:65-87
4. Kozlovsky, A., et al. Effects of Diets High in Simple Sugars on Urinary Chromium Losses. Metabolism. June 1986;35:515_518.
5. Fields, M.., et al. Effect of Copper Deficiency on Metabolism and Mortality in Rats Fed Sucrose or Starch Diets, Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1983;113:1335_1345.
6. Lemann, J. Evidence that Glucose Ingestion Inhibits Net Renal Tubular Reabsorption of Calcium and Magnesium. Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1976 ;70:236_245.
7. Takahashi, E., Tohoku University School of Medicine, Wholistic Health Digest. October 1982:41:00
8. Quillin, Patrick, Cancer’s Sweet Tooth, Nutrition Science News. Ap 2000 Rothkopf, M.. Nutrition. July/Aug 1990;6(4).
9. Michaud, D. Dietary Sugar, Glycemic Load, and Pancreatic Cancer Risk in a Prospective Study. J Natl Cancer Inst. Sep 4, 2002 ;94(17):1293-300.
10. Moerman, C. J., et al. Dietary Sugar Intake in the Etiology of Biliary Tract Cancer. International Journal of Epidemiology. Ap 1993.2(2):207-214.
11. The Edell Health Letter. Sept 1991;7:1.
12. De Stefani, E.”Dietary Sugar and Lung Cancer: a Case control Study in Uruguay.” Nutrition and Cancer. 1998;31(2):132_7.
13. Cornee, J., et al. A Case-control Study of Gastric Cancer and Nutritional Factors in Marseille, France. European Journal of Epidemiology 11 (1995):55-65.
14. Yudkin, J. Sweet and Dangerous.(New York:Bantam Books,1974) 129
15. Cornee, J., et al. A Case-control Study of Gastric Cancer and Nutritional Factors in Marseille, France, European Journal of Epidemiology. 1995;11
16. Persson P. G., Ahlbom, A., and Hellers, G. Epidemiology. 1992;3:47-52.
17. Jones, T. W., et al. Enhanced Adrenomedullary Response and Increased Susceptibility to Neuroglygopenia: Mechanisms Underlying the Adverse Effect of Sugar Ingestion in Children. Journal of Pediatrics. Feb 1995;126:171-7.
18. Crook, W. J. The Yeast Connection. (TN:Professional Books, 1984).

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