I take new patients completely off of all products with white flour, puffed grains or refined sugars – including corn syrup and fructose, and off all artificial sweeteners — including Splenda.

I then check for any reactions to various unrefined whole grains and fruits, and allow the local, in-season fruits that the patient is fine with — especially in season berries of all types, because of the high anti- oxidant potential of all berries and cherries.  I also allow all natural sweeteners, if the patient can tolerate them:  I emphasize local raw honey, organic molasses, organic maple syrup, rice syrup, barley malt, Rapadura sugar,  date sugar, Mystic Lake fruit sweetener (refrigerated),  stevia (honey leaf) and organic unrefined cane sugar (through Sunny Farms buying club).

After the patient has followed this at least  6 weeks, if they miss a particular food that has a refined sugar or artificial sweetener in it, they can experiment by choosing one day to consume as much of that one food as desired.

My clinical experience is that all the refined sugars and all the artificial sweeteners increase body pain, increase dysfunction such as irritable bowel syndromes, arthritis and all types of headaches, and cause hormonal drops, moodiness and allergy flare-ups.  Pain and other symptoms often increase over the following 4 days from consumption, and may not taper off again until about a week has gone by, depending on the toxin clearing ability of the patient’s body.

Seasonal Foods Offer Nutritional Therapy Advantages

The human body, like other animal bodies, was meant to eat what was seasonally available.  Since we first came to be on the planet, our natural diet had fruit only during the late summer and autumn.  We were meant to consume very little or no simple sugars for much of the year!  The large increase in blood sugar problems, cardio-vascular disease and other degenerative diseases correlates with the year-round consumption of refined sugars that has increased so greatly during the last century.

Refined Sugars and Grains Lack Nutritional Essence

Refined sugars and grains are stripped of vitamins and minerals, and they strip the body of those very nutrients when they are ingested and metabolized.  Animals given only water can live for weeks, but animals given access to only water and sugar often die within a few days.  Sugar wipes out the immune system, and allows for overgrowth of yeast and fungus, and susceptibility to bacteria and viruses.

The Naturopathic Objection to Artificial Sweeteners

Every artificial sweetener on the market today has been shown to be toxic to the nervous system by studies independent of the food processing industry.

Detoxification Aids Natural Healing

In season fruits have a cleansing effect as well as being high in trace minerals and anti-oxidants.  One can help the body detoxify by consuming local, in-season fruit and pure water for one to three days.  Only those who are not on medications should try this.  Have only one kind of fruit at a time.  If this is too intense, one can add plain whole milk yogurt or kefir, and some raw almonds.

For additional information:

Weston A. Price Foundation:  www.WestonAPrice.org
One of the leading health websites: www.mercola.com
Lick the Sugar Habit, Nancy Appleton, PhD
Sugar Blues, William Dufty
Degeneration-Regeneration, Melvin Page, DDS