WITHOUT Icing - evenings around sugar with Magda Kumorek

How does sugar control us and what is its impact on health?

The fragments selected by Magda for the first meeting included the introduction "The Power of Sugar" and the first chapter entitled "Sugar Rules Us", which particularly eloquently emphasizes the danger of abusing sugar:

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“Our ancestors did not eat sugar at all, we cannot live without it. The consumption curve has been rising rapidly for two hundred years. In 1815, the average resident of Great Britain ate an average of 5 kilograms of sugar per year, today - 70 kilograms. The average Pole eats 700 kilograms of food every year, including as much as 40 kilograms of sugar.

The perfidy of sugar is that we need it. Our brain needs glucose constantly, it keeps it alive. For providing sugar, the brain rewards us and stimulates the pleasure center. Like during sex.

But too much sugar is not good for us. When the cell no longer wants glucose, it closes its access to the inside, and the sugar travels with the blood throughout the body and wreaks destruction. It clogs blood vessels. Changes are first seen in the feet, which lose their normal shape. They are strangely "split" and cannot fit into any shoe. Wounds open that do not want to heal, and eventually fingers, feet and even entire legs have to be amputated.

Poland is breaking records. Due to diabetes, we have 24 amputations per 100,000 inhabitants each year. There are two in Denmark and one in Spain and the Netherlands.

Sugar destroys the kidneys and kills neurons in the nervous system. That's why the man with the nail in his foot couldn't feel anything.

Sugar can also cause terrible pain. Some neurons disappear, but others are "only" damaged and then transmit unbearable pain.

Sugar takes away people's eyesight, causes heart rhythm disturbances, heart attacks, strokes and erectile dysfunction.

It feeds cancer.

The list of misfortunes can go on forever.”

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The next fragments selected by Magda take us to the 17th century and tell how sugar entered English and French courts, how it changed the canon of beauty and gained popularity in Polish magnate and noble courts. Eventually, sugar became ubiquitous everywhere and replaced healthy products.

“ How did Europe become so addicted to sugar in 100 years? ” - with this question and the announcement of the next meeting, Magda Kumorek ended the first part of the series about sugar.

“Sugar strengthens” - is it really?

Subsequent meetings are new installments of the fascinating biography of sugar. Magda reading the book “Słodziutki. "Biography of Sugar" reveals to us, among other things, the history of the origins of chocolate, but also makes us aware of the huge role played by the activities of the Commission for the Propagation of Sugar Consumption in the growing consumption of sugar in Poland. We find out how much attention and effort Poland devoted to the propaganda of sugar consumption and we recall the most popular propaganda slogans, taking a critical look at them.

“What makes us fat - fat or sugar?”

“The 1970s. A great discussion about the harmful effects of sugar begins in the West. If scientists were allowed to talk, we would have known long ago that sugar was harmful, but politicians stepped in."

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What really makes us fat - fat or sugar? How can state policy limit access to information about scientific reports? How did the confectionery industry protect its interests? Why, even today, when we know scientific reports, do we still reward children with sweets and choose them as party "must haves"? - these questions resound in the following minutes of the last meeting in the series, prompting reflection on nutritional choices. We learn that they were not always conscious and self-directed enough. Finally, we attempt to explain the problem of the growing obesity epidemic and learn about our body's reactions to various types of sugar in food and excess carbohydrates in the diet. All this to understand the impact of sugar on our health.

An opportunity to reflect on sugar in the diet and your own dietary choices

We consider these meetings about sugar and its harmful impact on our health to be mandatory for everyone who is interested in a healthy life. After all, a healthy diet is one of the fundamental pillars of holistic health care. Does sugar strengthen or destroy? We try to answer this question through reading. We leave the decision to limit sugar in your diet to you, while encouraging you to read the book "Słodziutki. "Biography of Sugar", which describes a difficult topic in an accessible way and treats history and scientific facts honestly.

Recordings of meetings from the series "WITHOUT Icing - evenings around sugar" with Magda Kumorek can be found at the links below:

Part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4