Nutritionally Speaking: Diabetics Should Avoid Honey and Fructose / Peppermint Tea and Other Herbs

Dear Dr. Meinig: Is the use of honey and fructose as a sweetener OK for diabetics? -C.L.

 

Dear C.L.: You have probably heard that fructose doesn’t need insulin in order to be taken up by our cells as does table sugar. Actually table sugar is a combination of glucose and fructose. The glucose portion goes directly into the blood after ingestion and affects the blood sugar relationship. Fructose on the other hand, is not used directly by body cells, but when it arrives in the liver it is converted to either glucose or fat.

When glucose is made in the liver from fructose the need for insulin is required as it is with table sugar. The advocates of honey feel because it has a higher amount of fructose, it would not require insulin and thus would be beneficial to the diabetic. These individuals forget that honey is a mixture of glucose and fructose, and so the need for insulin remains.

There are other reasons why fructose as a sweetener is not all it’s cracked up to be. A prominent one is its dual conversion, to either glucose or fat. A considerable amount of research has shown it is a much higher fat-producing substance than glucose. No doubt this is the reason why diabetics using fructose are commonly found to have high levels of triglycerides, considered along with cholesterol as a major factor in the cause of heart attacks.

Most sweeteners also have a detrimental effect on the calcium levels of the body which result in a multitude of degenerative disease conditions. It is because calcium balances are important to our health in so many ways that I have so strongly advised people to break away from sweet tasting foods and beverages. There are many other delectable flavors in feeds, and these are overshadowed and stolen from us by sweets. Learning to do without the sweet taste is a positive experience, and not the negative one so often portrayed.

 

Dear Dr. Meinig: Is it all right to drink peppermint tea? What about other herbs? – T.D.

Dear T.D.: Herbs have been used as a beverage and for food and medicine almost since the beginning of time. However, people in this country made very little use of herbs until the last ten years or so when the interest in nutrition grew so rapidly. Because herbs are natural grown substances, there is a tendency to assume they are universally good for us to use.

The facts are that although a few herbs are very useful medicaments, a large percentage when used as a food or beverage can be extremely harmful. To make matters worse, very little investigation or research has been or is being done to investigate these substances.

There are 396 herbs and spices marketed for use as tea. Dr. R.K. Siegel of the Los Angeles School of Medicine has found 43 of these cause mental behavior alterations. Others cause kidney, urinary tract, stomach and intestinal problems.

The leaves of wax myrtle, rosemary, sweet gum tree, and the root of marshmallow contain tannin. Active diuretics and kidney irritants are dandelion root, dog grass, watermelon seeds, buchu, cranberries and juniper berries. Gotu kola contains caffeine.

When safrole, an ingredient in sassafras tea, was found to cause cancer in rats it was banned by the FDA in 1960. It is still fairly easy to obtain and is used as a flavoring agent in root beer. Sassafras is allowed but is supposed to be safrole free. Safrole is also found in nutmeg, mace, anise and camphor. Tarragon contains estrogen which is also a weak carcinogen. This herb is used frequently in salad dressings.

Camomile, fennel, eucalyptus, citral, rosemary, sabinol, mint and valerian are terpenes that are depressants and cause kidney irritation. Tansy and savin are also kidney disturbers and irritate markedly the urinary tract.

The Food and Drug Administration published a report in 1977 on the “Status of Herbs for Food Use” (e.g. herbal teas) in which they listed 27 herbs that were reviewed by their Division of Toxicology and categorized as “Unsafe.” This is not an all-inclusive list.

Dr. Paul Eck has found the concentration of minerals can be very high in herbs and their use can be antagonistic or inhibit body chemistry programs for some metabolic types of individuals. He found that people with high aluminum levels, that could not be traced to more common sources, were often due to the regular consumption of peppermint tea. His analysis disclosed this herb contains high levels of aluminum. The reason why peppermint tea has a soothing effect on the stomach after a heavy meal is due to the aluminum concentration. Aluminum is well known for its use in buffer agents and antacid tablets.

The detrimental problems that could come from the use of herbs would be small if they were only consumed occasionally. The difficulties magnify greatly when they are used as a beverage or tea, as the tendency is to drink increasing amounts as the habit grows.

I have often mentioned, we were meant to chew our food, not drink it. A glass or a cup of tea grows into a second or third one and instead of once in a while, people tend to imbibe several times in a single day. Everything we take into our stomachs combines with everything else that is there. Even good nutritional foods can unbalance our chemistry when they are eaten to excess.

When we think of how delicious a cool glass of fresh water is when we are thirsty, why do we become “hooked” on so many different, and often harmful, beverages?