The book ``Sugar Blues'', by William Dufty, is a health book surviving from the 1970s which surprisingly shows few signs of being dated.

The premise under which the book is written is that sugar is bad--very bad bad. To kick off the book, the author gives his account of how sugar affected, or rather controlled, his life until he decided he wanted out. From there he jumps to a history of sugar in Western civilization, and from there does topic juggling between more history, medical anecdotes, relating personal accounts of acquaintances, all while never forgetting to sound sour notes about refined sugar.

What exactly is so bad about sugar? First of all, the author suggests that sugar is very much a drug such as heroin in its effects on the body and the way in which it is refined. (See also: Is sugar bad for you?) Sugar canes or beets, (as well as rice and wheat) are stripped from all of their natural vitamins and minerals, leaving only the non-nutrient portion of the plant left. This refinement strips the food of its usefulness to man, and in fact, can leave the food, such as sugar, in the state of being an anti-nutrient.

The book throughout mentions many problems over a broad spectrum of health problems that sugar consumption can cause: addiction, head-aches, depression, hyperactivity, tooth decay, diabetes, obesity, worsened PMS, allergies, lung cancer, scurvy, Alzheimer Disease, weakened immune system, as well as many many other things. (See also: 108 ways sugar can ruin your health) Not stopping at that, he also finds that sugar has caused wars, slavery, circumcision, and the buying out of scientists and doctors to not disturb the industry tied up in sugar production. Some of the conclusions that he draws make perfect sense. Others are a bit more of a stretch, although i certainly can not rule them out.

One example where i wondered if the author was not taking things too far was that of tobacco and smoking. He suggested that problems caused by smoking are from the sugar, and not the tar and nicotine as we are usually lead to believe. While i have not been able to verify portions of this, the sugar being a function of the curing process indeed checks out. Furthermore, some stop-smoking sites suggest cutting back on refined foods while trying to quit smoking, which seems to link part of the addictive behavior with the sugar. (See: Curing Tobacco, and Addiction relapses: nicotine, caffeine, and sugar)

An interesting twist was the portion of the book which discussed how psychiatrists are unneeded and are trying to talk away problems while ignoring that they are diet related. For some time i've been of the opinion that there is little or no need for psychiatrists, but my reasoning was more along the lines of how that field of human health was trying to solve problems which could be very spiritually related. Forgiveness would be a good example; sin can create a huge amount of mental and emotional baggage which could trigger any number of symptoms. At the suggestion of William Dufty, i now have all the more reason to believe that my reasoning against modern psychology practice is appropriate.

The biggest question that this book raises for me, is to what extent is the medical world useful and to what extent is natural healing of sorts preferred. Raised in Western mindset, we are encouraged to trust science, doctors, the government, and church suggestions on health matters. Sugar Blues rightfully knocks these assumptions by coming down very hard on doctors, psychiatrists, the AMA, and the Catholic church. Meanwhile Dufty very much endorses natural healers and eastern thought (IE yin and yang)--both of which have very questionable components. The former, as described by the author, comes very close to the realm of medicine men, or witch doctors. The later has similar pitfalls. Obviously there is some truth in both of these, but to what extent, and how should a Christian relate to these?

Overall this is an excellent book for stimulating thought, as it raises red flags about numerous facets of Western life. It is also written in a very entertaining manner, which most any person could find appealing, although for some, the lack of rigorous scientific presentation may be a slight turn off.

Some collected excerpts from the book may be found in a Nexus Magazine article entitled Sugar Blues.