Sugar: The Other White Christ

Warning: any resemblance to anti-Christian sentiment in this is article is purely coincidental.

One of the distinct impacts of Christianity has been the unilateral and wholesale destruction of cultures. Wherever missionaries have gone traditional ways of life, traditional knowledges, cuisines, religions, and material cultures suffer and dissolve. The blinding light of Jesus disintegrates everything before it, like a noxious cosmic bleach.

The Old Norse referred to Jesus as the “White Christ,” and he stood in particular conflict with blustery, red-beared Thor. The Christians of the day presented their religion in terms that would make sense to the Heathens, with the intention that they could then change everything around once they had power.

This still goes on today with Bible revisions and retellings tailored to specific audiences. Such duplicity, such slimy legerdemain, was the antithesis of straight-shooting, honest-to-the-root Thor.

The Heathens didn’t even have a word for themselves, let alone destructive designs. Indeed, new research suggests that even the Viking raids may have been little more than self-defence (of course, the Christian kings also got up to the same sort of behaviour, but to the Christians of the day it seemed that rape and murder was only verboten if you happened to worship more than one god).

There you go though: in place of the rich and subtle constellation of spiritual flavours afforded by decentralised polytheism comes the bland, one-size-fits-all model of Christianity (of course the reality is that there are infinite versions of Christianity, too, but none of them seem willing to acknowledge the extent of their de facto and abstract polytheisms).

In recent times the White Christ has taken on a new form: refined sugar. Refined sugar is the enemy of traditional cuisine and cooking. It is the enemy of healthy eating, the product of a worldview uprooted from the sacred interconnections of all things. This worldview might be nihilistic, but it borrows its contempt for the world from Christianity.

Don’t believe me? Here is an example of a good, respectable Christian opinion on the matter, from Robert Boyle in 1686:

“[love of nature is] a discouraging impediment to the empire of man over the inferior
creatures of God.”

We might as well say “reverence is a discouraging impediment…” or, given I am here writing about sugar, “good taste is a discouraging impediment…”

As I understand it, refined sugar causes massive health problems: obesity, diabetes, cardio-vascular disease, hypoglycaemia, depression and mood swings, and probably cancer. It contains no nutrients of its own, and apparently to process it the body needs to strip mine itself of existing minerals and nutrients. Eating sugar makes you fat and malnourished at the same time.

In my case sugar also exacerbates my allergies terribly, making my body attack itself. I won’t labour that particular analogy to Christianity, it should be perfectly obvious.

You could say that sugar is like monotheism. Instead of the endless subtle tastes and nutriment of polytheism – which has something for everyone, and acknowledges the sacredness of all things – we get the White Christ of the dinner table, White Sugar, which is poisonous, ruins the palate, and reduces human beings to a low ebb.

Trying to get White Sugar out of one’s life is not easy. Almost all processed, mass market foods have sugar added – regardless of what the food actually is, and even if it is meant to be sour or bitter. Don’t believe me? Have a good look. Oh, “high fructose corn syrup” is like the Pope of refined sugar, in case you were wondering. It isn’t just Jesus that gets rammed down our throats as children.

So not only is sugar very addictive, but it takes a lot of effort even to get food that doesn’t predestine you to sugar addiction. Imagine trying to quit smoking in a world where tobacco was put in everything in the supermarket!

I don’t know if Christianity is addictive but it is “the opiate of the masses,” and really, I think that it can be very hard for folk to disentangle themselves from Christian mentalities, even if they have formally rejected the religion. The apparently widespread presence of dualistic thinking in some Heathen circles attests to this in particular.

Keeping off the sugar once you are on your way is no easy feat either. I am at a point of getting onto and falling off the wagon at the moment. Last year I managed to stay “clean” for six weeks. I have never felt better in my entire life. Then one night I decided to indulge in an elaborate dessert and the next day fell into a rock-bottom depression, just like that.

All that said, as I eat less sugar I crave less sugar. Tastes are relative so the less we expose ourselves to the junk, the less our palate will require distorted and exaggerated flavours. We begin to appreciate richness, subtlety, the delicious tang of sweetness in its natural flavour context of bitterness and all the rest. I am getting there, slowly but surely.

If latter day “capitalism” (I use the inverted commas to distinguish from the thing that Clint would call capitalism) wants anything, it wants to present a seamless veneer of fixed-white—teeth-and-a-shiny-new-car happiness, the kind of shallow happiness that is utterly empty, like having a priest absolve one’s sins so that one is ready to recommit them for the rest of the week.

Much better is the honesty of vulnerability and depth, putting aside the ridiculous shining ideals (I use the word loosely) of capitalism and (particularly evangelical) Christianity. When we pass through the fake happiness of refined sugar (and its attendant ideologies), we give ourselves a chance to shoot for something much better: well-being.

Well-being isn’t necessarily happiness (sometimes happiness is an irrational and unhelpful emotion), although it does include a good deal of happiness. But rather than this happiness being the product of endless consuming, or the bloody death of some distant messiah, it comes from setting things right between you and the world.

How to do that? By adopting an attitude of reverence, by working to cultivate and deepen the living memory of the sacredness of all things – including our own bellies. Christianity tends to devalue the spirit of all things but their distant messiah (pantheistic Christianity is ok though), and capitalism sees only opportunities to cash in, sees no forests or people but merely resources and consumers. Units of exploitation.

So just as quitting refined sugar in our sugar-saturated world is hard, so is quitting irreverence. I think perhaps that if I make my battle against sugar a twin to my battle against the nihilistic amnesia that can so easily sweep over me (and most of us) then I might get just the boost I need. After all, if there is only spirit…then eating right is a spiritual practice of great sacredness.

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15 thoughts on “Sugar: The Other White Christ

  1. I wholeheartedly agree with you, Heimlich, and I’m aware of the sugar-debate for a long time, because my ex-girl friend was very against white sugar. I once started a fight against sugar (in my own diet) and lost it hopelessly. It’s really in EVERYTHING in the supermarket! I’m really far away from a healthy life-style (including too much sugar, fast food and alcohol), but I will try to change these bad habits this year. However, from my experience I know that to omit alcohol (or coffee) or even to quit smoking is much easier than stopping to eat sugar (at least for me). The only thing I’m not sure is, which place meat has in a healthy diet, though the links you and Clint have given me convinced me that vegetarianism isn’t the best alternative (even if Yogis swear this to be so). If refined grains, refined sugar and anything processed (by industry) disappeared from my diet I would feel better, I’m sure. That’s why I like the paleo diet you and Clint have written about.

  2. Excellent article. I’m going to incorporate your idea of reverence with my weight management clients. I’m a hypnotherapist for those wondering what I meant. It’s also a message I needed to hear. I have a despicable craving for sweet products – specifically soda and tea. Neither have which have led to obesity. I stay in fairly good shape as a Martial Artist. However, the thought that it robs so many foods of their flavor hit home. Very thought provoking. Holding mirrors up to our own habits is humbling.

  3. Happiness is not an emotion. Look it up in the dictionary and you can see. In my experience, people often confuse Joy (which is an emotion and like all emotions temporary) with Happiness. Happiness is a state of being. Well-Being and happiness are synonmous. It is only later that happiness and joy were confused.

  4. Very nice analogy, Heimlich. Have you had a chance to read Weston Price yet?

    Matt – The way I see it, the proper place of meat is at the centre of the meal. The way my mother taught me is that dinner should always include one type of meat and three types of vegetable. Two greens, one yellow. Works pretty well as a rule of thumb.

    You can pretty much eat as much meat as you like and stay healthy as long as you eat your fruits and vegetables too. (And get your exercise, practice proper hygiene etc. etc. of course)

    A healthy human body automatically regulates its own apetite. When you stick to all natural foods, you’re very unlikely to overeat anything because you honestly won’t feel the need to.

    On the other hand, eating a lot of junk food (especially sugar) is a very quick way to screw up your apetite auto-regulation system.

    Hope that helps.

  5. Yes, this helps. Thanks Clint! My only criticism would be that our ancestors haven’t eaten meat everyday – as it was impossible (due to availability). It’s just a recent development in human history (industrialisation etc.) that we have so much meat available. And many diseases are caused by too much meat (some say red meat). I personally love sea food, fish and chicken (and of course a good steak). But your suggestion is to eat it with vegetables (maybe salad?), but not noodles, rice or bread, right? Are potatoes ok or are they a too recent discovery for European descendents (in the context of paleo diet)? Because I can eat potatoes without any problems? And are grains really a big issue in paleo diet? Runners often eat only full grain noodles before attempting a race. Ok, maybe a little too many questions…

  6. Actually, the quantity and frequency of meat eating historically has varied a great deal from region to region.

    Generally speaking, people in hot climates have traditionally eaten more plant foods and people in cold climates have generally eaten more animal foods. (Though I’m sure there are exceptions to this rule.)

    The extreme example of a high meat diet is the Eskimoes, whose traditional diet is something around 90% animal products and very high in saturated fat. Despite this, they’ve been found to suffer no heart disease when eaing their traditional diet. On the contrary, they only get heart disease once they get started on white bread, Coca Cola and other modern crap.

    Anyway, I’m definitely in the camp that does not believe that clean, fresh red meat causes disease.

    These days I usually have milk and eggs for breakfast, salad with chicken or fish for lunch and beef or pork with vegetables for dinner. I snack on fruits, nuts, cheese and yogurt.

    A *strict* paleo diet doesn’t allow any kind of bread, pasta, rice or potatoes. It doesn’t allow any dairy either. Obviously, I’m not that strict. I think a little bit of bread or potato is ok as long as you don’t allow those to become your primary carbohydrate sources.

    And yeah, I’m familiar with the tradition of long distance runners eating a lot of pasta before a race. It’s called “carbo loading”. Personally I think it’s retarded but I’m not an endurance athlete anymore, so maybe I’m missing something.

  7. I think it is very important to place any religion in historical context. The excesses of Christian missionaries in the past were tied up with Western imperialism and European mania in superiority complex. It was not about communication, exchange and inspiration. It is a racial thing and I think blaming Jesus for it is misplaced.

    Race itself is a modern concept based on a hierarchical view of humanity. In contrast, ancestors of all people generally viewed people as people (the Greeks, the Romans and the Chinese were exceptions even in the distant past, due to their ideological use of the term “barbarians”).

    We live in a world today that witnesses separation of religion from the state machinery in many parts of the world. In that context, many non-Europeans actually find inspiration in the Gospels and willingly become Christians. In China, for example, underground Christianity is an impressive force against the oppressive power of the Communists. A similar example could be seen in former East Germany. It is empowering to believe that human conscience has a divine source. It becomes a source of inspiration for great action and selfless heroism.

    As I am often engaged in interfaith encounters, I have learnt that many Christians now practise non-interference when they involve themselves in aid work in non-European countries. However, there are evangelical American groups that still have conversion as their agenda. Again I believe this has something to with an ingrained sense of superiority that many – not all, I wish to emphasise – Americans cannot seem to let go.

    Yet it is also important to note that some sayings of Jesus in the Gospels easily lend themselves to exclusivist interpretations, e.g, “I am the way.” Does it imply there are no other ways? The Jesus in the so-called “Gnostic Gospels” (the Nag Hammadi codex) seems to represent a more ambiguous image that is akin to mysticism.

    Talking about politics and religion: the Nazi portrayal of Norse mythology certainly did no justice to the Aesir and the Vanir. And now we have leftists who become obsessed with that period in history and denounce all Asatruars as either overt or closet fascists! Marxism is probably the most dogmatic and self-righteous ideology that ever appeared on earth. The leftist blaming of the Norse gods for fascism is misplaced. Havamal cautions its readers against any form of prejudice and extremism. Odin is quite Greek in that way – for Greek (and Chinese) philosophers of old believed in balance.

    As to the health-damaging cult of the white sugar: it is a remnant of Western imperialism that has entered into the circulation of universal human consumption. The japanese imperialist tool of the MSG (adopted by the Chinese) is far less successful in comparison!

    And now the coming decades: the spectre of Marx , coupled with Chinese “folkish” obsession with the purity of the emperor cults of the past, lives on in the rise of Chinese Communist imperialism. The world is still not rid of imperialism as a truly barbaric form of relating to one another.

    Conscience and reason are called for, and we can find inspiration for that in Havamal and in literature of other spiritual traditions, including Christianity in its non-imperialist forms.

  8. A provocative style of writing a la Nietzsche is always enjoyable to read. You got many people thinking, Heimlich, so keep it up!

    Nietzsche called himself the Antichrist in order to point out a lot of humbug that was going on in the Christian churches of his time, when imperialism was the discourse of the “civilised” world.

  9. Heathen passion: the world tree instead of the cross! (Nietzsche wrote in “The Antichrist”: Dionysos instead of the crucified!)

  10. Using the amino acid L-Glutamine was very helpful to me in facing sugar addiction. In my understanding, glutamine fuels the brain in similar ways to sugar, and helps with cravings. It’s been used to help treat alcoholism, which is sugar addiction in extreme form. Chromium is another supplement that can help with sugar addiction. I too believe that sugar is an insidious weapon of mass control. http://drhotzeblog.netymology.com/2006/07/20/sugar-attack-buster/

  11. Christian missionaries are at it again – this time in Haiti when everyone else is concentrating on saving and rebuilding lives. See http://www.smh.com.au/world/childtrafficking-accused-claim-innocence-as-trial-awaits-20100202-n97o.html?autostart=1. The children that these missionaries are taking away are not orphans; perhaps they come from vodoun (voodoo) families and have to be “saved”? View also http://www.smh.com.au/world/voodoo-high-priest-says-evangelicals-monopolise-aid-20100201-n8sj.html.

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