What is sugar? Sugar is a FUEL. FAT is also a FUEL. PROTEIN is also a FUEL.

What's a FUEL? A source of ENERGY.

What is ENERGY? Is an ACTIVE "VIBRATION" which is MEASURED IN CALORIES.

What is a CALORIE? A MEASUREMENT OF HEAT!

A pause: Think of a FIREPLACE; if you put CARBON and burn it, it will produce HEAT (which will keep your house warm). If it is ONE DEGREES BELOW ZERO POINT, it is already DANGEROUSLY TOO COLD, and therefore uncomfortable.

Think of a 19 CENTURY railroad train: YOU GOT TO PUT COAL (another source of carbon) in the furnace to produce HEAT in order for the train to run.

An Ipod or Iphone REQUIRES RECHARGING (this is another form of ENERGY, which the charger provides, once it is connected to yet another source of ENERGEY; The electrical socket on the wall!)

GAS in your car-the point; EVERYTHING REQUIRES ENERGY! (or nothing "moves" or "functions")

What is OUR SOURCE OF ENERGY as humans?

Food, Oxygen, and Water

Now; CONSIDER THIS: IF YOU PUT TOO MUCH COAL IN A FURNACE OF A RUNNING TRAIN, YOU WILL INCREASE THAT TRAIN'S SPEED, IF A STATION IS NEARBY, THE TRAIN WON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO SLOW DOWN AND MAKE A PROGRESSIVE STOP.

The breaks won't work either, AND THE ENGINE COULD BUST!

THINK OF THE MOVIE "TITANIC" ONCE THEY "SAW" THE ICE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO TURN THE SHIP AROUND BECAUSE THEY WERE TRAVELING AT TOP SPEED (If you remember the movie, the captain was trying to "BREAK A RECORD" and reach New York ahead of schedule: thus providing more FUEL and INCREASING the amount of "Knots" it took to keep the ship at such traveling speed). This cause the ship to lose control and slam right into the ice!

The REVERSE is also true; think of the car with the gas example above. IF YOU DON'T USE THE GAS IN THE CAR (let's say you and family went on a cruise for a MONTH, and forgot to DRAIN the gas and CHANGE the oil, which are BOTH SOURCES OF ENERGY AND THEREFORE-HEAT, when you come back-don't be surprised if you have to CHANGE THE ENGINE or pay a HEFTY price to have the car fixed. Remember, gas can ERODE if not BURNED in a sufficient time, depending on what kind of gas you use)

THE POINT? You have to USE ENERGY. You can't sit on ENERGY-or it will work against you!

For us, as humans, it will come back as a form of ILLNESS.

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN? For that, we need to take a closer LOOK at

how food is ABSORBED in the body.

After the food is absorbed in the intestines and into the bloodstream (the bloodstream, which encompasses veins, arteries, and capillaries, serve as the ROADS and/or HIGHWAYS of the body), the food broken down, become NUTRIENTS which then ENTER THE CELLS OF THE BODY AND USED AS ENERGY IN THE FORM OF HEAT (calories).

Food is our COAL, CARBON, GAS or FUEL! Without this "fuel" we would STARVE TO DEATH (a process in which the body begins to "eat itself" or "digest itself" in order to produce more HEAT, as the body's source of ENERGY)

If we eat JUST ENOUGH (a caloric diet of 2,000 calories per day for an AVERAGE CAUCASIAN MALE of 160lbs 5ft. 9inches, as defined by the FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION), we maintain what doctors and scientists call HOMEOSTASIS.

WHAT IS HOMEOSTASIS? It literally means "EQUILIBRIUM"

THIS IS THE AIM OF CELLULAR METABOLISM (the final "stop" of all processed nutrients from the intestinal "highway" of blood vessels, arteries, and the like).

ASK YOURSELF: Your body TEMPERATURE is 98.7 degrees. Where is that HEAT coming from? Although our body temperature is calibrated and encoded in our DNA TO BE 98.7 degrees, it takes a certain CALORIC INTAKE OF FOOD, PER DAY, TO KEEP IT THAT WAY.

DIABETES IS METABOLISM GONE "LOCO"!

Let's go back and take a closer LOOK at food. There are FOUR BASIC FOOD GROUPS: Carbohydrates ( there are two types: "simple" and "complex" sugars), Proteins (amino acids and B-complex vitamins, which come in the form of coenzymes and enzymes), Fats ("unsaturated and "saturated" fats and oils), Wheat/Fiber or Grain Foods being the last group.

Fruits, legumes, dairy products and nuts fall within in the protein/fat groups (nuts/dairy only)

Junk food such as sodas, candy, cake-including ice cream (fall under the category of "simple" sugars (or carbohydrate-derivatives)

Simple sugars are absorbed FASTER in the bloodstream than Complex sugars. For example, if you give a kid lots of candy-he'll start jumping up and down like a Mexican jumping bean. The boy will have to be allowed to "burn up" that extra energy, until he tires out (runs out of caloric fuel which the excess candy provided).

Complex sugars are absorbed SLOWER in the bloodstream than simple sugars. For example, I'm Dominican,and in our culture we eat plenty of rice and beans with vegetables and meat. Of course, even in my culture, this is an IDEAL: not all of us eat the way we should. Many friends of mine-including myself, ALMOST ALWAYS "PASS OUT" after a BIG MEAL.

The complex sugar IS TOO BIG OF A MOLECULE TO PASS THROUGH THE CELL MEMBRANES AND HAVE TO BE "REDUCED" ( a biochemical process) to simple sugars, so it can pass through the walls of the "intestinal highway" to reach each individual cell of our body.

Now, the proportion that you eat or amount, (not to mention what you are actually eating) will determine the longevity or duration of a "sleepy digestion".

If a simple sugar molecule was the size of a potatoe, then a complex sugar

molecule will be the size of a cantolope.

If you eat a candy (the size of a potatoe and easily absorbed) you will feel the effects of a "sugar high" ALMOST IMMEDIATELY (especially with children).

If you eat a big meal of rice and beans (complex sugar: size of a cantolope)

by the time it is broken down into simple sugars, for easy absorption, you will have TEN POTATOES (the equivalent size of ONE CANTOLOPE!)

ONE POTATOE WILL BE USED FOR ENERGY THAT IS AVAILABLE, BUT THE OTHER NINE POTATOES WILL CAUSE A PIKE IN YOUR BLOOD SUGAR!

What does this mean? There's more sugar in the blood than is being ABSORBED in the cells of your body. The excess sugar is "thickening" the blood (think of putting too much sugar in your coffee, doesn't it turn viscous? Hence the phrase "have some 'coffee' in your sugar!).

It is this "thickening" of the blood which causes people to "pass out" or become sleepy or sluggish (of course, I'm simplifying here. To understand what's actually going on requires specific knowledge of molecular biochemistry which we will not go into)

This is called the "RATE OF ABSORPTION".

To correct the "rate of absorption", the PANCREAS will release into the bloodstream a HORMONE called INSULIN, which will SHUT DOWN or STOP the INTAKE OF MORE FOOD by signaling the hypothalamus, thyroid and other ENDOCRINE SYSTEMS to stop you from eating any further, until HOMEOSTASIS, is once again, maintained. Insulin has many, many metabolic functions within the cells once it's in there (and yes, the chemistry is quite complex and I won't attempt to explain it here)

If there is little sugar in the blood, and you become "hungry", and over time, let's say 24 hours has elapsed and you go without eating, the hunger will 'mysteriously' go away.

What is actually happening is that your body is secreting a HORMONE called GLUCACON or GLYCOGEN, which raises the blood sugar in your body by CONVERTING FAT INTO SUGAR, to give you some 'fuel' to go on, and this is why you don't feel hungry after a while (but this situation is only temporary. The "hunger pangs" will return until you 'feed' the body the carbohydrates it demands for proper body fuel)

If you want to steer clear of Diabetes, you MUST exercise REGULARLY, you MUST drink WATER REGULARLY (people "sleep" on water and what it can do to REVERSE diseases!)

If diabetes runs in the family, the MORE REASON to live VIGILANTLY!

And, most importantly, you MUST have RESPECT for food and its EFFECTS on the body. Food is not just for the "palate". The palate is only a 'MEANS TO AN END'-not the end itself! You have to understand that food is fuel (to you it could be a Popeye's Chicken). But that chicken is only a source of protein fuel, which, if taken too much, can EQUALLY BE AS HARMFUL AS SUGAR!

Any food you take in EXCESS will eventually HARM YOU!

Have more respect for food (and what it does in your body)

What does Astrology say about DIABETES? Can diabetes be detected in the birth chart? What are the "signatures" for diabetes in a chart?

In a horoscope diabetes is associated with the PLANET VENUS, AND THE SIGN OF TAURUS. Second is CANCER, with LIBRA a close third.

The houses and rulerships, the ARIES/LIBRA AND CANCER/CAPRICORN MEDICAL AXIS are involved (read intro. to medical astrology)