To Sugar or Not to Sugar



Photo by Annie Griffiths Belt

To Sugar or Not to Sugar?

When I was growing up sweets were rare occasions in my house. More often than I liked, fruit was our dessert. Now, I’m not knocking fruit, I love a juicy cara cara navel orange and think fresh strawberries with homemade whipped cream are a fabulous treat. However, I have a sweet tooth. Dark chocolate cocoa–covered almonds or a bowl of moose tracks ice cream are simple pleasures that brighten my spirit.

60 Minutes ran a piece on sugar this week. According to Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, “high amount of sugar in the American diet, much of it in processed foods, is killing us.” cbsnews.com

As if it’s news that Americans eat a lot of high-fat, high-sugar foods, the report said that we are “consuming nearly 130 pounds of added sugars per person, per year.” I believe it. I remember sitting in a cafeteria-style restaurant recently and the guy next to me went through at least two 20-ounce sodas. He filled the cup—no ice—to the rim. He probably got half a pound of sugar in that one sitting. The even scarier fact is that he probably consumed enough 4-methylimidazole (4-MI or 4-MEI), aka caramel coloring, to make his cells mutate into lethal killing machines. Although to avoid a cancer warning label Coca Cola adjusted their recipe, so now the danger is only the copious amounts of high fructose corn syrup or processed sugar.



Sweet Agave Nectar

Photo by Alison Ashton



So what’s a sweet tooth to do? According to Judith Richards at Helium.com you could try Xylitol, which my mother-in-law uses. It’s made from birch bark and is even produced in the human body so it doesn’t cause the blood sugar spikes that sugars cause. You can use it cup for cup for sugar and it’s good for baking, cooking, and sweetening your drinks. Livstrong.com recommends a few others: Agave Nectar, which comes the sap of the blue agave plant and is 33 percent sweater than sugar; Stevia, which comes from a South American plant and is 300 times sweater than sugar; and Brown Rice Syrup, which comes from cooking brown rice with barley and is not quite as sweet as sugar but more nutritious.

Or you could always have fruit for dessert.



Geoffrey