Sweet Emotion
Sugar
Caramel. Sorbitol. Turbinado. Lactose. Malt Syrup. Carob Syrup. Rice Syrup. Florida Chrystals. Free Flowing. Glucose. Fructose. Sucrose. SUGAR. Those are only 12 of the 69 different names for sugar that I’ve found so far. The sugar industry adds more names to the list daily.
I’m not going to preach to you. Honestly, I’m the very last person on the planet that should be telling you not to eat sugar. It’s like the poor man’s cocaine. It’s everywhere and in everything. I love it, adore it actually. I even have my own Cake Theory. It’s patented and everything. Ask me about it and I’ll tell you sometime my theory on cake. I’m the person that looks forward to parties and weddings simply for the tasty cake goody I get at the end. Lucky for me, I’ve only been overweight once in my life, so candies and cakes have never been forbidden to me. I exercise enough that not too many of my food treats stick to my thighs. Or so I thought. While I might not see it, sugar and its evil cohorts are causing mass corruption on my insides.
I like to think myself a healthy person, and I am. I eat balanced meals, drink lots of water, monitor my calories, and exercise. What’s left? It’s time to take being the Best Sarah that I Can Be to the very next level. It only makes sense. Because of my family history, I’m uber-conscious of fried foods, salt, and cholesterol because of my heart. I don’t know if any of you have read in the news lately, but processed meals are bad for you. Real bad. They are full of sodium, fats, preservatives-that-cannot-be-pronounced, and what’s that other ingredient? Sugar. Lots of it.
Evidently, back in the 1800’s the average person ate roughly 15 pounds of sugar a year. In 1955, the average sugar consumption per person was 120 pounds per year. In the 1990’s…180 pounds of sugar per year. Seriously. I can’t even clean 180 pounds at CrossFit and that’s how much the average person eats. Can you imagine what the data is for the 2000s? Sugar constitutes about 25-35% of our diets. Sugar doesn’t give us that “full” feeling and it has no vitamins or minerals. Some brands of ketchup have more sugar per ounce than ice cream. Similarly, some salad dressings have three times the sugar content of a soda. And don’t think you can just find the sugar free version of your favorite treat and be ok…oh no, that’s too easy. We have chemical sweeteners! Those are worse for you than eating the sugar itself.
Clark Griswold
I always think of Clark Griswold from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation at this point. If you recall from these movies, he works at a company that makes food additives and preservatives. In this movie I remember him using his “non-nutritive cereal varnish” to sled down a hill. Non-nutritive. Exactly what sugar and its substitutes are considered.
What do we do? We eat natural sugars: fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and milk. These are the Cadillac of sugars. They make you full, you get vitamins and minerals and fiber, and the sweet taste you crave, all without the addictive and chemical properties that processed and refined sugar dump on your hips. Really, it all goes back to what we learned in elementary school with the food pyramid. If you eat your daily recommended servings of each of the categories you’re golden! That’s all there is to it.
So…that’s what I’m going to do. So there. I’m addicted to sugar in various forms so this will be one of the toughest challenges I’ve had in a while. While I like to think that I’m ready for it I know there will be days that I will want to kill someone for their soda or trip my best friend to eat her cookie. Holidays and special occasions will be tough for me, and it all starts with Ry’s birthday next week. This is a big birthday for Ry and he gets to have whatever he wants. I say so. That means if he wants a pony for his birthday, I will find one. Seriously though, I know where he wants to have dinner for the special day and I will go there. It is going to take a Supreme Being to keep my itchy hands out of the breadbasket. But I can do it. Ry’s not a sweets eater, so I’m not at all worried about that part.
I’ll stop with the sugar talk for today. I warn you though, if you ever Google “health” and “sugar” you are going to be swept away in a deluge of reports of evil sugar. You’ll be afraid to eat anything ever again. I know I’ll have cake again. I’ve only made two forever-promises in my life (one to Jesus and one to my husband). I’d be lying if I said I’ll never eat sugar again. I just need to make a conscious effort to not be an addict. The addiction, however, is a post for another day.
It is Thursday so you know what that means! I have personal training with Coach Brian tonight. Hooray! What is really means is that by Saturday I will be unable to walk like a normal human being, and tonight I won’t be able to wash my hair because I can’t lift my arms. Trust me folks, life can’t get any better than this!
TODAY I LOVE: tomatoes and ouch-free hair elastics
SONG OF THE DAY: “Sweet Emotion” by Aerosmith
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LOVE IT! Great info, glad you did so much research and presented this with all its non-glory! Next mission- banning Corn Syrup in the US! Another evil with so many new names and found in everything.