“Sugar, ahh honey honey, You are my candy girl and you got me wanting you.”
Does anyone remember when sugar was a happy thing? We sang about it and called people we loved “sugar” as a nick name. Back in the sixties doctors used sugar cubes to help kids take medicine. This practice is where the inspiration for a certain Disney song came from.
Now sugar is an enemy, a sinister substance that is out to kill us all if we are not careful. The question is, is that really true? People have been consuming sugar for well over a thousand years. It’s history of cultivation and consumption is worldwide. It affected history in many ways. In fact it could be said that sugar is as important to history as salt is. And yet these days it is the villain of the age.
I did a little research on sugar before writing this. I read on Wikipedia that Americans consume 156 pounds of added sugar a year. The article stated that the key word is “added” as sugar where it belongs is much less of an issue that sugar that is placed in processed foods where it is used a preservative as well as a flavor enhancer. So sugar itself is not the problem, in fact our bodies need it. It helps us both with learning and memory and it is the basis of our energy. The problem is over consumption.
I would be the first to tell you that I really like processed food. Processed food is convenient and mostly in single portions so for a single person popping a frozen dinner in a microwave is easier than cooking stuff that will leave a bunch of left overs that may well just get thrown away. And one definite problem with this country is our throwing away of food. The waste is ridiculous next to the amount of starving people in the world.
But our sugar consumption must go down. So the one way we can control our sugar in take is to cook our own foods. And eating what we cook. Freezing leftovers for another day is a good idea as we are all used to diet high in variety. One estimation of the calorie count of sugar is an average daily diet in 440 calories. That is close to a quarter of the standard 2000 calorie diet. This must change. You see it is not sugar that is the villain in our diets it is the food manufacturers.
So then what should we do? First and fore most is to read the labels on whatever you buy. Ingredients in a product are listed by amounts from highest to lowest. If sugar is on the list be very aware of where it is located. If it is close to the top, there is probably too much. If it is close to the bottom, the product may be fine. This is one way to begin to decrease the 154 pounds of added sugar that we consume. A second option is to cook more. Roast a chicken or a turkey. Make some side dishes and then place whole meals that you have prepared in freezable containers. One meal, meat and sides, per container. Freeze them and enjoy when needed.
There are responsible ways to bring down the level of added sugar. The further we bring down the consumption of added sugar the less of a problem we will have with it. Remember sugar is not and never has been the enemy. Charlie Brown said it best, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
