Over the past year, Jim has been working hard to eat healthily, and so I wasn't suprised when wrote to me last week to let me know of some of his dietary restrictions. Milk & dairy products, eggs, meat, chicken, and sugar were off of his list. My sister is also on a sugar cleanse, but unlike Jim, can't even have sugar substitutes like Agave Nectar. No problem I thought, this can't be that difficult can it? So I began to plan a simple menu that included as many non-processed ingredients as possible. Breakfasts would include a cooked twelve grain cereal with dried fruits, or toasts with some kind of sugar free jams. Lunches would be bean salads, tinned fish, and veggie wraps. I planned the dinner menu as follows:
Being optimistic, I headed to the grocery store with my list, expecting a quick and easy trip. Tinned tomatoes, some dried fruit & nuts, and some soya products. No problem. Well let me tell you...quick and easy it was not. Much to my surprise, sugar is litereally in EVERYTHING that comes either in a can or is pre-prepared. Most dried fruit is apparently cured with it (!?!). Tinned tomatoes are filled with it. Steak seasonings, salad dressings, and marinades had well more than traces of it. Even soya products contained it. So I read label after label, and went to bulk store after bulk store. I was completely dumbstruck by the amount of processed sugar that is found in what would be considered by most as "healthy" foods.
In the book "The Omnivores Dilemma" by Michael Polan he discusses the insidious inclusion of corn and corn products in over forty-five thousand items, in everything from toothpaste to cosmetics, disposable diaper bags, cleansers, charcoal briquettes, matches and batteries and to thousands of processed foods. Corn appears as many incarnations including high fructose corn syrop, modified or unmodified starch,maltodextrin, ascorbic asid, lecithin, dextrose, lactic acid, lysine, & xanthan gum. Wanting to be prepared I decided to research the variety of sugar incarnations that I should keep an eye out for. Here's the incredible list that I found:
- amazake
- barley malt
- beet sugar
- brown sugar
- buttered syrup
- cane-juice crystals
- cane sugar
- caramel
- carob syrup
- corn syrup
- corn syrup solids
- date sugar
- dextran
- dextrose
- diatase
- diastatic malt
- ethyl maltol
- fructose
- fruit juice
- fruit juice concentrate
- glucose
- glucose solids
- golden sugar
- golden syrup
- grape sugar
- high-fructose corn syrup
- honey
- invert sugar
- lactose
- malt syrup
- maltodextrin
- maltose
- maple sugar
- mannitol
- molasses
- raw sugar
- refiner's syrup
- sorbitol
- sorghum syrup
- sucrose
- sugar
- turbinado sugar
- yellow sugar
Astounding isn't it? The reality is that if you are eating any processed foods, including breads, or tinned anything, chances are you are eating a LOT of sugar. An article published by the CBC argues that even cutting back to 12 teaspoons a day would be difficult. 12 TEASPOONS!!! OMG!
3 comments:
How about we discuss this over a bunch of beers?
Just the other night I was warming up a tin of spaghetti sauce Jewbacca purchased and couldn't for the life of me understand why it was taking on a "beef-a-roni" consistency so I checked the label. The first 3 ingredients are as follows:
Water, tomato puree, SUGAR
Cornstarch followed closely behind, which explained the "Mom's turkey gravy" appearance.
Bleh! He has strict instructions never to purchase that again.
Well points are awarded for spouse cooking...period. If my spouse made me beef-a-sugar-loaded-anything I would gladly eat it as well as ceremoniously bow in gratitude. (hint hint!)
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