Who are we kidding?
Sugar is back in packaged foods and drinks, and HFCS is out, as the NYT reports. But do we really think switching from high-fructose corn syrup to sugar is going to solve all of our sweet tooth induced problems?
High fructose corn syrup may be the evil product of corn subsidies and high tech food manipulation in all of it’s sugary madness, but thinking a switch from one sugar to another is the answer to our problems is just a silly mind game.
Take a walk into almost any grocery store. Walk down the middle isles which, in most stores, is most of the store.
There lives the sugar coated cereal, the sugary soft drinks, the sugar laden “vitamin” drinks, the sugar coated pastries, the sugar spiked frozen dinners, salad dressing, etc, etc, etc. The variety is mind boggling.
It’s hard to find yogurt without sugar for Pete sake. Yogurt!
In all reality, if we didn’t buy this stuff, the stores wouldn’t stock it. Supply and demand.
It is time to get a national grip!
I do apologize for the rant, but we are drowning in sugar, regardless of the form it comes in. Our bodies and their million of years of accumulated know-how are beside themselves trying to figure out what to do with it all the sugar we are dumping into them.
How many of us need to struggle with obesity and overweight? How many of us need to struggle with diabetes? How many of us need to struggle with heart disease? What do we have to suffer with before we get it? Our kids are dealing with adult onset diabetes and hyperactivity. What is the future we are giving them? Especially when it doesn’t have to be that way.
We are like a country of addicts for sugar!
Ah. Bingo. Actually, the brain is hard wired to covet sugar. That makes it easier to fool ourselves into making it o.k. to sweeten almost every food we can. That has a way of making foods irresistible too. That’s a boon to repeat sales.
But we get to pay with our health…and our medical bills. That’s not so sweet. And there is no health care restructuring plan that can make that better either.
It’s funny though. Once you break the habit of sugar, the craving goes away. And, you feel better. And you discover that other healthier things taste good. Really good.
Then, when you want to have something once in a while, with real sugar, it’s o.k. No guilt. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
So, give me real sugar, yes, but not so much, and not very often.
