Sweet News

In the journey to learn to feed ourselves we need not turn to the Feds for wisdom. Nor should we turn to medical reports, either. Apparently, according to The New York Times, a December 2016 research review which went after public health guidelines on sugar intake was underwritten by none other than our favorite poisonous drink maker, Coca Cola, and Hershey, with a few others who had a lot to gain by our increased consumption thereof.

Our average intake of sugar is simply unbelievable, between 120 to 160 grams a day, with around 100 grams being toxic. That includes those of us who happen to be athletic. Sugar is sugar is sugar and the overconsumption of it can be lethal. Whether by making us obese, by making our livers dysfunctional or creating additional cravings for just that much more, it's just lethal. Soda and sweet drinks are the biggest offenders.

Clearly a little well-placed money in the right hands doesn't seem to bother the right people to try to ensure that most of us don't get the right information so that we can make better choices. Tilted reports, bad science, paid off physicians.

From "vitamin donuts" to "eat healthy lard" to the genuinely evil doctors who advocated smoking filterless Camels before at least some of us came to our senses, the consuming public has been sold a bill of goods for a very long time. As advertising got a lot slicker, it became even more effective at convincing us to accept foods that have been prepared with ever greater amounts of increasingly well-masked sugars. Different names. Same stuff.

Not long ago I heard a story about ex-pat Mexican kids who'd gotten well paying jobs in Mexico City in a call center because of their excellent English skills. However, they were very unhappy with the food at home. What did they miss from Texas?

Taco Bell.

Really?

Because Taco Bell puts sugar in its ground beef. Among other things. Like trehalose, maltodextrin, torula yeast, soy lecithin, modified corn starch, sodium phosphates, lactic acids, caramel color and cocoa powder.

What ever happened to just plain ground beef? There are three sugars in that list. No wonder people love it. It's like eating candy.

Unless you're eating a leaf of lettuce you get this junk too, and just about every processed food manufacturer uses the same: extra sugar, extra salt, extra chemicals. But lots of extra sugar.

One of my favorite health food stores sold a fabulous harvest soup made of butternut squash and just a few other natural ingredients. Chunky and rich, I bought it by the dozen until they no longer offered it because of the change of season.

I saw a similar version at Target the other day, and then read the ingredients. Sugar was the second, fourth and sixth ingredient, just listed differently: as "dried cane sugar" and "brown rice sugar." They are all still sugar including beet sugar. Sugar is sugar is sugar. Including agave and honey. They all create the same metabolic reactions in our bodies. Disgusted, I put the soups back.

When I traveled to some of the deepest darkest parts of Africa, there wasn't a tiny tin shack that didn't sport a faded Coke sign. Ancient baobab trees that had been carved inward by elephant tusks are called CocaCola trees. That's what 72.9 billion dollars' worth of brand recognition will get you. Along with lousy bones, obesity and rotten teeth which the desperately rural poor cannot possibly afford.

One of my favorite foods used to be Noosa yogurt. At 39 grams of sugar for 8 ounces and nearly 300 calories, it was quite a sugar bomb. When my A1C number began to rise despite my disciplined diet and exercise, I raked through my intake with a nit comb.

Sugar was everywhere. I was horrified at just how much. Now I make vats with plain organic yogurt, organic cherries and stevia. That's one of the least offensive of the sweeteners. It is at least made of a leaf and depending on who manufactures it, it's largely safe. Depending.

The sneaky nature of this kind of labeling is part of what keeps American food buyers uninformed and grossly overweight. Yes, we may love our sugar but in many cases we don't even know what we're eating. Michelle Obama wanted to change food labeling as part of her effort to reduce obesity. However the food industry likes us uninformed, addicted to sugar and coming back for more. So they fought her back. Vehemently. The food industry doesn't like an informed, educated, healthy public that chooses fresh veggies and fruits over Butterfingers and Cheetos and Bacon Bits and Twenty Four Flavors of Rice a Roni! (By the way number of calories in a cup of rice? 206. One cup of Rice a Roni? 300. Do the math.)

One of my early mentors was a journalist by the name of Dallas Read who passed at nearly 100 years old not long ago. She took on the physicians who lied about smoking back in the early days. She fought the tobacco industry, called out the dishonest doctors, and it cost her. But she was right. Many years later she was given The Giraffe Award for sticking her neck out. It takes great courage to take on industries who lie to the public and cause us harm. Where would we be without such brave souls?

Even less informed. Even more ill. Even less prepared. Someone does indeed have to stick their neck out. And thank heaven they do.

Those people who speak out for us and who are shouted down publicly taken massive risks to fight to keep us safe, informed and and educated. We may not see it at the time. We may even resent people for being loudmouth meddlers. How dare they attack our beloved Baby Ruth, Butterfingers, Kit Kats and M&Ms? Take a careful- and I mean really careful- look at the ingredient lists of those candies, folks. Including the dangerous food dyes. The trans-fats. How the ingredients stick like Super Glue to teeth and there goes your dentist bill. Not just your waistline. Your heart, your arteries. Your children's very lives. Childhold obesity and diabetes are epidemics. Thank you, the food industry. There are loud mouths out there pointing this out right now. Just wait until your child dies.

Then the "loud mouths' " real work comes to light. Then they get hailed as heroes. Then YOU become the hero mom who joins the fight. Why wait?

Don't look to the government, medical reports or industry for advice. Whatever you do, follow the money to find out who's funding any study you happen to be reading. Even better, if possible, grow your own food. That's about the only way to know what's in it.