Greetings from my grandparents' house! I'm here tonight for dinner, where I ate a delightful dish of chicken, rice and veggies -- with a side of sugar. But I'll get to that in a minute.
When I arrived at the g-rents', I walked into the kitchen where I noticed a pan of freshly baked brownies. Heartbreak! Before we even ate, I had to turn down dessert. And while I explained to my grandma why I'm giving up sugar, I mindlessly fiddled with a package I found on the kitchen counter, which turned out to be fudge, and that just further proves the title of my last post: sugar is everywhere.
Anyway, in the middle of my first bite of chickeny goodness, my grandmother pulled a bowl of beans out of the fridge. Three bean salad. I've never been a big fan, but vegetables are vegetables, you know? So naturally, I plopped a scoop onto my plate and took a bite. Little did I know that shortly after, the entire planet would shatter into several million pieces, each of which would punch me in the face. Hard.
"I'd hate to tell you this," my granda said. "But I think that has sugar in it."
Pardon me while I weep!
My grandpa suggested, however, that since the bean salad came from a can, it might have sugar alcohol instead of sugar. I googled sugar alcohol, which turns out to be sweetener I don't condone. But for the sake of my sugar free year, I needed to know: sugar, or sugar alcohol?
So my grandparents and I may or may not have dug through two trash cans to find the label from the bean salad. (Relax. We washed our hands.)
The ingredients are as follows: Green beans, water, wax beans, kidney beans, distilled vinegar, dehydrated onions, red peppers, salt, soybean oil, turmeric and...
sugar.
I'm still in shock. I refuse -- though I am tempted -- to call myself a failure. It is neither my grandparents' fault nor mine. (Feel free, however, to write angry letters on my behalf to the staff of Seneca Foods Corp. in Marion, NY.) (Oh, I kid!)
I think there's a lesson in this, though: living sugar free is going to be harder than I thought. But I still believe it'll be worth it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I feel your pain. sugar is everywhere, in nearly everything. When I "fasted" from sugar, it was crazy. If you really want to go crazy with it, any starch turns to sugar in your body. So even if the sugar doesn't pass through your gums, it gets into your system. Nevertheless, don't give up just learn and move on! Blessings, Frank
ReplyDeleteSugar it's a good thing. I always prefer to buy food with "sugar" as an ingredient because God gave us sugar to be consumed for energy and liveliness. High fructose corn syrup and that funky stuff in little pink packages, however, is created by men (fueled by greedy corporations and corn farmer lobbyists). They should be avoided whenever possible. God designed our bodies to consume and burn sugar. The only question is how the calories burned compares to calories burned.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should define it as your high-fructose-corn-syrup-free year? You're simply not going to be able to eat anything if you cut out all sugar. Just try to cut out the sweets. What else can you do?! BTW, I'm kind of addicted to your blog. I love that you write the way you speak:-)
ReplyDeleteI believe you can do it, Arleen. True, sugar is in a lot of our foods, but that doesn't mean that you can't win this fight. I am sickened by what companies have done to our food supply. Ammonia in our beef to zap e-coli; Fake color in our macaroni and cheese just so it looks prettier; antibiotics and hormones in our chickens to make them grow fatter and faster. And Aunt Jemima syrup. What is that about? What's wrong with pure natural maple syrup straight from the tree, which is naturally occuring? Oh, I know, if companies create fake alternatives, it's cheaper and they get richer. And, the ultimate insult: artificial sweeteners. Let's fatten everyone up, then create diet, sugar-free alternatives that cause cancer. Nice. Show them that YOU are the boss of your body and YOU control your health. To say that sugar is in everything and is too hard to avoid is giving up and making excuses. --- Sweetly, your friend P
ReplyDelete