Saddened by the historical account, I aimed to get some brighter news and decided to live in the present. The present information provided more bad news. According to the American Heart Association (AHA),
“ On the Nutrition Facts panel, the line for sugars contains both the natural and added types as total grams of sugar. There are four calories in each gram, so if a product has 15 grams of sugar per serving, that’s 60 calories just from the sugar alone, not counting the other ingredients.” In addition, the AHA reported, “Currently, the average American diet consists of nearly 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day, roughly equivalent to 355 calories. The AHA (2009) guidelines suggest that women not consume more than 6 teaspoons (approximately 25 grams equivalent to 100 calories) of added sugar per day while men not consume more than 9 teaspoons (approximately 37.5 grams equivalent to 150 calories) of added sugar per day.”
Pardon me, a “sugar baby”, but would you please read that part out loud, where it says “THE 2009 Guidelines SUGGEST…” Is that a typo on the recommended amount? Don’t you wish it were? Now, that you asked let me inform you. The exact amount, according the food pyramid website and a few other score or gram keepers: There are 4.2 grams of sugar in one teaspoon. 1 teaspoon = 4.2 grams of sugar. To keep the arithmetic simple, the 4.2 grams was rounded to 4 grams. With this newfound information, reading the food labels became a top priority.
Did you know that one teaspoon of ketchup contains 1.2 grams of sugar? One cup of tomato sauces serves about 10 grams of sugar. It is amazing that most products that are sold have a food label attached to it but I never took interest in reading it before. Reading and comparing labels became a hobby and then an assignment on the must do list. Some labels were a little hard for me to understand. I contacted the Food and Drug Administration to learn why the carbohydrates and sugar categories are broken down on the label, to learn when should I count total carbohydrates over just sugar? I also wanted to know if they had any suggestions on how to best read labels since I was just starting to take label reading a little more seriously. While I was excited someone at the center answered the phone, the nice receptionist kept telling me that they have forwarded my questions to one of their doctors (PhD). While I was waiting for the doctor to call me back, I researched about the food groups and the current recommendations. I thought http://www.choosemyplate.gov/vegetables was interesting in that it did encouraged to eat all different types of vegetables and fruit and contained a few facts and recommendations about added sugar. My phone never rang, the doctor must had other classified projects to work on. For a short time in between, I even considered support groups but there was nothing for “sugar eaters anonymous,” at the time of my research but learned Overeaters Anonymous (OA) could be alternative support group. Due to the meeting scheduling conflicts, I opted to do research more online and learn from the everyday people I met and continue to meet on my search.
The experts, including some dieticians, say it is recommended not to eat more than 32 grams of sugar per day. Wow, that is not much change from what was read earlier. That means either to eat a lot of boring foods or give up on foods that are yummylicious. Mental strength is a critical skill that is needed to combat poor choices. I am neither strong nor certain that I want to remove sugary foods out of my life. Sugar has given me and (gives) me such a sweet sensation, a pleasure that invokes unforgettable memories.
I remember being young and climbing up on our family’s “sugar cabinet” or bar table. There I would sit and dip my hand in the pale blue sugar container. I will hold as much as I can in my hand and then pour all of it in my mouth. I forget everything else and slowly chew on the little white granules and enjoy the crunchy sound. The crunchy sound faded away turning into nectar on my tongue. I also remember that my favorite aunt would make the most delicious homemade sweets, which I always considered that to be a part of a good past time. A couple of years later the homemade sweets were replaced with store bought brownies, chewy candies, popsicles, coconut bars, anything laden with white and brown sugar. Of all the sugary treats, one kind of sugary treat trumped all the others in my mid teens, THE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE, second to the ice cream, peach, pecan, and apple pies, which lasted all the way up into adulthood. For a short time, I did stray from the chocolate chip cookies when a dark, smooth, and rich chocolate lava cake was introduced to me on one birthday. I didn’t believe in love at first sight, although this one had all the right elements. From the first moment, I tasted the warm, thick, gooey chocolate soufflé exploding in my mouth; I knew that it was one of the best inventions that a man or a woman has ever created in the kitchen.
Growing up, I was not worried about the consequences of eating sugar. Now, I am at a different stage in my life. Even if I don’t worry about it, the inevitable takes place. The body goes through its own stage of living and breaking down and it breaks down faster when you take a course that it cannot sustain, like eating excessive sugar. With that I tell myself, I know excessive sugar is not a quality treat. Yes, the doctors and dieticians tell you what you need to do by telling you to eat healthy and to just give up your sugar habit. It’s just that I can’t get myself to do that. My body craves and I give in. In my sweet head, a balanced diet includes sugar– a good desert. Without a doubt, all the doctors I know would refute that sugar is not a necessary ingredient in the diet.
But I am not fighting them or the system that sells sugar. I am fighting myself, my urges. So, how do I fight or work with my sudden urges? What do I do when I have these urges? I don’t want to hear “just don’t eat sugar” because that does not work for me and has not worked for me.
Some people are in denial about their sugar habits. I am not. I am not totally sure that I want to give it up. Where does that put me?
Nevertheless, I tried a few experiments on my own to see how long can I stay away from sugar.
To continue One Teaspoon of Success Part 5 – Cold Turkey Experiment click here