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Post by lagatta on Aug 26, 2009 3:05:54 GMT
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Post by traveler63 on Aug 26, 2009 3:15:22 GMT
My cardiologist is death on hidden sugar and empty calories, basically says if it's white don't bite. Really hard to do, and we don't add hardly anything sweet. You are right about the hidden sugar. It is an epidemic and I think that and the huge portions of everything is partly which so many Americans are so overweight.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 26, 2009 3:18:26 GMT
So true! I doubt the average consumer can even discern the sweet taste in supposedly non-sweet foods. They've been eating hidden sugar for so long, they think that's how stuff is supposed to taste.
Sugar is one of the cheapest preservatives, so a good reason for the food industry to pack it into their products.
If you really want to be horrified, pick up any package of anything promoted as "low fat". The very first ingredient is liable to be sugar.
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Post by lagatta on Aug 26, 2009 3:27:03 GMT
I'm glad nobody seemed to think I was posting this as against pleasure and enjoying a wonderful cake or pastry. The problem is that hidden sugar is everywhere: it is as if people were constantly drinking whisky or shooting crack, all day long.
bixa, were you the person who made the post about how astounded some Mexicans were about US bbq sauces being so sweet?
If I look at anything packaged in a supermarket, I have to have a magnifying glass (some of the ingredients are written on coloured backgrounds that are hard to read even with one's middle-aged reading glasses). Sausages (not a great healthfood in any case, but presumably not sweet) contain sugar. Commercial mayonnaise contains sugar. Lots of tomato sauces are full of sugar.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 26, 2009 3:38:39 GMT
Yes. Of course I like sweet barbecue sauce, but it is kind of strange when you think of it.
I may have also posted on this little experiment: Cut all sugar out of your diet for a couple of weeks. Now try to eat a regular, name brand hot dog. You'll spit it out, it will taste so sweet. (may not apply to the better New York style dogs)
And even things that are supposed to be sweet are gummily, cloyingly sweet. You don't notice the excess sweetness in an icy-cold Coke, but try one at room temperature. And take a bite of melted ice cream some time as an excellent bit of negative reinforcement.
The thing about pop is that it's become accepted as something normal to drink. People who wouldn't dream of snacking on a Mars Bar will gulp down 12 ounces of pop with a meal. I don't know about all the brands, but a Coke (the little size? I don't know) is supposed to have as much sugar as one Mars Bar.
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Post by spindrift on Aug 26, 2009 8:20:48 GMT
Don't get me started on CocaCola! I only use it for cleaning brass curtain rings ;D
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Post by happytraveller on Aug 26, 2009 15:09:52 GMT
I think in my country they don't use (or use less) sugar as preservatives as I had big problems when I was in Australia for the first time, discovering that everything tasted sweet, mayonnaise, salad dressing, pasta sauce, and so on. I really dislike the sweet taste in foods that are not supposed to be sweet.
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Post by hwinpp on Sept 2, 2009 10:13:20 GMT
I agree completely. I have started using white sugar again, after refusing it for over 20 years. A teaspoonful in a Vietnamese coffee makes a world of difference. But otherwise I don't take it at all. Sometimes I buy a little box of palm sugar and eat it just like that though. Very tasty!  |
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Post by auntieannie on Sept 19, 2009 17:03:57 GMT
I made a plum open tart the other day and there was a little sugar in the pastry and a little sugar on top of the plums. The people I ate it with are all used to "proper" home cooking and very aware of the issues with industrialised foods. They all mentioned how the tart was, well... tart! and they added some clotted cream to it. This is the kind of tart that tastes "normal" to me as I grew up on these. I was quite surprised, I must say.
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Post by fumobici on Sept 19, 2009 17:42:11 GMT
I don't even ordinarily have sugar in the house. I buy a little box if I am having company that I know takes sugar with their coffee, but it turns into a big lump all too soon in this climate. I cook some Chinese recipes that call for a bit of sugar and it's nice to have it for those. I'll use honey if there's no usable sugar about but it isn't quite the same. If I were a baker I suppose it'd be a whole different story, I love baked sweets!  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2009 17:53:05 GMT
I keep sugar on hand for unexpected reasons, but actually when sugar is called for in certain recipes, I tend to use grenadine instead. Yes, I know -- pretty much the same thing.
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Post by lagatta on Sept 19, 2009 23:07:17 GMT
I confess I occasionally filch little packets of sugar from cafés to keep up on a spice shelf for a) people who take sugar in their coffee or tea or b) some Asian recipes that require a bit of sugar for balance, though I always cut it a great deal. Sometimes yeast also needs a bit of sugar or honey to develop, though less than years ago.
I'm not really doing any economic harm to the café as I never take sugar in beverages and don't take more than the one or two packets a sugar-user would consume.
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