|
Sugar
Jul 20, 2011 11:58:31 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2011 11:58:31 GMT
I think we have tiptoed around this subject long enough, so it is time to talk about sugar itself, whether we crave it or avoid it, and when we think it is appropriate or not.
I looked up a bit of information about sugar for a start and learned some interesting things. It was in India that people first learned how to make sugar from sugarcane (around the year 350 AD), and it did not take long for the Chinese to start making sugar also.
By the time it reached the Middle East, it was considered to be a kind of medicine, and an ancient Greek text says: "There is a kind of coalesced honey called sugar found in reeds in India and Arabia Felix, similar in consistency to salt and brittle enough to be broken between the teeth like salt. It is good dissolved in water for the intestines and stomach, and taken as a drink to help a painful bladder and kidneys."
Crusaders brought it back to Europe, calling it "sweet salt", but damn, after the resurgence of Islam, the supply got cut off. There was some sugar cane in Cyprus and then in Sicily and the Canary Islands, among a few other places, but making sugar from sugar cane is hard work, which made slave labor very convenient -- and thus the Caribbean area became the major sugar producing area of the world.
After being just a medicine, sugar had become a luxury item, and you know how rich people are -- they decided it was good on everything -- meat, vegetables, fruit. Everything was better loaded with sugar. Mmmmm! I suppose they started cutting back a bit after all of their teeth fell out.
After about 150 years, production techniques improved enough for sugar to become available to everybody, and also beet sugar was developed in Poland by the end of the 18th century.
Fast forward to the present. Ethiopia consumes the least sugar in the world -- 3 kgs per person -- and Belgium consumes the most -- 40 kgs per person.
So, what is your relationship with sugar? I like it, but I don't have a sweet tooth, because I almost never eat dessert and rarely crave anything sweet at the end of a meal. However, I prefer to add sugar to coffee or to plain yogurt rather than consume those items unsweetened.
I can appreciate ultra sweet items such as fudge in very small quantities, but I reach my disgust level very quickly.
I can walk past windows full of pastry or other sweet items without a second glance -- just not interested! Meanwhile, I can eat unlimited quantities of ice cream, so I see some sort of discrepancy there.
Sugar is a very strange thing.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 20, 2011 13:59:44 GMT
Post by lagatta on Jul 20, 2011 13:59:44 GMT
If I recall, I started a thread about something like hidden sugar in foods in the health section?
I try to avoid it more than anything else because I have soft teef (due to a severe cow's milk allergy as a child, and the supplements available were far from as complete as they are now). I'm very annoyed by the hidden sugar in things such as (mainstream North American) mayonnaise, where there shouldn't even be any.
What appeals to me looking at a pâtisserie is not the sugar, but the flaky buttery pastry! But fat is a whole other issue!
I don't sugar coffee, never have, and I like yoghourt as a savoury - with herbs, garlic, cucumber, that sort of Greek or Middle Eastern thing.
But I'm eating fresh raspberries as I write (yummmm!) and there is obviously sugar in anything containing alcohol, such as wine, or the most bitter of beers.
When I think of Belgium, I think of beer (sugar and starch in that, naturally) and also of chocolate (even the darkest contains a small amount of sugar, but mostly fat). And frites of course - no sugar there but starches that break down into sugar fairly quickly, and obviously the fat they are fried in. No sugar I can think of in the moules traditionally eaten with the frites.
I don't remember Belgians eating a particularly large amount of sweets though, certainly less than Brits or Americans (obviously there are many exceptions).
There are also small amounts of sugar used for chemical reactions, and as a "balancing agent" in some East and Southeast Asian dishes.
There is no sugar (the white stuff, or "brown sugar") in my house right now. I'm sure there are sauces in my cupboards and fridge containing some sugar, though I check the quantity and avoid any with a lot.
Kerouac, what about sweet Arab-world (Maghrebi or Levantine) tiny pastries? I'd never buy those but something about the way they are offered with tiny glasses of coffee or tea increases their appeal.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 20, 2011 16:24:03 GMT
Post by joanne28 on Jul 20, 2011 16:24:03 GMT
I love sugar. I try and restrain myself but adore it.
Oddly enough, my coffee I drink black - I can't even bear a few grains of sugar in it. I have trained myself to use less and less sugar - in cereal for example or fresh fruit. Now I no longer add a bit of sugar to fresh berries.
But my favourite indulgence is Australian black liquorice. Mind you, I'll eat any liquorice but I prefer Darrell & Lea's. I also love gumdrops, jelly beans and jujubes, particularly sour jubes.
I'm not a huge fan of chocolate. I like specific chocolate now and again but it's always chocolate with fruit and/or nut etc. Plain chocolate bores me.
I like cakes & cookies but am quite picky about my desserts. Tiramisu holds no charms for me - it's trifle with an Italian accent. It's okay but I didn't understand it when everyone went berserk about it.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 20, 2011 16:27:01 GMT
Post by tod2 on Jul 20, 2011 16:27:01 GMT
I do my best to avoid sugar whether it be in tea/coffee/ or drinks but I am beginning to think its useless as I don't hold back when it comes to cream or butter and refuse to eat or drink anything that isn't full fat. Admittedly I so seldom indulge in something with cream or yogurt that's creamy, but there is no way I could eat fat reduced cheese or put margarine on my toast!
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 20, 2011 17:00:00 GMT
Post by joanne28 on Jul 20, 2011 17:00:00 GMT
I drink low-fat milk but refuse to eat anything else low-fat. I once accidently put margarine on my roll in a restaurant instead of butter. I took one bite and thought the butter was rancid.
What I've done to compensate is to eat less of the full-fat items. I'd rather have the real thing less frequently. Ice cream, needless to say, is the full fat version. If cream is not the first ingredient on the ice cream label, I don't buy it.
Life is too short to eat ersatz ingredients.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 20, 2011 19:03:02 GMT
Post by lagatta on Jul 20, 2011 19:03:02 GMT
I'd say zuppa inglese is the closest Italian version of English trifle - "English Soup". Tiramisù is similar though. I never understood the tiramisù craze either, but then, I'm not a dessert person. Heartily agree with Joanne about ersatz ingredients.
Now CHEESE...
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 20, 2011 19:30:54 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2011 19:30:54 GMT
It's starting to look like somebody needs to start a thread about "fat" because sugar is fat free.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 20, 2011 19:58:40 GMT
Post by lagatta on Jul 20, 2011 19:58:40 GMT
I'm sure we have several threads on fatty themes.
I remember reading "Zero cholesterol" on sweets. But then, they also put that on potato crisps/chips. Of course there is none if they are fried in vegetable oil - but that stuff turns into cholesterol in yer body...
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 20, 2011 19:59:53 GMT
Post by joanne28 on Jul 20, 2011 19:59:53 GMT
A lot of interesting foods have both fat and sugar in them. Interesting to those of us with a sweet tooth.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 20, 2011 20:40:43 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2011 20:40:43 GMT
In college, I could consume Hostess Twinkies. I don't think I could do so now.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 22, 2011 10:53:53 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2011 10:53:53 GMT
At the office, some of my colleagues (all women for some reason) claim to "love" pastry but only if it is not very sweet. I tell them in that case to eat a piece of bread instead.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 25, 2011 0:21:10 GMT
Post by lagatta on Jul 25, 2011 0:21:10 GMT
No, they love the flaky fat. And perhaps a bit of sweetness.
You know very well that in some cultures pastries are sweeter, in some more buttery.
I don't see what they are saying as one of those weaselly "I don't like to eat" comments (which are a bane of female work camaraderie, as are digs and oneupwomanship about dieting).
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 30, 2011 11:28:13 GMT
Post by auntieannie on Jul 30, 2011 11:28:13 GMT
I try and avoid refined sugar. because I had my first hypoglycemia at birth. Back in those days it wasn't that common and so they tested me loads and then told my parents I could eat as much sugar as I wanted. I was allowed to eat refined sugar cubes! They were also waking me up in the middle of the night to force feed me snacks. Strangely enough, it didn't affect me until I somehow snapped out of all this. and then my teeth paid for the advice. years later, as a young adult, I thankfully learned about dietary requirements and how all the foodstuffs work and what's their purpose, etc... since then, I avoid refined sugar. I avoid ready-cooked meals (they are full of sugar and soya - cheap fillers, and they would still be full of salt if consumer associations hadn't wont that battle a few years ago). I do allow myself treats, but that's what they are. treats. I first learnt to drink tea with milk and sugar, but once I removed the sugar, I removed the milk too. and then you need to find good quality tea as the bad quality stuff just doesn't cut the mustard. coffee (which lowers your blood sugar levels) is also a treat and usually in the form of an unsweetened espresso. Milk: the vitamins contained in milk are mostly fat-soluble. so if you drink fat-free milk, you may as well drink water. because that's what you essentially get - coloured water. I drink full-fat milk. I do drink alcohol from time to time. always with a meal/some nibbles, though. It is quite funny to see me after I've had too much sugar, though... immediately I get very thirsty and jumpy.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 30, 2011 11:28:45 GMT
Post by auntieannie on Jul 30, 2011 11:28:45 GMT
great OP, btw, K! Sorry for lowering the tone a tad. I am happy to try and find more info about what i stated above.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 30, 2011 14:53:50 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on Jul 30, 2011 14:53:50 GMT
You hardly lowered the tone, Annie. Not only is what you wrote illuminating about how sugar can affect different people, but also a cautionary tale about accepted medical "wisdom" at any given time.
I've been staying with my mother, a sugar junkie if there ever was one, with all kinds of tempting crap strewn around the house. Now I'm at my brother's, whose household includes a nine-year-old, so I've snapped back into responsible adult.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 30, 2011 18:28:47 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2011 18:28:47 GMT
That was interesting, auntieannie. One thing that has always intrigued me are the tales of the "sugar rush" that one is supposed to get from quickly eating massive amounts of sugary treats. It sounds like you get some form of that, but I have never noticed sugar doing anything strange to me.
Maybe it's because I get my fill of sugar very quickly and stop from disgust the moment I reach that point.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 31, 2011 11:17:36 GMT
Post by auntieannie on Jul 31, 2011 11:17:36 GMT
K, ever tried to eat a whole pack of peanut M&M's? or a whole pack of Cadbury's mini eggs? I used to to do that when I felt lower than low and highly stressed where I used to work. It got me through the day.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 31, 2011 17:15:56 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2011 17:15:56 GMT
I have eaten a whole pack of M&M's in the past, but never the family size pack! We don't have Cadbury's mini eggs here, but I'm sure we have equally disgusting items. Those pink Haribo things come to mind.
|
|
|
Sugar
Jul 31, 2011 21:32:44 GMT
Post by auntieannie on Jul 31, 2011 21:32:44 GMT
pink haribo things... now that reads evil to me! ;D
Everything is good/bad... it just depends on the amount consumed. Let's not forget that our brain is mostly a blob of fat that feeds on sugar...
I would like to know more about how the children of people who are actively shunting added sugar in their offspring's diet fare in comparison to those who don't. There's even sugar in these teething gels! Now there's a bad idea! Obviously, given the choice a child will prefer something with some sugar added... but is it the solution? what are the consequences for their future? I understand that even no sugar added home-made fruit leathers can be terrible to children's teeth. So it's a bit disheartening.
|
|