Super Sugar Blog

High Fructose Corn Syrup Commercials Cause Controversy

The Corn Refiners association recently produced television commercials saying that High Fructose Corn Syrup is okay to eat (in moderation). They’ve backed this up with a website that calls HFCS natural.

The commercials say, “It’s made from corn, has the same calories as sugar or honey, and, like sugar, it’s fine in moderation.”

Here are the commercials:

People on YouTube have responded with their own home-made commercials. Some of them are below. I did not create these videos and some of the videos can be offensive. Watch with caution. You can search YouTube.com if you want to see more.

The Accidental Hedonist has a list of foods containing HFCS. Check it out and see if your favorite foods are on there.

CBS news found that funding for the HFCS commercials came from the companies who use HFCS in their foods. Estimated costs for the commercials are $20-30 million dollars! (See article.)

On the website Sweet Surprise, they say that high fructose corn syrup offers numerous benefits. Let’s look at the benefits that they list on their website:

“It keeps food fresh,”
That means that bread manufacturers can let their product sit on supermarket shelves for a longer amount of time.

“...enhances fruit and spice flavors,”
Enhances? Don’t they mean that it sweetens?

“...retains moisture in bran cereals,”
Again, so companies can keep their products on the shelf for longer and thus sell more product.

“...helps keep breakfast and energy bars moist,”
Those breakfast bars are simply candy bars falsely interpreted as health food. They’re crap!

“...maintains consistent flavors in beverages and keeps ingredients evenly dispersed in condiments.”
Important for ketchup sales. Did you know that children are the No. 1 consumers of ketchup? They devour more than half of all ketchup in the United States—roughly 5 billion ounces annually.

On HFCS Facts they say, “After studying current research, the American Medical Association (AMA) today concluded that high fructose syrup does not appear to contribute more to obesity than other caloric sweeteners...” American Medical Association (AMA press release, June 17, 2008).

“There’s no substantial evidence to support the idea that high fructose corn syrup is somehow responsible for obesity.” Walter Willett, Ph.D., Chairman of the Nutrition Department, Harvard School of Public Health (The New York Times, July 2, 2006).

Whatever form it takes, sugar is a substance that needs to be reckoned with. You can join the debate (there’s a lot of changes happening on the High-fructose corn syrup Wikipedia page) if you want, but I am simply going to continue to avoid HFCS foods altogether.

I Am Proud To Open My Mouth.

I’m back from an 8 am appointment at my dentist this morning. I went for a cleaning. It’s been a while since I’ve had my teeth professionally cleaned, maybe several years. For the most part, I hate visiting the dentist.

Dentists and hygienists know teeth, so imagine my satisfaction when the hygienist said, “Wow, your teeth are so clean. You have great at-home care.”

In fact, my fangs were so clean she had trouble finding tartar on them! She had trouble! Ha!

Why does this make me so happy? Well, obviously one wants clean and healthy teeth and I’m no exception. But what’s more is that, had I not quit sweets, my teeth would’ve been loaded with months (possibly years) of corn syrup, chocolate, sugar, caramel, etc. I mean, I’d have still cleaned them and brushed them and whatnot but my soft and sensitive teeth have less to battle when there’s little to no sweeteners running amuck all over them.

My teeth are healthier and cleaner as a result of not eating sugar. And it shows. 

Be Your Own Guru!

People write to me with sugar questions. I think it’s cool, but I sometimes worry. What if I say the wrong thing? What if my experience isn’t right for someone else?

My advice to people who are quitting sugar: Always ask questions. Always feel free to ask me questions. However, don’t consider me, or anyone else, your sugar-free guru.

I’ll be the person who has been there before you and knows the terrain.

But guess what? You are the guru when it comes to you!

The practice of being your own guru is a tough one.

It means that you need to determine what works for you.

In fact, it’s the only way you’ll ever get to eating healthy and eliminating sweets from your diet.

Consider yourself your own guru. Start now!

10 Tips for Avoiding Sugar at the Office

If you’re reading this blog post at work in the USA it’s quite possible that you already have a bowl of candy sitting not too far from your desk. Halloween is the start of “sweets season.”

Here are some tips on how to avoid sugar at work.

1. Make An Effort
If you go into the season without a plan you’ll end up floating from candy dish to candy dish. Make a concerted effort to avoid sweets before the treat season starts.

2. Make Friends
You probably aren’t the only one who wants to avoid eating a bunch of junk at work. Figure out who’s in it with you and create a Survivor style pact.

3. Bring Food With You
You’re at work and you’re hungry. You can stay hungry or eat a Snickers. Which will most likely happen? If you bring your own snacks you can eat when you’re hungry and you can eat well. Other people will notice and they’ll either temp you with sweets or join you in your abstinence. You’ll learn who your friends are.

4. What to Bring
Try fruit slices, veggies, unsweetened chips, nuts, dried fruits, fruit juice, or salad. Go down the bulk aisle at your food store (if there is one) and try something new, but obviously avoid the sweetened stuff.

5. Eat Breakfast
Lots of people don’t have breakfast. Some people don’t have time. I say make time! Or bring breakfast to work and eat it there if you can. A protein filled breakfast helps you be energized through the hardest part of your day.

6. Take Action
Nothing is going to happen if you don’t actually do something about getting healthier.

7. Exercise
Eat lunch and then take a walk. Take a walk after work or after dinner. Walking is a great. Get a digital camera and walking becomes an adventure-hunt for interesting pictures. Ride a bike. If it’s snowing where you live, build a snowman!

8. Write About It
Write down what you eat, when you eat it, and how it makes you feel. It’s so easy to eat candy all day all week and then two weeks later you’re doing it again having forgotten how lousy it made you feel two weeks earlier. Writing things down helps you to be able to look back and see trends in your life. By reading past journals you can discover that your sugar consumption might just be emotionally charged. How would it make you feel to know that your overeating of sweets comes as a response to that person you don’t like who works down the hall from you? How would it make you feel to know that you’ve dropped $275 dollars into the office soda machine this year? Write it all down and keep track.

9. Read the Labels, Ask Questions
Maybe you’ve got a place to buy food at your job. If so, start asking questions. Lots of cafeterias offer processed foods that are easy to store, prepare, and sell. These foods aren’t always the best in terms of nutrition and they’re often laden with artificial sweeteners. read the labels or ask what’s in there. Most of the time the staff has no idea what’s in the foods they sell. If that’s the case, you should avoid it. See tip number 3. Bringing your own food will save you money and keep the sugar out of your diet.

10. If You Must
If you must eat sweets, limit yourself only to homemade treats. This way if someone brings in cookies they made with their grandchildren you won’t offend them by not partaking. Always say no to all company wrapped, factory produced sugar foods.

Got ideas about how to avoid sweets at work? Add a comment!

I Ate Sugar Again. This Is Bad.

My girlfriend Gwenn had an art gallery opening tonight for her show Apple Pie. And to go with the theme of the show there were like five different kinds of apple pie. I ate a slice. Which was so good I had another. And later when nearly everyone had left I had a third slice. Not good.

This is the second time I’ve eaten sugar this year. I felt it right away and by the time we got home I had the shakes and needed to eat regular food. The pie was very good but at the end of the night it wasn’t worth the hassle. I feel bad now but not so bad seeing as I already broke my sugar-free run for this year.

My hope was that I could eat little bits of sugar here and there, which I’ve kinda done, but it’s just not possible for me to sustain such a practice. Besides, the sugar goes right through me. Tomorrow I’ll have to fight cravings for sweets. Don’t do what I’ve done!

I Ate Sugar This Weekend

This past weekend I attended a fund raiser for the Museum of Contemporary Craft. The theme of the event was “Unpacking” and they served dessert in a little cardboard to-go box. For some reason, when the tiramisu came around with a biscotti and some chocolate flakes on top, I indulged. 

I know that it sounds silly, but I could feel it. If you’ve ever drank a shot of hard liquor you know how it feels like it is soaking into your chest. The sugar felt similar. Three bites into it and I could feel it in my system.

Honestly, it wasn’t that tasty. Afterwards I didn’t feel bad for having done it, so that is good. The act of eating dessert didn’t trigger me into any kind of crazy, “I fell off the wagon,” sugar craze. So that’s good as well. Maybe I was inspired by the auction and the donations—eight thousand dollars going once, five thousand dollars going twice.

I suppose it was an experiment to see if maybe—just maybe—I could moderate my sugar intake from here on. However, just writing about that idea makes me unnerved. Thinking about trying to moderate my sugar intake is like thinking about a gambler gambling just a little bit. I’m going to continue to stay away from all sweets until Halloween.

8 Sugar Free Snack Ideas

1. Apples and Natural Peanut Butter
This is one of my favorite snacks. I like Pink Lady or Granny Smith apples especially. There are many varieties of apple and they’re all worth trying. Slice them up and dip them into natural, unsweetened peanut butter (the kind you have to mix). My favorite brand is Adams but Smuckers and others are good as well. 

2. Fruit
A banana does wonders. A peach. Two peaches. A peach and a banana. Yes, fruit is sugar but unless you are avoiding sweets because your doctor forbade you to do so then fruit is a great alternative to candy and cakes. Try making a fruit salad!

3. Egg Salad
Get a dozen eggs and boil them at the beginning of the week. You can eat them as a filling snack or mix in some (unsweetened) mayonnaise and make an egg salad sandwich. 

4. Bread!
I still eat bread. However, I only eat artisan breads and stuff baked without corn syrup. You’d be amazed that even the most natural branded breads contain corn syrup. Read the label.

5. Pasta
Yeah, it’s a complex carbohydrate. I don’t eat it every single day like I did eight years ago, but I still love me some pasta. When it’s hot out, try some macaroni salad.

6. Nuts
Peanuts, cashews, walnuts, almonds. Mix in some raisins and create your own trail mix.

7. Burritos
Buy some flat tortillas. Fry up some vegetables with some rice. Then melt some cheese in your tortilla and add the rice and vegetable mix. Filling and delicious!

8. Stir Fry
Cook up some rice. Add your favorite vegetables and perhaps some chicken or tofu. Beware of stir fry sauce as it’s often full of corn syrup. 

Eating sugar-free is just a matter of being creative. Remember, when quitting sugar you still need to eat! Find other things that satisfy.

What sugar free snacks do you already make and eat on a regular basis?

10 Reasons Why Quitting Sugar Will Make You Happy

1. You find out who your friends are.
When you announce that you are quitting sugar it’s like you are declaring war on food. People who know you will immediately take sides or try to stay neutral. Of those who take sides, some will side against you. These people will act as devil’s advocate by tempting you with your favorite sweets. They’ll make fun of you. They’ll tell you you’re crazy or that you cannot sustain your unsweet ways. Forget about them! You aren’t here to make them happy.

2. You find new, healthy, things to eat.
When I quit sugar for the first time in 2001 I ended up eating nothing but complex carbohydrates—orange juice, bagels, and pasta. I was getting my sugar from sources other than my usual chocolate, ice cream, and baked snacks. After being off sugar for a long time, I’ve discovered all kinds of amazing vegetable dishes, sugar-free snacks, and great fruit juices. What’s more is that I very much enjoy and appreciate these naturally sweet snacks because my sense of taste isn’t spoiled by corn-syrup.

3. You find that you have more (or at least more even) energy.
Prior to quitting sugar I just couldn’t wake up in the morning. I wouldn’t feel awake until about 10 pm every night. In fact, I’d be so awake that I’d stay up late (sometimes really late) and then it would be harder to wake up in the morning. The cycle would continue but I’d start to eat sweet things to get my system going. For some it’s coffee that wakes them up. For me it was sugary breakfast cereal or cookies.

Now that I’m “off sugar” I can wake up easily in the morning. I eat good food and am able to sustain a great deal of physical activity all day long without the need for a crashing 2-hour nap at 3pm in the afternoon.

4. You become a smart consumer.
You’ll be amazed at how many foods have added sugars--soups, pasta sauce, bread, drinks, steak sauce, meats, apple sauce, chips, peanut butter, and more. Just about every product with a logo or a character on to it contains sugar.  Not only will you learn to spot those products and avoid them, you’ll also learn how to measure portions and know how much sugar you’re taking in should you decide to eat something with any level of sugar in it.

5. You learn how to cook new things.
What do you cook when you aren’t eating sweets? All kinds of stuff! Try walking down a different aisle at your store. Pick out something that you’ve never seen from the produce section. Mix together some of your favorite unsweetened dishes and make up something new. It’s hard to see and taste good food when everything around you is a candy-style product. Not only will you find new things to eat, you’ll also CREATE new things! 

6. Your sweet moments get sweeter.
It’s a rare breed, but some people can eat sugar only once a week. For those who can manage such a feat, they appreciate those moments for what they are. For those of us who avoid sugar altogether, we learn to create a sweet moment in some other way. For instance, instead of running out to buy a pint of chocolate chip mint ice cream to celebrate a moment, you’ll find yourself eating something else (if you must eat something) or doing something else altogether. Imagine celebrating your raise at work by spending $15 on a book rather than buying a cheeseburger, fries, coke and dessert.

7. You learn how to stand up for yourself.
People are going to wonder what-the-heck is wrong with you. You’re at a birthday party and you’re not having cake? You won’t have a mint at the cocktail party? You’re not going to at least have one of your friend’s mother’s homemade cookies? After all, she made them by scratch just for you (and everyone who came to visit). Who has more power over our decisions than friends, family, and coworkers? Peer pressure stinks. Forget about it! Do what makes you happy.

8. You replace sugar binges with other behaviors.
I used to buy lunch. Some days I’d spend $12 on lunch. It adds up. $12 three times a month equals $36. Add a tip and you’re easily at $45 or $50. What did I get for my $50 per month?

Fat.

Sugar.

Nothing.

Had I spent $50 a month on books, a training course, a savings account—anything but whatever it was I ate—I’d still have that thing (or possibly that 50 dollars) today.

9. You smile more.
When you quit sugar your teeth don’t feel coated with scum like they used to (Milk Chocolate with Nugat does that, you know). Your smile is brighter and you don’t need an artificial chemical in your body to lift your mood. You are spending less time eating and more time doing. No wonder you are smiling more! No wonder people are asking themselves, “How can I do that? Can I do that?”

10. You learn that you can do anything.
It’s been eight months, maybe a year, and you haven’t eaten sweets. Your friends stopped offering you dessert when you go to their house and your real friends make sugar free desserts when you come over—just for you. You wake up early in the mornings and make it through the day without a nap. Your behavior patterns have shifted, you no longer binge, and you’ve given up emotional eating. Instead you’ve taken up knitting and find it relaxing to sit on the front porch after dinner. You’ve taken up fencing and are on your way to the championships. You saved up $400 dollars from lunch money and are going to take the kids to the zoo. Why go back to sugar? There are so many other things to do.