Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice or Naughty?

Posted by Angelia White on December 2nd, 2009 in Blog | 1 Comment

The weekend before Thanksgiving, my mother spent the day at my house, helping me clean and do laundry. But, the primary purpose of her visit was to help me learn to make sweet potato pie the way she makes it, because that’s the way my husband, John, likes it. I took my first stab at it last year, absent my mom. The way he forced a grin with the first bite told me I needed more formal instruction to get it right. This year, I would. I was determined. That way, he wouldn’t have to say, “Call your Mom and ask her to make me some of those sweet potato pies.” By some, he always means five or six. He devours one per day on average from the time they come out of the oven until they are all gone.

As I stood there in the kitchen behind the mixer, making mental notes of everything she was telling me to do, I noticed one thing in particular””the generous amount of sugar that went into the filling. We’d beat enough sweet potatoes with the mixer to fill four pies. When my Mom cooks, there’s really no strict recipe to follow.

Everything is prepared to taste, which is why it’s easier to just watch her instead of following a recipe or taking instructions over the phone. I mixed. She poured the first cup of sugar. She tasted it. Her face said it wasn’t enough. She poured the second cup. She tasted it. I tasted it. She searched my expression for approval. “Tastes sweet enough to me, but I don’t know if it will be sweet enough for John,” I said. She added another fourth-of-a-cup. Tasted it. Looked satisfied.

Every year, I get my fair share of sweet potato pie, but I guess I never realized how much sugar was involved. No wonder they taste so good. No wonder I can never stop at just one slice. No wonder John eats whole pies!

It got me to thinking about how much sugar I must consume on a regular basis. That afternoon, I decided to read the label on every food I ate for the rest of the day, searching for hidden sugars. I made lunch meat sandwiches for the kids. I checked the label on the bread, and found what I was looking for: high fructose corn syrup and molasses ““ code words for sugar. Miracle Whip. Yup””high fructose corn syrup again. The smoked turkey breast (lunch meat) label didn’t even bother with clandestine nomenclature. Just plain out read: sugar. Tostitos lime tortilla chips. More sugar.

In my battle against taking in too much sugar, I gave up drinking carbonated soda a few years ago. It was a huge feat for me considering that some experts recommend we take in no more than 40g of sugar on a daily basis. One soda would put me over the edge at that rate, especially when I take in hidden sugar from virtually everything else that crosses my lips.

It would be unrealistic to believe that any of us could ever completely eliminate sugar from our diets. I don’t think it would even be worth the hassle to try. But, the more conscious we are of what we put into our bodies, and how much, the better choices we’re apt to make. So, since I get so much sugar from hidden sources, I plan to eat just one slice of sweet potato pie when Christmas rolls around instead of the (none of your business) slices I ate during the Thanksgiving weekend. Can’t speak for John though.

It’s true what they say: too much of a good thing is no good, and all things should be done in moderation. The same is true with sugar.