Sugar as Cocaine? Well, It is Cheaper.

May 23, 2012

Is sugar the new coke?   It does make for a compelling headline.  But first...

The Numbers:

• Fasting Blood Glucose Level:  101 mg/dl
• Weight: 188lbs.
• Exercise:  45 minutes of intense perspiration.  Summer in Houston. Since it's not Memorial Day yet, can we wear white? 
• Mood:  8.5.  I just feel good today. 

The Menu: 

• Breakfast:  Usual fruit medley and oatmeal, baked.
• Lunch:  A turkey patty w/ mushroom sans  gravy, cucumber salad and greens with the Charming Mrs. SWMBO at Luby's.  
• Dinner:  The tofu/corn wrap things again.  I think the Charming Mrs. SWMBO has a new favorite.  Me too. 
• Snacks:  A little bit of cheese.

Cupcakes as the New Cocaine?  

I think this is getting a little over the top.  Yes, we all like to eat something sweet.  Sugar is sweet and cheap and it's found in all sorts of things.  Combine sugar with some white flour and some fat and you have the base for all sorts of crave worth stuff, such as the cupcake Sarah Jessica Parker ate here, or Doritos or Banana Flips.  All of that sweet and fat coats the tongue and makes for a culinary version of great sex.

I have a heck of a sugar/sweet tooth.  Heck, I even use a bit of it in a French salad dressing I make and my tomato sauce.  It helps create flavors our tongue finds interesting and wants more of to sample.  Sweet is a basic part of our sense of taste.  It's sending joyous signals to the brain.

But lets get a grip, people.  We choose to eat it.  We have other options available.  Want a cupcake to satisfy that sweet craving?  Have some strawberries instead.  An orange maybe.  Apples are good.

Sugar does not cause us to gain weight or become a  type 2 diabetics. Too much of it, along with too much of a lot of other foods, will make us fat and maybe diabetic.  That is how 85% of us who became type 2 diabetics got that way.  Too much of a lot and we overloaded the body.  It couldn't handle it all.   

Sugar as nasty, vile poisonous stuff is not new.  Heck, Jack LaLanne even talked about it that way. He said he was addicted to sugar and white flour, which was in a lot of the foods his mom fed him. 



Me?  A little bit here and there isn't going to affect me one way or the other.  For the record, I avoid cupcakes and such, mostly.  I have a new habit of not eating it and I want to keep it that way.