A Spoonful of High Fructose Frenzy

I've mentioned here a bit about my change in dietary habits. I've always had a sweet tooth and love the sugary stuff: cookies, soda, cake. I used to put a tablespoon of sugar on Rice Krispies as a kid and add double the Country Time powder to make lemonade. There was no piece of chocolate cake I couldn't conquer and no half-used can of frosting that I wouldn't attack with a spoon. I figured since I don't like ice cream, I'd balance that with more of the sugar stuff.

But in the wake of kidney stones almost two years ago, and watching the older generation catch America's middle aged man curse, AKA Type II diabetes, like it was a virulent cold virus, I have cut way back on the sugary stuff. Unlike meat though, I do miss it when I haven't had it. So I have a Sprite every once in a while and a couple of cookies each night. It's probably the last area of my eating that is not really in balance.

In response, I've been paying more attention to the stuff used in regular foods. I figure if I am going to get my sugar from the good stuff, I may as well cut it out of the usual stuff that I don't really need to be all that sweet. And since high fructose corn syrup is the sweet ingredient used in many foods, I've kept an eye out for it to try and avoid it.

And it's everywhere. Soda, applesauce, ketchup, baked goods, sauces, syrup, etc., etc., etc. My slow slide towards becoming a granola has sped up as I now chastise Mrs. Trackball of Truth for replacing the natural applesauce with the usual type, which is really HFCS-sauce. Yes, the usual tastes a little sweeter and less appley than the natural kind, but not that much. Not worth the health damage - I mean, it's just applesauce.

So I'm trying to tune my tastebuds of truth to seek out these refined sugars and to avoid them. It's hard to do, but when you realize that your soda tastes like the maple syrup which tastes like the ketchup which tastes like that muffin which tastes like the applesauce, you start noticing the type of foods to avoid: food from the food industry. The alternatives are the organic, the natural. And those natural sweetnesses actually taste better - I'm amazed how sweet fresh fruit can be.

But dodging the infusion of sugar and HFCS in America is difficult. Having kids, who love this stuff more than adults, makes it hard. My gut instinct that adopting a diet of seafood, beans, rice, veggies and fruit would probably put me on the path of a well balanced Jedi Buddhist rings true, but the chances of getting the other family members on board is a tough one. We're venturing to Wegmans tomorrow, a real grocery store, so hopefully I can nudge the food selection further away from artificially sweetened foods. A spoonful of decent food now is better than a bagful of pills twenty years from now.