Sweet Stuff

Good news! According to the US Agricultural Department us Americans now only consume 76.7 pounds of sugar each year. I read this in an article from the NY Times from October, 2012 about the USDA’s new sugar numbers. That is down from what they say was 100 pounds of the white bad stuff. Some how or another the USDA decided to use a new methodology to compute sugar usage. Curious how they do that sort of thing since this might mean we aren’t actually eating less sugar. Regardless of how they are computing this sugar usage I believe we Americans eat too much of it, and that includes high fructose corn syrup too! It shows up in so many foods we consume on a fairly regular basis, like ketchup for instance. There was a time,quite a bit of it, when I didn’t even know there was sugar in ketchup. I used to think I ate less than 5 pounds of sugar per year until I took a closer look at all the foods that contain hidden amounts of sugar. Of course there are the obvious sources of sugar like sodas,cookies, cakes etc. We all would be well served to take a closer look at the ingredients list of everything we buy from the grocery store to know what we are putting into our bodies, and cut down on our consumption of sugar. There are many health concerns for consuming too much sugar like:

diabetes

increase risk of cancer

acne

depression

yeast infection

dental cavities

and the list goes on and on. I don’t get to concerned on who’s study is right or wrong on the effects of sugar as there is a quite bit of conflicting information out there. For instance, the American Heart Association says the average American adult eats around 150 pounds of sugar per year. That’s quite a bit different from the USDA’s new numbers. There are numerous health studies that can confuse us too on the health effects of sugar. Why not just err on the side of caution and do what I do. I use very little white sugar. Maybe 5 pounds per year in my kitchen, but probably less. What white sugar I use is usually for gifts of baked goods for people who aren’t as health conscious as I am. When a recipe calls for sugar I’ll usually use a less refined type of sugar,( brown sugar, honey, molasses, or tubinado) and less of it. I find that most baking recipes can do with 25% less sugar than called for and still be plenty sweet. Eat more fruits for your sweet tooth, which brings us to today’s healthy and quick recipe. This is a dish I use in some variation or another often. Yesterday when I saw beautiful organic strawberries at the grocery store I knew what to do with them. Give this one a try and let me know what you think.

Fresh fruit salad

16 ounces of fresh strawberries sliced, or quartered

1 apple or pear peeled, cored and cut into bite sized pieces

1 banana sliced

juice of 1 fresh orange

1/4 cup sweetened coconut chips, or shredded coconut

In a medium size mixing bowl toss strawberries, apples, and banana with the juice of 1 orange. Chill for 30 minutes or more, and serve with in small bowls with coconut on top.

Note:

You can use fresh squeeze grapefruit instead of an orange.

Pineapple is a good fruit for this dish.

If using apples I recommend Honey Crisp, or Braeburn.

Caution, this gets a bit mushy if kept too long. I like to eat it up with in 8 hours of making it.