wanted sugar out of what we eat each day. Hence the development of the little pink packet…All the sweetness, and no calories…how in the world do they do that? Artificial sweetener is a mainstay in canned soda, light juice products, and there are those of us who drink it daily in their coffee. However, since I keep a bowl of it handy to spoon into my coffee each day, I have had occasion to notice something ominous. I notice it kills ants.Yep. If left to crawl into the bowl, and eat all they want of this stuff, they never make it out alive. They do OK if they find the sugar bowl, and certainly the cookies, pies and cakes they have found over the years did them no notable harm, but the saccharin seems to kill them. And I wonder, what is it doing to me?
I managed some years ago to give up diet soda, and in fact I seldom drink soda at all except when it is the only thing that is available…it is not really a health related things as much as a “like” thing. I simply don’t like soda as much as other alternatives. But I do enjoy my guilt free sweetened coffee. With the milk and sweetener applied liberally, the coffee becomes almost a dessert, and since the sweetness added no calories, it was easy to indulge without thinking too much.
The thing is, though, having something that sweet, with no calories, is a bit like getting something for nothing…sort of too good to be true, and nothing ever is. In the back of my mind there was this concern, faint at first but gradually a bit more forceful. “What is this stuff doing to me?”. Perhaps killing any ants that might live in my stomach (I imagine I might have eaten a few over the years!)
I considered the plight of the lab rat, force fed this stuff until tumors broke out all over its body, and though I would always write that off as an inordinate amount of the stuff (as if any normal person would consume a pound of the crap in a day), it does give one pause. Over time, I figured I might have eaten pounds of it, and maybe it was the cumulative effect as opposed to the amount eaten over a short period. I really don’t want tumors all over my body, but I also consider what it would be live to add all those calories to the diet over the years. Sure there are trade offs, and I cannot really sit here and sat which is right, but now, based on how I feel, it seems time to give up the pink packets and pull out the jar of Brown sugar. Still not sure why, but somehow “brown sugar” feels more healthful than “white sugar”. On this point, I know that I am wrong, but I do know that it seems I can use less of it, and the additional flavor it brings makes it seem sweeter, and so in that sense, perhaps it is healthier.
So why are sweet things bad for us, and yet we crave them? I sit important for nature to make things we crave bad for us? Seems like a rather unfunny practical joke. The only reason anyone ever thought to invent an artificial sweetener was because sugar was deemed unhealthy. For diabetics, it is surely more serious than that, but for most of us, sugar adds calories, and that leads to expanding belt lines. Sugar also rots teeth, makes children hyper, and probably stings if you get it in your eyes. But despite all that, sugar is in fact everywhere. From donut shops, to candy bars, in our desserts, our soda, and in most of the condiments we put on our steak or hot dogs. Clearly, despite any and all health concerns, we have a sweet tooth that needs attention. And eliminating sugar from the diet is a fairly daunting task.
Sugar dominates the landscape of our culture. Soft drinks take up more space on the grocery store shelves than any other product…typically an entire aisle….the only other thing that comes close is cereal. I’ll venture the unverified guess that sugar is a primary ingredient of most of those products as well. Ice cream takes up its share of space as well. Point is, like so many things that are not good for us, it seems that we are directed to consume them anyway. Sugar, tobacco, alcohol…gasoline. Who is in charge here?
I suppose sugar has to be somewhat bad for us just to make sure we eat our broccoli …I mean if sweet things were healthy, when would make space on the plate for brussel sprouts? Sugar is bad for us simply to make sure we maintain a balanced diet. Or so it seems to me.
So…what if you could devise a product that offered the same taste as sugar, didn’t attack your teeth or waistline, and diabetics could eat it without problems. Wow, talk about a better mousetrap. It seemed so easy!
Thing is, it’s not natural. Like anything else that is too good to be true, so too is the concept of the artificial sweetener. Sure, my teeth are better off, and who knows how fat I would be if all the coffee I have consumed over the past 20 years had sugar instead of little pink packets sweetening it. But the images of rats with tumors, coupled with dead ants in the bowl have finally given me pause. Hell, ants eat anything…they attack the pantry with gusto, eating cookies, corn flakes and pancake batter. They eat old watermelon rinds and apple cores in the compost pile. They devour dead mice and squished earthworms. And yet, this stuff—this sweet white powder in little pink packs-- kills them. Pass me the brown sugar.
Update on Previous Life Changes:
After a couple of rough days, I feel like I have gotten back on the horse, so to speak. Ands this is how I know things are different this time. In the past, a couple of setback days would derail any momentum, but this time it seems I knew it would happen and just sort of shrugged it off. Habits are bad because they are repetitive and diminish our quality of life in some way. But occasional occurrences are a tad different. IF I swear all the time, that is bad, if I swear occasionally, well, that is life. SO this past weekend, I sort of took a vacation from life changing moments, and that is over, it is Monday, and I am back.
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