Archive for April, 2010
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Day 41: What If I Was Lying?
This morning, while in the kitchen all alone, I saw some chocolate chip cookies left over from last night.
What if I just ate one – and didn’t cop to it?
A few minutes later, Christophe brought in some croissants and, yes, pain au chocolat, no surprise one of my favorites.
I had my coffee WITHOUT SUGAR, I might add, and some brown bread with almond butter. It was… okay. Sugar-free coffee? Ugh.
Not long after breakfast, I walked into the dining room to get something.
One of the pain au chocolats had been sliced in half, revealing the exact amount of dark chocolate and its lovely texture within.
I could have popped it in my mouth without anyone seeing – or knowing.
And I could have pretended it didn’t happen myself.
I am MORE than capable of all of the above.
However, I am not lying when I say I didn’t do any of the above. Though I feel I could have easily.
I know, I know relapsing is more fun than just writing about how every day I managed to avoid sweets.
But the reason I didn’t surreptiously jam some sweet stuff in my mouth on the sly this morning is…. I don’t trust myself.
I’m all or nothing. Moderation is not my middle name.
Look at me.
Do I look moderate?
Or maybe I should ask…
Do I look trustworthy?
Ta,
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Day 40: Today was Hard
So I’m on a business retreat for a project I’m working on…. we’re staying at the CEO’s villa in the Var, a region in the south of France just east of Nice.
(Brangelina has a home nearby in the Var, outside the town of Correns.)
The home is in this beautiful isolated countryside. And do you know that everyone in the U.S. thinks living in the south of France is such a dream that I have no right to ever complain?
Screw that. We worked as a team for a couple hours. Then one of the principals broke out the snacks. Which included chocolate chip cookies.
I ask you: Is there a more perfect food on this earth than chocolate chip cookies?
She brought along rice cakes and almond butter for me, mindful of the world-famous blog, A Year Without Candy.
But when I saw the package the chocolate chip cookies were housed in, I felt wistful and wanting.
Fuck this self-denial. I hate it.
I don’t want rice cakes and almond butter.
I want chocolate chip cookies.
I only have this one life – as far as I know.
Why should I suffer? I haven’t lost enormous amounts of weight in these 40 days. I’m not a “brand-new person.”
Today was hard.
It got harder.
We broke for lunch and went to this bad Thai restaurant in the town of Caillan.
It was Thai food served cafeteria style.
They heated it up in a microwave.
It so sucked.
Plus my friends/colleagues had all these American-style desserts like tiramisu and chocolate doughnuts.
I was still hungry after I ate my suck-ass, half-baked (literally) spicy rice and mushroom chicken.
My friends ordered tiramisu. I didn’t. (See also: this fucking blog.)
“Oops, ooohh, sorry,” they said a little too gleefully, even though I assured them this:
I like to watch.
Oh yes I do – if I can’t be the one eating the dessert, I like to watch.
But it was depressing.
I wanted dessert.
Dessert to me takes the edge off life.
Without dessert…
Life sucks.
Ta,
The Bitter, Miserable, Landlocked Swimming Piglet in the Var
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Day 40: OMG! Look What Has Sugar In It!
Shocking: Sugar Content of Common Food Products
By Daryo Pino, Huffington Post
Refined sugars and high-fructose corn syrup are considered by many experts to be the biggest contributors to obesity and poor health in Western civilization.
In her book What To Eat, Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at NYU and blogger at Food Politics suggests that any food that contains more than 15 grams of sugar per serving is closer to dessert than anything else. Though this number is arbitrary, it is a good benchmark for evaluating food products.
Obviously sugar content is not the only factor in a food’s nutritional value (and not all of these have added sugar), but it can be illuminating to see the relative amounts in the foods we consume.
Just for fun I looked up the sugar content of a few common foods and menu items. I hope you’re as horrified as I am.
Listed values are as close to a normal serving as I could approximate. Units are listed as grams of sugar.
Sugar Content of Common Food Products
1. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut …………………………………………………10 g
2. Luna Bar berry almond …………………………………………………………………………11 g
3. Froot Loops breakfast cereal 3/4 cup ……………………………………………………12 g
4. Ben & Jerry’s vanilla ice cream ……………………………………………………………16 g
5. Starbucks caffè latte grande 16 oz …………………………………………………………17 g
6. Godiva 2 truffles ………………………………………………………………………………….17 g
7. Subway 6″ sweet onion teriyaki chicken sandwich ………………………………..17 g
8. Ms. Field’s chocolate chip cookie ………………………………………………………….19 g
9. Tropicana 100% orange juice 8 oz …………………………………………………………25 g
10. Yoplait original yogurt ………………………………………………………………………27 g
11. Craisins dried cranberries 1/3 cup ……………………………………………………….29 g
12. Vitamin Water 20 oz bottle ………………………………………………………………….33 g
13. Oscar Mayer Lunchables crackers, turkey & American cheese ……………….36 g
14. Coca-Cola Classic 12 oz can …………………………………………………………………..39 g
15. Sprinkles Cupcake red velvet ………………………………………………………………..45 g
16. California Pizza Kitchen Thai chicken salad ……………………………………………45 g
17. Jamba Juice blackberry bliss 16 oz ……………………………………………………….49 g
18. Odwalla SuperFood 450 ml bottle …………………………………………………………50 g
19. Starbucks caffe vanilla frappuccino grande 16 oz …………………………………..58 g
Take home messages:
* Foods we recognize as dessert (e.g. doughnuts, ice cream, cookies) often have far less sugar than things we consider “healthy” (e.g. juice, yogurt, dried fruit).
* Froot Loops aren’t necessarily better than doughnuts.
* Energy bars are glorified candy.
* Dessert is sometimes hidden in things like sandwiches.
* Some foods marketed to children aren’t much better than soda.
* A salad can have as much sugar as one of the biggest cupcakes I’ve ever seen.
* “Natural” foods can have lots of sugar.
* The worst offenders are drinkable.
* Starbucks is why you’re fat.
Darya is a scientist, foodie and advocate of local, seasonal foods. For more healthy eating tips visit her blog Summer Tomato. You can also connect with Darya on Twitter @summertomato and Facebook.
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Day 39: Should There Be a Sugar Tax?
Reprinted from The New York Times – Link here
By Jane E. Brody
How sweet it is! The American diet, that is.
A number of scientific studies have found that the amount of sugar we consume is a major factor in how big Americans have become. In the last half-century, consumption of sugars by the average American has increased by more than 24 pounds a year, expanding waistlines and crowding out more nutritious foods.
Furthermore, the studies indicate that the main dietary culprit for both the increase in sugar and the weight of Americans has been the ever-growing consumption of sugary drinks, especially soda. These soft drinks contribute 7 percent of the calories Americans consume, making them the leading source of added sugar and the single largest source of calories in our diet.
Critics have repeatedly blamed high-fructose corn syrup, the inexpensive sweetener that has helped to keep soda prices down and allowed consumption to soar. But in fact, no sugary beverage and no caloric sweetener is blameless. Not ordinary table sugar (which the body breaks down to a 50-50 combination of glucose and fructose, the makeup of high-fructose corn syrup); not brown sugar or raw sugar; not honey; not agave syrup; not even fruit juice concentrate.
All these sweeteners when added to drinks contribute mostly empty calories that do little to satisfy the appetite and end up as excess energy that the body ultimately turns to fat. And soda, though the most common sugary beverage, is not the only one involved. In fact, after decades of increases, soda consumption has leveled off, but sports drinks, energy drinks and sweetened teas have become increasingly important contributors to the liquid calories Americans consume.
To improve the health of its residents and its coffers, New York State, among others, is considering an excise tax of about one penny per ounce on high-calorie sweetened beverages.
The American Beverage Association, which takes major credit for an 88 percent reduction in sugared soda calories in the nation’s schools, has seriously undermined its credibility with ads opposing the so-called soda tax.
In association-sponsored commercials on television and radio, homemakers spout the spurious argument that such a tax would make it more difficult for them to feed their families.
But on no nutritionist’s list are you likely to find soda listed as a desirable dietary ingredient. It is not a food, nor a basic necessity. In fact, the people likely to benefit most from a soda tax that discourages consumption are those who find it hardest to make ends meet. These are the people who can least afford to waste hard-earned dollars on empty calories that undermine their health.
When I was a child, the main parental objection to sugar was its role in tooth decay. But while rotten teeth are no fun, they are not nearly as likely to be life-threatening as what we now know to be the risks from excessive sugar intake, especially in liquid form. Most serious of these risks are Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, both as a direct consequence of extra body weight and, in the case of heart disease, as an independent risk.
A Harvard study that followed 88,000 women for 24 years found that regardless of body weight, the risk of developing heart disease increased by 20 percent among those who drank at least two sugar-sweetened drinks a day, when compared with those who drank less than one sugary drink a month. And among 4,000 men and women participating in the Framingham Heart Study for four years, those who drank at least one sugar-sweetened soft drink a day (compared with those who drank less) faced a 44 percent greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome, a precursor of heart disease. Again, the hazard was independent of weight.
Fructose, which represents half the sugar in soda and other drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, raises blood levels of triglycerides after meals and also promotes a gain in abdominal fat, both factors in metabolic syndrome.
Still, most Americans worry more about their weight than about health risks down the line. Study after study has shown that like experimental animals, people do not compensate for extra liquid calories by eating less food. Sugary drinks do little to curb the appetite, perhaps because they are metabolized so quickly.
In another Harvard study that followed 51,000 women for four years, those who increased their sugary soda consumption from a maximum of once a week to at least one drink a day gained the most weight. As a consequence, they also faced almost double the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
The fructose in sodas may even promote overeating directly by its effect on the hormone leptin, which signals the brain that you’ve had enough to eat. In animal studies, high fructose intake over a period of months resulted in resistance to the leptin signal. A preliminary study in both obese and normal-weight men and women indicated that people react similarly.
In an article in The New England Journal of Medicine last year, Kelly D. Brownell, a professor at Yale, and Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote: “Sugared beverages are marketed extensively to children and adolescents, and in the mid-1990s, children’s intake of sugared beverages surpassed that of milk. For each extra can or glass of sugared beverage consumed per day, the likelihood of a child’s becoming obese increases by 60 percent.”
The authors cited a Yale study indicating that for every 10 percent increase in price, consumption of soda dropped by 7.8 percent. The beverage industry projected an even greater drop in sales: a 7.8 percent decline for every 6.8 percent price increase. In all likelihood, this decline would be offset by increased sales of diet drinks and bottled waters sold by the very same companies. Thus, a tax on sugared drinks would be unlikely to affect employment or commercial revenue.
Adding a penny-per-ounce excise tax on sugary soft drinks could reduce consumption by more than 10 percent and would generate an estimated $1.2 billion in New York State alone, the authors projected. At the same time, the resulting drop in consumption would reduce health risks and save money on medical costs related to excess weight and obesity, about half of which are paid for by government programs, they said.
“A poll of New York residents found that 52 percent supported a ‘soda tax,’ but the number rose to 72 percent when respondents were told that the revenue would be used for obesity prevention,” they wrote. “Perhaps the most defensible approach is to use revenue to subsidize the purchase of healthful foods.”
A tax that could raise revenue, cut consumption of sugar and raise consumption of vegetables and fruit? No wonder so many New Yorkers like the ideaHow sweet it is! The American diet, that is.
A number of scientific studies have found that the amount of sugar we consume is a major factor in how big Americans have become. In the last half-century, consumption of sugars by the average American has increased by more than 24 pounds a year, expanding waistlines and crowding out more nutritious foods.
Furthermore, the studies indicate that the main dietary culprit for both the increase in sugar and the weight of Americans has been the ever-growing consumption of sugary drinks, especially soda. These soft drinks contribute 7 percent of the calories Americans consume, making them the leading source of added sugar and the single largest source of calories in our diet.
Critics have repeatedly blamed high-fructose corn syrup, the inexpensive sweetener that has helped to keep soda prices down and allowed consumption to soar. But in fact, no sugary beverage and no caloric sweetener is blameless. Not ordinary table sugar (which the body breaks down to a 50-50 combination of glucose and fructose, the makeup of high-fructose corn syrup); not brown sugar or raw sugar; not honey; not agave syrup; not even fruit juice concentrate.
All these sweeteners when added to drinks contribute mostly empty calories that do little to satisfy the appetite and end up as excess energy that the body ultimately turns to fat. And soda, though the most common sugary beverage, is not the only one involved. In fact, after decades of increases, soda consumption has leveled off, but sports drinks, energy drinks and sweetened teas have become increasingly important contributors to the liquid calories Americans consume.
To improve the health of its residents and its coffers, New York State, among others, is considering an excise tax of about one penny per ounce on high-calorie sweetened beverages.
The American Beverage Association, which takes major credit for an 88 percent reduction in sugared soda calories in the nation’s schools, has seriously undermined its credibility with ads opposing the so-called soda tax.
In association-sponsored commercials on television and radio, homemakers spout the spurious argument that such a tax would make it more difficult for them to feed their families.
But on no nutritionist’s list are you likely to find soda listed as a desirable dietary ingredient. It is not a food, nor a basic necessity. In fact, the people likely to benefit most from a soda tax that discourages consumption are those who find it hardest to make ends meet. These are the people who can least afford to waste hard-earned dollars on empty calories that undermine their health.
When I was a child, the main parental objection to sugar was its role in tooth decay. But while rotten teeth are no fun, they are not nearly as likely to be life-threatening as what we now know to be the risks from excessive sugar intake, especially in liquid form. Most serious of these risks are Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, both as a direct consequence of extra body weight and, in the case of heart disease, as an independent risk.
A Harvard study that followed 88,000 women for 24 years found that regardless of body weight, the risk of developing heart disease increased by 20 percent among those who drank at least two sugar-sweetened drinks a day, when compared with those who drank less than one sugary drink a month. And among 4,000 men and women participating in the Framingham Heart Study for four years, those who drank at least one sugar-sweetened soft drink a day (compared with those who drank less) faced a 44 percent greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome, a precursor of heart disease. Again, the hazard was independent of weight.
Fructose, which represents half the sugar in soda and other drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, raises blood levels of triglycerides after meals and also promotes a gain in abdominal fat, both factors in metabolic syndrome.
Still, most Americans worry more about their weight than about health risks down the line. Study after study has shown that like experimental animals, people do not compensate for extra liquid calories by eating less food. Sugary drinks do little to curb the appetite, perhaps because they are metabolized so quickly.
In another Harvard study that followed 51,000 women for four years, those who increased their sugary soda consumption from a maximum of once a week to at least one drink a day gained the most weight. As a consequence, they also faced almost double the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
The fructose in sodas may even promote overeating directly by its effect on the hormone leptin, which signals the brain that you’ve had enough to eat. In animal studies, high fructose intake over a period of months resulted in resistance to the leptin signal. A preliminary study in both obese and normal-weight men and women indicated that people react similarly.
In an article in The New England Journal of Medicine last year, Kelly D. Brownell, a professor at Yale, and Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote: “Sugared beverages are marketed extensively to children and adolescents, and in the mid-1990s, children’s intake of sugared beverages surpassed that of milk. For each extra can or glass of sugared beverage consumed per day, the likelihood of a child’s becoming obese increases by 60 percent.”
The Case for a Soda Tax
The authors cited a Yale study indicating that for every 10 percent increase in price, consumption of soda dropped by 7.8 percent. The beverage industry projected an even greater drop in sales: a 7.8 percent decline for every 6.8 percent price increase. In all likelihood, this decline would be offset by increased sales of diet drinks and bottled waters sold by the very same companies. Thus, a tax on sugared drinks would be unlikely to affect employment or commercial revenue.
Adding a penny-per-ounce excise tax on sugary soft drinks could reduce consumption by more than 10 percent and would generate an estimated $1.2 billion in New York State alone, the authors projected. At the same time, the resulting drop in consumption would reduce health risks and save money on medical costs related to excess weight and obesity, about half of which are paid for by government programs, they said.
“A poll of New York residents found that 52 percent supported a ‘soda tax,’ but the number rose to 72 percent when respondents were told that the revenue would be used for obesity prevention,” they wrote. “Perhaps the most defensible approach is to use revenue to subsidize the purchase of healthful foods.”
A tax that could raise revenue, cut consumption of sugar and raise consumption of vegetables and fruit? No wonder so many New Yorkers like the idea.
Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
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Day 35: Dying, Rising and Being Passed Over
Slightly freaked that I haven’t posted in five days. It’s a sugar addict trait to get wildly enthusiastic about something, throw yourself into it and then, as my Jewish friends say, feh, you lose interest.
But if I abandon this blog, I may go right back to candy and I won’t make my goal. Also called not following through. Like you start the swing, you start the pitch – but you don’t fully commit to it. Ergo, no home run – ever.
So let’s just put it out there. If I drop this blog, or just post half-heartedly, that means I’m dropping myself and doing life half-heartedly. Which is OK, but I want more out of myself. So we’ll see how that turns out.
Let me just adjust my crown of thorns because it’s itchy. I’d also like help dragging the cross through this post because my right shoulder is sore from carrying the weight of the world.
I have made it through One of the Most Dangerous Weeks (so far.)
It’s “Joyeuses Pâques” in France. (Check here for some French Easter traditions.) All the master chocolatiers outdo themselves in an effort to make my life a living hell. Mouth-watering tableaus of exquisitely-crafted dark and milk chocolate rabbits, velvety smooth-skinned chocolate eggs and all manner of delicious creatures peek out from meticulously-arranged displays in glass windows.
I pass them by, as I did tonight in front of the above window at Maison Auer in the Old Town in Nice, France. Maison Auer has been here since 1820, turning out these chocolates and candies since 1820.
I did not make the sign of the cross as I passed by, nor did I sense nails being hammered into my hands or feet. I’m not quite at the point where self-denial feels…hot, like some new recruit to Opus Dei, nor am I miserable without candy.
Five weeks tomorrow without candy. About five days ago, something hit me. Why do I feel so happy? Nothing’s changed that much in my life – except giving up candy. It’s as if those years of sugar lay like miles of dirty snow inside me, bringing me down and I didn’t even know it.
So I won’t be biting the head off a big chocolate rabbit tomorrow – or devouring candy eggs, marshmallow peeps and jelly beans. But I miss the Easter of my childhood, when there was an Easter egg hunt in my house every morning – and no thought to self-denial.
Without the fun, I’ve been thinking more about the drama. Coincidental, isn’t it, how Easter and Passover come near the same time as each other, especially this year. Weird, too, how the word for “Passover” is the same as the word for “Easter” in many languages, including French. They call it “Paques Juives” in France.
Are there any other twinned holidays borne of such blood and guts, life and death that they sound dreamed up by Stephen King, Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson?
Jesus being nailed to the cross seems like a big deal, but back in the day crucifixions were the electric chair and lethal injection of that era.
But dying and then rising again – well that was original. The ultimate happy ending – way before Hollywood.
Passover is also about good following bad. It’s a more subtle concept because at first, being passed over doesn’t sound like a good thing.
Both Easter and Passover start off pretty dark. The Israelites are stuck in Egypt under the brutal thumb of the Pharaoh. God makes them a deal to get them out so they can serve him but the Pharaoh plays hardball and says no, he won’t let the people go.
So God prepares to send 10 plagues raining down on Egypt. The Israelites avoid the pestilence and frogs by bringing a “Passover offering” to the Angel of Death so he will pass them over while he shows Pharaoh & Co. who’s boss. They are told to leave the blood of a freshly-slaughtered lamb on the doorposts and lintels of their home. They do this, and God “passes over” their homes.
Egypt takes such a hit that the Pharaoh sucks it up and lets Moses’ people go.
The Israelites escaped! It was like a scene in one of my favorite movies, “The Bourne Identity” when Jason Bourne’s back is to the wall and you think there is no way out. But. There. Is.
The Israelites split so fast they didn’t have time to wait for their bread to rise. They packed it unleavened. Now the modern world has matzo ball soup. There’s always a silver lining! That – along with knowing liberation is right around the corner.
Jesus, though, took one for the whole team. Everybody else was stuck here on earth but for the faithful, well, the promise of eternal life doesn’t suck.
I was doing a lot of stories last week on the sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church. I spoke to several great priests – Fr. Steve Josoma in Dedham, Mass. and Fr. Liam Hoare in Dittmer, Mo. to name two.
I’ve talked to abuse victims, their lawyers, muckracking journalists, ex-priests – so many people who were on the receiving end of the bad stuff in the Catholic Church. After I interviewed them, I’d ask them at the end of they still considered themselves Catholics.
All but one person paused for a minute after I asked the question. Some of them sounded conflicted but in the end they all said, yes they still consider themselves Catholic. Andrew Madden, who in 1995 was the first person to announce publicly in Ireland that he had been sexually abused by a priest, said he is no longer a Catholic but believes in a higher power.
It was refreshing, this past Friday night, to reconnect with my old friend, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach a.k.a. “America’s Rabbi.” I called him for comment when a senior Vatican priest compared the bad publicity the Pope and the Vatican have been getting over the sex abuse scandals to anti-Semitism.
Shmuley was in Fort Lauderdale with his wife and nine kids and it was so good to hear my favorite rabbi’s voice. He’s one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met and I was relieved to be talking to a Jew about this story after weeks of talking to Catholics! Shmuley wasn’t happy about the Vatican’s take but was diplomatic when saying so. He’s gotta be, he’s America’s Rabbi!
Shmuley’s a true believer. Love that.
A couple of years ago I was teasing someone who I knew very well had renounced all religion and never looked back. “So, do you believe in God?” I asked her one day on Lafayette Street.
“No,” she said fiercely. “I believe in myself.”
Another true believer. Loved her too.
Don’t love the hypocrites.
Speak truth to power Sunday and don’t pass yourself over.
About
Recent Posts
- Day 365: Tell the Women of Congo You Love Them!
- Day 364: What If the World Did End in 2012?
- Day 363: Twilight of the Dictators, Twilight of No Candy
- Day 353: Howl of a Candy Addict
- Day 351: Self-Deprivation Sucks
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