The Sugar Police

They are attacking sugar again! First it is always mom that attacks, "Sugar will give you diabetes..will give you pimples...make you fat" Bla, bla, bla, bla. That's bad enough to we sugar addicts. But in this politically correct age the media is the new mom as it warns us about the "evils" (Is anything pure anymore that is not trendy?) The latest comes from a media release about one of those (probably a Nazi) nutritionists who tell us to kill our taste buds in order to extend out lives. The Sugar Police is on the prowl. Beware!

Bonnie Liebman, a nutritionist with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, offers these ideas for the consumption of added sugars in 'The Nutrition Action Newsletter'. Her comments are all sour to me, so I have a few remarks to offer after each of her points.

• Follow the American Heart Association guidelines and limit yourself to 100 calories a day of added sugar (6 1/2 teaspoons or 25 grams) if you're a woman; 150 calories (9 1/2 teaspoons or 38 grams) if you're a man. Even less may be better for your heart.- Can and would anyone really want to compute this level? Too, 100 calories from sugar would be easily reached with the natural sugars found in all those fresh fruits they keep telling us we must eat. That means no Oreo cookie, no candy bar, no pie or cake!..ridiculous! Humans need to eat what taste good too. Otherwise their souls become diseased. I'd rather have a diseased body than a diseased nutritionist soul.

• Don't drink beverages sweetened with sugar, high fructose corn syrup or other caloric sweeteners- But they all seem to have that kind of sugar. The old pure granulated sugar (which the Sugar Police only dislike a little more than corn syrup) has been discontinued by most food and drink sellers because it cost more to use than granulated sugar. One would have to look carefully to find no high fructose corn syrup or "other caloric sweeteners". This idea from Libeman is an unrealistic one.

• Limit fruit juices to no more than one cup a day- Wait! Didn't the Sugar Police, as recently as 10 years ago, tell us repeatedly that we should stop drinking soda and other sugared drinks and drink fruit juices instead? It's enough to make me add to my morning coffee an extra spoon of that deadly corn syrup. Maybe if the Sugar Police had more sweet they would quit changing their minds so much.

• Limit all added sugars, including high fructose corn syrup, cane or beet sugar, evaporated cane juice, brown rice syrup, agave syrup and honey- Does that mean limiting all natural sugars too? Most foods have natural sugar in them, some an abundance of it. Take carrots, for example. They are loaded with sugar. Should we dump the noble, nutritious and tasty carrot as well? Hmmmmm This idea of the Sugar Police makes me think they are hatching a plot to make us eat only tofu!

• Don't worry about naturally occurring sugar in fruit, milk and plain yogurt- Why? If sugar is bad, and there are lost of sugars in natural foods, why is it the ones naturally found in food are better than the ones added to improve the taste of foods. Do not diabetics also have to watch the intake of natural sugars in foods?

Sigh..I need a candy bar to help me calm down.