Sugar

Sugar is bad for you.

Blah, blah, blah.

Funny how you know stuff is bad for you and do nothing about it.

Until…

Dan Barber wrote a review of Gary Taubes’ book The Case Against Sugar.

This is how the review starts: “Say your child petitioned for permission to smoke a pack of cigarettes a week. Say his or her logic was that a pack a week is better than a pack a day. No dice, right?

O.K., now substitute sugar for cigarettes.”

Somehow that struck a chord in the Accidental Locavore, that nothing else about sugar has.

So, I stopped eating it.

More or less.

The well-named toffee crack has sat untouched.

Ditto caramels from La Petite Occasion.

However, there was a coconut yogurt with some of my homemade granola on it for breakfast.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

That probably blew (what should be) my sugar intake for the day.

6 tablespoons.

100 calories or 25 grams.

My yogurt had 13 grams so I was already halfway there.

Not sure about the granola, there’s brown sugar and maple syrup, and some dried fruit. I only had a big teaspoon full of it.

And as we all know, sugar pops up in all sorts of places.

Like this Umami sauce from Trader Joe’s and the steak aging stuff I’m going to try tonight.

1 gram and 2 grams per serving respectively.

But that’s not going to stop me from using it (and I’ll let you know how what we thought of the steak aging stuff) and I’m not getting on a soap box.

Just letting you know what I’m doing and what I’m feeling good about.

Yesterday, I was driving around, running errands and really wanted a burger from 5 Guys.

If you read my piece about the best burger in America, you know a good burger for me has to have good fries.

5 Guys has that, plus.

The plus? A Coke machine called Freestyle that has over 100 flavors.

Including Vanilla Coke. My nostalgic favorite.

Did I turn left at the light?

Nope.

Although I could taste the fries, I knew the Vanilla Coke needed to be part of the experience.

Let’s face it, a fast-food burger and fries just isn’t the same with a bottle of water.

So I went home and heated up a potato knish that Vinnie gave me to try.

Am I feeling better? Different?

No, not yet, but it’s a step in the right direction.