Coke, PepsiCo, Michelle Obama, & Other News...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Recently in the news:

PepsiCo
PepsiCo makes a world-wide commitment to not sell sugary drinks in schools. However, they will still sell non-caloric beverages and sports drinks like Gatorade. We all know Gatorade is sugary, but at least Pepsi is taking a step in the right direction. Thanks to CSPI for their work in this effort. Unfortunately, Coke is not doing the same.

Michelle Obama "Scolds" the GMA
Thanks to Food Politics for outlining excerpts of Mrs. Obama's speech to the Grocery Manufacturer's of America. It certainly packed a punch!

Let's Move! Campaign: A Closer Look
Take a look at the informative post on Appetite for Profit's blog. If you haven't been interested before, reading A for P's take on things is sure to get you fired up!

Fooducate
Here's more on the Let's Move! Campaign, plus, look around this blog for lots of great nutritional information.

Bob's Red Mill: An Incredible Change of Ownership
When I found out that Bob transferred his multi-million dollar business to his employees, I teared up. Not just because I miss my hometown, but because of this amazing act of kindness. He inspires me to make decisions that I can look back on and feel proud of (giving away material items rather than storing them). Click here for the scoop. And if you happen to run out of date sugar or garbonzo bean flour, order from the Red Mill. Better yet, take a vacation to Portland, Oregon and plan to eat at and tour the facilities. It's quite charming.

That's it for now. I have an itch to write something provocative and juicy. Any topic suggestions?

Natural Sugars are Still Added Sugars

Anyway I look at it, I have been eating too much sugar, albeit in the form of natural sugars. Women should eat no more than 6 teaspoons of sugars, and for men it's 9 teaspoons. Lucky I don't eat added sugars. At least that's the way I saw it, since my sugars are mostly natural and hardly processed.

My latest revelation is based on information I read in CSPI's Jan/Feb 2010 Nutrition Action Healthletter. The cover story is SUGAR OVERLOAD, Curbing America's Sweet Tooth. Read it!

I was happy to see my favorite subject broached, but I thought to myself, 'This doesn't pertain to me anymore. I quit sugar over two years ago.'

What I read, however, turned my perfectly ordered world of natural sugars upside down.

I was not ready to have over two years of my work be thrown out the window by one statement. "[Added sugars] include high-fructose corn syrup, ordinary table sugar, honey, agave syrup, and all other sweeteners with calories."

Then I discovered a list in the article that brought me to tears. The list titled, Sugar by Any Other Name, broke down what is considered an added sugar, which just made me grimace. Why? Because my beloved list of natural sweeteners that I held high and mighty and above all reproach found themselves in the same category as the horrible sugars that I have not touched in over two years. How in the world could my raw honey be rubbing elbows with corn syrup? Or table sugar even compare to grape juice? Were not my beloved natural sugars in an entirely different class because they're, er, natural?

Apparently, folks, my head has been in the clouds. I thought I had found redemption in honey and juice concentrates and maple syrups. The sad news is that these are added sugars. That's not an opinion. That's a fact.

And that, my friends, breaks my heart.

An added sugar is an added sugar, no matter what the source of that sugar is. The verdict is in, the science is clear, and the AHA is bold enough to tell us that unless we keep all of our added sugars in the 6-9 teaspoon range (9 for males, 6 for females), we may be headed for medical troubles including increased risk of heart disease, high triglycerides, diabetes, visceral fat, gout, overeating, high blood pressure and obesity.

Added sugars do not include fruit, dried fruit, vegetables and other whole foods.

I'm angry for giving natural sugars an exception in my kitchen and in my diet. I thought I was free to eat as much "sweet" as I wanted, as long as my sweet was natural and barely processed. Now I see that I confused science and philosophy. Because I believe philosophically that honey is a better sweetener than sugar (raw, local, not processed, etc.), I made the mistake in believing that it is healthier, too. It may or may not be healthier, (honey has about 300 more calories per cup than white sugar) but as far as all those medical diseases are concerned, I have to limit honey as much as I have to limit white sugar because they are both added sugars.

I don't want to play by the rules of the AHA (6 teaspoons, approximately 100 calories, is not very much sugar, especially if you drink sweetened beverages or alcohol), but I also don't want to be suffering from heart disease or diabetes in the future, trying to convince myself that natural sugars are off the hook.

Warning: Cookie Dough E. coli Illnesses

I grew up eating cookie dough.

When I was little, I asked Mom to put cookie dough in my lunch box instead of cookies, and she did. I've eaten homemade cookie dough and store-bought cookie dough most of my life. It's always been this crazy favorite food of mine. It's strange to think back on my little lunch box and all of the unrefrigerated cookie dough I used to eat.

Since I gave up sugar in 2008, I still make cookies and taste the cookie dough, but sugar-free cookie dough has not been as exciting as the actual sugar-free cookie resulting. It's been a while since I've enjoyed cookie dough...

Last night on a late-night walk around the city, my husband got a hankerin' for ice cream. We stopped in at a little market and he bought a pint of B&J's cookie dough ice cream and ate most of the cookie dough right off the bat.

This morning we learned of the E. coli illnesses related to the ingestion of Nestle cookie dough. There are far-reaching implications, but simply put, it made me really sad and nostalgic.

Here are some links reporting on the problem:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "As of Thursday, June 18, 2009, 65 persons infected with a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular DNA fingerprint have been reported from 29 states."

KGW News/Associated Press "Food maker Nestle USA on Friday voluntarily recalled its Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products after a number of illnesses were reported by those who ate the dough raw."

Food Politics "If cookie dough is the culprit, how on earth did this nasty form of E. coli, usually excreted by farm animals, get into it? The endless mantra is that we need prevention: HACCP, pathogen testing, and independent third-party verification."

Center for Science in the Public Interest "We urge the House to pass the Food Safety Enhancement Act now."

Marler Blog "Nestle should step up now and pay E. coli 0157:H7 culture-positive victims’ medical bills and lost wages."

Be sure to dispose of this product, and pass this information along!

Federal Tax on Soda Being Considered

What do you think about a tax being imposed on sodas, diet sodas excluded?

On May 12, 2009, CBS News reported as follows:

"The Senate Finance Committee today is hearing proposals on how to pay for President Obama's proposed universal health care plan, which is expected to cost more than $1 trillion. Among the proposals, as Consumer Affairs reports: A three-cent tax on sodas as well as other sugary drinks, including energy and sports drinks like Gatorade. Diet sodas would be exempt.

'While many factors promote weight gain, soft drinks are the only food or beverage that has been shown to increase the risk of overweight and obesity, which, in turn, increase the risk of diabetes, stroke, and many other health problems,' Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which is pushing the idea, said in his testimony. 'Soft drinks are nutritionally worthless…[and] are directly related to weight gain, partly because beverages are more conducive to weight gain than solid foods.'"

The link below to Michael Jacobson's testimony is important. He is advocating for nutritional change across the board, which in turn is proposed to help finance health care reform. In order to address the logistics of health care reform, he believes prevention is the key, and I couldn't agree with him more.

Jacobson's testimony can be read here (PDF). I highly recommend reading it. In it, he states:

"To promote health and reduce health-care costs, health-reform legislation should include strong, specific prevention measures. This testimony focuses on employing five long-neglected, high- leverage, diet-related means of preventing chronic diseases; treating serious diseases in a more economical, yet still effective, manner; and levying taxes that would both promote health and generate revenues that could help fund expanded health-care coverage."


His five proposed preventative measures include:

1. Raising taxes on alcoholic beverages
2. Taxing soft drinks
3. Taking trans fats out of foods
4. Reducing sodium in packaged foods and restaurant foods
5. "Reducing medical costs through lifestyle treatment of heart disease"

"The proposed measures would generate total savings or income to the federal government
of $38 billion to $61 billion per year."

This could help generate a portion of the money needed to finance President Obama's universal health care plan.

Check out the Center for Science in the Public Interest, CSPI if you haven't already. They are a non-profit advocating for nutrition, food safety and increased consumer-awareness.

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Coincidentally, I just discovered a video of Dr. Walter Willett, of Harvard's School of Public Health, stating the direct correlations between drinking sugary drinks and serious health problems like diabetes, overweight and heart disease. Hear it from the leading nutrition researcher of our time, here.

More about the taxation on soda, here in Dr. Nestle's post.