The bitter truth about sugar

[ms_maree]

It's addictive, potentially harmful and absolutely everywhere. But is sugar really a poison that should be kept out of vulnerable hands?

Recently an American doctor called Robert Lustig has been calling for laws that restrict sugar as if it were alcohol or tobacco. Like many people, I suspect, my initial reaction upon hearing this was: give me a

Comments

[nicosian]

interesting. I tend to go for low-sugar stuff and find most food to be supersaturated with it, masking the actual flavors.

Mostly I notice it in the US, where the same counterparts to what we eat in canada is just gag inducingly sweet. Less so in other countries I've been. Sweets in other countries ( and oh do we indulge when we go travelling) have had less sugar-sweetness.

I don't consider sugar the evil, but I'd love to see less of it used so much, everywhere.

[ms_maree]

I found chocolates in America were super-super sweet compared to the ones in Australia to the point where I couldn't eat them. And breakfast cereals are way sweeter tasting, even corn-flakes was sweeter.

[nicosian]

yep. Every country I went to last year, oh, humans love sweets, but only the US/ and to some extent now canada does this, too much sugar!

I mean I had no idea baklava had flavor till I was in Tel Aviv, because here its soaked with sugar syrup, not a bit of honey or nuts. Huh. Like, i've been misled, YO. I don't know if its the north american demand for more sugar, or whether we've just been subtly programmed for ultrasweet stuff.

Eating when i travel in the US is kind of a challenge. The HFCS does unholy things to my guts so I'm constantly reading labels there.

[ms_maree]

I have found that fructose messed with my tastebuds - I went fructose free (other then fresh fruit, though I'm avoiding some high fructose fruits until I'm free for two months to make the detox easier).

Now I'm picking up nuance in savoury food I never picked up before. Wine OMG! White wine actually tastes better. Before it was like 'ugh no'. Now there is nuance, and flavour and the stuff on the back of the bottle makes sense now. It's weird, good weird, but weird.

[ahzuri]

Wait wait Baklava has other stuff in it? God I'm going to have to try the real stuff some time, I got it from a greek place here and it was exactly as you described it Ugh so gross.

[nicosian]

Shocking! honey! pistachios! texture! flavor.

I hated baklava and found myself in the hotel room snorfing pieces down, delighted with the TASTE.

Here, its usually made with sugar syrup. Maybe greek's different but israeli baklava is wee pieces of heaven.

Flavor. Not a Bad Thing. ( then, I do love salty and tart, which I've read are not flavors that go over well in north american palates)

[entropius]

I never understand people criticizing the taste of a particular sort of fish because it tastes fishy, or talking about how a particular sort of meat tastes "gamey".

Fish tastes like fish and meat (from animals who actually use their muscles) tastes like meat. I don't want everything to taste like chicken (or what passes for chicken -- I've never eaten a wild chicken.)

TBH, if I had the opportunity I'd hunt and eat little meat other than what I shot myself.

[bestdaywelived]

For me, "gamey" means really, really chewy and that is a huge turnoff to me. Then again, I don't like most meat and only eat it because I'm trying to lose weight and force down protein.

The fish thing I get because I only like mild fish. Anything that tastes like a lake smells is a no-go for me. I realize that sometimes people word it badly, but it's not necessarily wrong.

[seishin]

Gamey is 'fruity' to me.

[maladaptive]

Just because something is supposed to taste fishy doesn't mean you have to like it. But instead of adding stuff to fishy-tasting fish (and salmon doesn't taste fishy, it's salmony!) there's lots of fish that don't taste fishy, like tilapia (widely available) or hog snapper or yellowtail. Those're pretty much the only fish I cook.

[confectionqueen]

Tilapia is great for pople who don't want a fishy-fish(me).

[maladaptive]

Yeah, tilapia is awesome, so I always find it funny when people turn their nose up at it. It's easy to cook with and doesn't taste like my aquarium smells. I also don't have to go to a specialty shop to get it, which is a bonus for my lazy self.

[confectionqueen]

Yup, I wish I had found out about it before last year(the first time I went to Red Lobster).
I was raised of salmon(which I despise), so this was a godsend.

[ebay313]

From my understanding, greek is different. I've never had baklava from another country than the US, but if you get baklava around here from a greek restaurant or bakery it will be sticky and sugary, but if you get it from a middle eastern restaurant or bakery, it is not sugary.

[theguindo]

Yeah, my family is Greek and my mom has an old family recipe for baklava that was passed down from our immigrant grandmothers and it calls for being drenched in a honey syrup.

[ahzuri]

Agreed Flavor is amazing. Defiantly need to get my hands on some of that kind! I don't mind salty and tart thing (sometimes I downright love them) but then again I'm apparently weird with my absolute love of fruit and the fact I'd choose fruit over junk 9 of 10 times.