Sugar is Hiding Everywhere

Why is it that it’s so hard to get ourselves to do the thing we want to do? To make that change? To start a new practice or habit? Sometimes it is the result of decades of indoctrination from media and advertising in the guise of health advice.

You’re probably wondering what I’m talking about. The day after the 4th of July holiday, one of my friends came over for lunch and a walk, and we were each lamenting about how hard it is to avoid alcohol and sugar - which I’m increasingly convinced is the cause of many (maybe most) health issues and diseases from cancer to obesity to joint pain and anything caused by inflammation.

I told my friend I was at the grocery store and wanted to buy frozen hashbrown potatoes. I’ve been making an egg bake on the weekends recently that is great reheated for breakfast throughout the week. I was reading the ingredients for a popular brand of frozen hashbrown potatoes and they had dextrose in them. Sugar. I read the labels of all of the brands - name brands and generic brands - and they all had dextrose as an ingredient.

I’m avoiding most sugars, all the ones that end in “ose” including high fructose corn syrup. I’ve been doing this on and off for several years, but recently became more vigilant after a food sensitivity blood test revealed that I have food sensitivities to both cane sugar and corn, corn being the worst for me. I was surprised by these results. However, when I eliminated corn from my diet, the elbow joint pain that I had been experiencing for about 6 months, which I had been attributing to overuse of my computer mouse, disappeared. It’s always nice to have reinforcement of data by real world experience, and it makes it easier to stick with my vow to avoid corn and sugar. Though it is not foolproof. I do still slip up despite my best intentions. But then I begin again by reminding myself why I’m doing that thing, or not doing that thing, in the first place. Because I want to be the best version of me.

The conversation with my friend yesterday, was this reminder for me. Sometimes it takes daily reminders. This might look like writing this intention down on a Post-It note where I’ll see it every day. Or, it might be writing daily Morning Pages, a practice made popular by Julia Cameron in here book, The Artist’s Way. I notice that if I don’t remind myself daily, it - whatever it is - falls off my radar. It’s been about a month since I’ve done Morning Pages, so it should not be a surprise that I lost my way.

On my website, I have the philosophy Be, Do, Become. What I mean by it, is that if you are Being who you intend to be by Doing the actions that you intend to do, you are Becoming more of who you are meant to be. Every day. Figuring out who you intend to Be and how to Do what you intend is a lifelong endeavor that takes curiosity, introspection, contemplation, questioning, experimenting, doing, failing, regrouping, and trying again. The result is, that in every moment you are becoming more of who you are.

I didn’t buy the frozen hashbrowns. Why is there sugar in something that should just be potatoes? There might be a legitimate reason, like the dextrose acts as a preservative or prevents discoloration. But I also suspect its because sugar is addictive to the pleasure centers of our primitive brain and it makes us eat a lot more of whatever food sugar is added to. You know, that favorite brand of frozen potatoes just tastes better. It tastes so good, you buy it even though its more expensive and you take another helping that egg bake, even though you’re full…it just tastes so yummy! This is why food manufacturers add sugar to so many foods. So we eat more and buy more, and they make more money and shrink that package sizes, while 80% of Americans are now overweight or obese. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect the dots and the money trail.

It’s not our fault that our brains are hard-wired to seek out and eat sweet foods. It’s how the human species evolved after all - the survival of the fittest. When food was scarce, or hard to acquire, like finding a beehive and climbing a tree to get to and eat all the honey a person could possibly eat because one didn’t know when that calorically dense sweet honey would be available again, that’s the person that survived - the one strong enough to climb the tree and not be overcome by bee stings - that’s our ancestor. Evolutionary biology hasn’t kept pace with the vastly different environment most of us now find ourselves in, with the overabundance of food available. Any type of food - including sweet, sugary foods that our brains tell us we need to eat, and eat all of it now or else. So, I’ll just buy plain potatoes, cut them up myself and boil them for the egg bake.

Easy Egg Bake Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 × 11 glass casserole dish with avocado oil. Cover the bottom with pre-cooked frozen potatoes, sprinkle on a layer of frozen chopped organic spinach, season with a light sprinkling of garlic powder, salt and pepper. Place in preheating oven until the vegetables are thawed.

Chop one medium onion and saute with 1 pound breakfast sausage. Meanwhile, beat a dozen eggs and season with a ¼ teaspoon each of garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add 1/4-1/2 teaspoon dried herbs like thyme, basil, oregano or rosemary - or a combination. Or, 1-2 tablespoons of fresh herbs like parsley or basil.

When sausage is done cooking, take the potatoes and spinach out of the oven, layer on sausage/onion mixture, sprinkle on one pound shredded cheddar cheese (optional), pour beaten eggs over all. Bake for 30 minutes or until eggs are set.