Sugar... such a special ingredient in so many recipes.
However, how many of those recipes actually need as much sugar as they call
for? Not only that, but how many times do we crave a certain sugary snack
and do not think about the pure amount of junk that is in said snack. Sadly in
today’s America pure cane sugar or honey is not the main source of sweetener in
food. One time at a restaurant I picked up a single serve packet of supposed honey.
Would you believe me if I told you that honey wasn’t even high on the ingredients
list? High fructose corn syrup has become extremely invasive in the food
products that we consume in America. Sadly people do not realize that their “healthy
snack” is actually the opposite of that.
In my journey to become healthier and lose weight I have
started to look at the food label at the store. It can be hard at first, especially
when you are in a hurry. After a while you start to get the hang of it though
and know what to look for. The main idea or rule I follow would be these two
questions. Can I pronounce every word on the ingredients list? Is there a known
bad for you ingredient, such as red 40 or high fructose corn syrup? When the answers
to these questions aren’t what they are supposed to be then maybe you shouldn’t
be purchasing and eating these foods. I know that many of you will say, but
healthy natural food is out of my budget. No, it isn’t. You just aren’t looking
in the right places.
Healthier alternatives are out there and sometimes even
cheaper and tastier than the original. Take pancake syrup for example, all it is,
is sugar, water, and flavoring. However, when you buy it from the store it has
a whole bucket load of extra non-essential ingredients in it that are bad for
you. Another great example of this would be almost anything chocolate and
peanut butter. Dark
chocolate actually has quite a few health benefits if you get the good
stuff. This can include things such as iron and minerals as well as some
antioxidant properties. Plain peanut butter is a good source of protein as well
as other nutrients. Peanut butter is also filling and in its natural form good
for you.
Chocolate peanut butter snacks can vary but one of the
easiest would be a dark chocolate bar and a jar of peanut butter. You simply
take a table knife and smear the peanut butter on a chunk of chocolate and eat
it like that. It tastes the same as a Reese’s peanut butter cup but without all
the extra preservatives and fake sugars. Another option would be to make
homemade peanut butter cups. By making them yourself, you get to choose the
ingredients and how much sugar goes into it. Generally speaking, making your
own will be significantly cheaper. According to the Walmart app in Dec 2024 a
17.6oz bag of Reese’s miniature cups cost $8.54. To make your own you would
need Jiff peanut butter ($3.12 for 16oz), Ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips
($4.64 for 10oz bag), and powdered sugar ($2.22 for 32oz). However, you would
only use less than a cup of sugar ($0.14), and about half the jar of peanut
butter ($1.56). Therefore, to get around the same amount of candy it would cost
you $6.34 to make it. Even less if you were to use cheaper ingredients. It would
also have health benefits instead of empty calories that are bad for you.
For many they believe that eating healthy food means they
have to give up things they love but in reality, that’s simply not true. You don’t
have to give them up, you just have to change the way you eat them. Recently I have
been doing a low sugar diet. Basically, this means only dark chocolate, no store-bought
baked goods, limited amounts of soda, no excess sugary things. After awhile of
doing this the sugary things were no longer appealing to me. I tried eating a
small piece of cake at a birthday party and got nauseous over the extreme
amount of sugary sweetness. When I make things that are sweet at home then I make
the ingredients myself. For example, I made a cranberry orange fluff salad for
thanksgiving. Instead of using premade cranberry Jello puree I made my own
cranberry compote. Instead of store-bought cool whip I made my own with the tiniest
bit of sugar and heavy cream. By making my own I was able to avoid the high fructose
corn syrup and preservatives in everything but the marshmallows. Here is
the recipe for that salad if you’re interested.
Becoming healthier isn’t always easy but it can be fun. We don’t
have to live without our favorite snacks we just have to make them ourselves. Sugar
still can be enjoyed but in its natural form and in moderation. I can guarantee
based on experience that after a while you won’t even crave or find those
highly sugary foods appealing. So go out and explore the world of making your
own candy store. I can guarantee you’ll like it better anyways. Till next time
Grace Marie.
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