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sugar

The $4 Loaf

by Jeff on September 24, 2009

I just got back from the local bakery, and I need to confess, I love it there.  It always smells so good, and they have the freshest bread!  It’s called the Bread Basket Bakery, and it’s great for the area.  It always smells so good in there, and the breads are GREAT! Anyway, without further ado, the reasoning.

This bread is good, but is it really $4 worth of good?  That depends on whom you ask.  Many of the loaves of bread at the larger super markets (kroger, safeway, etc) costs around $2.  However, there is more to the cost than meets the eye, and you have to choose if the lower cost is truly worth it.

The ingridents on a standard loaf of Roman meal are as follows:  Coarse whole wheat flour, water, enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, iron, folic acid), high fructose corn syrup, yeast, vital wheat gluten, whole wheat flakes, contains less than 2% of the following: soybean oil, honey, calcium carbonate, whole rye flakes, defatted flax, salt, molasses, yeast nutrient (calcium sulfate, ammonium chloride, azodicarbonamide), dough conditioners (ascorbic acid, sodium stearoyl lactylate), calcium propionate (mold inhibitor), soy lecithin. Allergen information, contains: wheat, soy.

That is alot of stuff. This is just bread we are talking about, too.  Do you even know what azodicarbonamide or sodium stearoyl lactylate are?  Or do you know what sort of effects they have on your health?  And what is High Fructose Corn syrup doing in your bread?

For each two slices, there is 5 grams of sugar.  That’s alot, for just the slices of bread.  According to mypyramid.gov (the sugars/sweets category has completely dissapeared and is now part of your “discresiionary calories”)  But if you follow a typical 2,000 calorie diet, 1,735 of these calories would need to be for essential nutrients, and the final 265 would be leftover for sweets, fats or beverages. If you are picking up 5 grams of sugar just from the bread of the sandwich, How much are you picking up in other foods you are eating?

The bread I get at the bakery (9 Grain Bread) has the following ingreidents:  Whole weat flour, unbleached wheat flour, sunflower seeds, rye, barley, corn millet, oats, flax, buckwheat, yeast, water, honey, molasses and salt.

I dont know about you, but i dont see anything in there that I cant pronounce, and even given my limited knowledge of grains, I dont see anything that I am not sure exactly what it is.

So, do you enjoy picking up your “dietary allowance” of sugars in odd places like bread, instead of neat places like candy bars?  Personally, when im eating candy, I know that im ingesting sugars, and will have to work them off, or watch my consumption, but things like sliced bread, I just dont think about sugar when I’m eating it.

Aside from the health benefits of the bread, it’s also produced locally, and doesnt need to be shipped in any from one location to another.  Yes, the grain may not ALL come from Wyoming (although I hope some of it does) it still is not being shipped as a finished product from anywhere but the store to my house.  Good for the environment and good for your health.

Trying to stay healthy by lowering your sugar content and getting submarined by sliced bread doesnt sound fun to me.

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The Sugar Tax

by Jeff on September 23, 2009

People have been suggesting that there be some sort of tax on soft drinks.  This has been floated by some cities, (I believe NYC), and has failed to gain much traction.  Today I’m going to break the issue apart to see if it really is worth it.

Why tax sugary drinks?

In this article, they review the reasons why to tax sugary drinks, a few being that it’s a good way to close the deficit and reduce obesity.  I think that this (in theory) is a good idea.  I have seen that if you are born after the year 2000, 1 in 3 of you will develop diabetes at some point.  I believe that this counts people who are born with the disease, but the high number is due to increases in type 2 (formerly called adult onset) diabetes.  It can lead to heart disease and other vascular conditions.   In my mind, this represents a ticking time bomb moving through the healthcare system, similar to the effect that the baby boomers are expected to have on the social security system.  The thing is, this disease (they type 2) portion is preventable.  Things that can cause the disease are lack of exercise, too much sugar and a poor diet.  None of these problems are caused by anyone but the person with diabetes.   So, once again, the government is looking to step in to protect people from themselves.

Is this an intrusion on your personal choice and liberty?

You may think so at first, and so did the CEO of Coca-Cola.  He said “I have never seen it work where a government tells people what to eat and what to drink” to a rotary club .  Unfortunately, this sort of thing is regulated all the time, although you may not see it.  They are regulating and propping up prices for crops, and have been for years.  Corn is one of the ones that gets the biggest subsidies, and is currently used frequently in the soft drinks.   So as it stands, the government is cutting the price of corn and the could be taxing it on another end.  Why not just let the market work?

Do you need to be protected?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, self reliance is pretty under-rated (and under practiced) these days.   Why should someone just wait for another party (in this case, the governemt) to help them do what they should be doing for themselves? Our health is the one thing we have a fairly high degree of control over, and is also the one thing that can slow us down upon retirement.  If you’ve worked hard all your life to provide for your family, and have neglected your health in the process, the time you plan on spending solely with loved ones will be cut shorter that you would like because you didnt take care of yourself.

The bottom line is this: There hasnt been many people taking care of themselves, so the government is looking at prodding them in the right direction using fiscal means.

Questions to the readers

  1. Do you want the government taking care of you?
  2. If yes, do you think they do a good job?
  3. Do you enjoy sodas or other sugary drinks?

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