How to Be a Conscious Eater

48

LIMITING ADDED SUGAR

T

he final entry in our log of sugar-related “good intention,

wrong abstention” is taking sugar avoidance to such

extremes that you miss out on some of life’s greatest

pleasures.

The biggest problem with added sugars in the American diet

is the ubiquity in the food supply. An estimated three-fourths

of all packaged foods have had sugar added by manufacturers.

In turn, our palates have grown so primed for sweetness that

we require greater and greater amounts of sweet to truly taste

it. If you’ve ever experimented with a no-added-sugar rule for

yourself, you’ll notice after just a week how incredible a ripe,

fresh tomato tastes, or that biting into a grape provides an

explosion of satisfying sweetness. Eating a peach can be pure

bliss, and never before had you thought of carrots as candy.

Reacquainting your taste buds with the natural sweetness

from whole foods, especially fruits and vegetables, is one of

many great reasons to seriously drop your added-sugar intake.

But in doing so, I urge

you to not go off the deep

end. It doesn’t have to be

all or nothing to reap the

majority of the benefits.

For a more sustainable

approach, channel your

energy toward catching

the irksome ways added

sugar has crept into foods

we wouldn’t expect—from

Stuff that Comes from Factories 201

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