Between candy canes and gingerbread men, visions of sugar plum fairies are no joke during the holidays — 'tis the season of the sugar rush.
Now that it's January, many of us are trying to make good on food-related resolutions. Including Rachel, who says:
"I personally have a fairly strong sweet tooth. So imagine my dismay when I found out I had gestational diabetes, a condition in which pregnancy hormones have difficulty processing blood sugar. Fortunately, my condition was temporary, and when we came home from the hospital after my son was born, I celebrated by scarfing down a bunch of Halloween candy! But the experience made me much more conscious about the prevalence of sugars in American diets — and aware of Minnesota's pivotal role in a diabetes epidemic we're facing."
Two of the state's main agricultural products are corn and beets, both used for sweeteners. As recently explained in a Star Tribune article, "if sugar is the new tobacco, Minnesota is the new Kentucky."
Some of our biggest companies, Cargill and General Mills, have long been profiting from sugar, but have lately taken steps to cut back. General Mills has been reducing the sugar in its kids cereals and Yoplait yogurts. A few years ago, Cargill developed a natural sugar substitute called Truvia from the stevia plant.
Could sugar-free may be the next gluten-free?
Meanwhile, there's a great, unbiased, non-corporate source for eating healthier, smarter, better: Nutrition Action newsletter, published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
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