Tina McCarthy had a great article this morning on the Care2 network about ”Ten Surprisingly Sugary Foods,” many of which were certainly surprising. It made me think about sugar- where it comes from and why we want it. Her list was of foods you don’t really expect to be sugary- so she didn’t go into things like candy or soda. Count all of those and it’s amazing how ubiquitous sugar is in our society. Sugar, soy, corn and wheat- in a sense, everything beyond that is just a food additive. We love our sugar. But when did it start?

I read that cane sugar was first used by humans in Polynesia and it came to India through conquest around 510 BCE. From there a series of conquests brought it to Persia, Arabia and then Europe in the 1000’s during the Crusades. It made it to North America on one of Columbus’ boats in 1493. Europe discovered sugar beets in 1747. High-fructose corn syrup came on the scene in the latter half of the 20^th century… And now, well, sugar is everywhere and in everything.

 3 implications for the Earth:

1. What originally was growing in an isolated set of islands is now all over the Earth. We don’t call it an invasive species because we plant it on purpose for agriculture, but it is certainly non-native. Everywhere.
2. Refining, etc. Because we now use it in almost everything, it has made its way into our ecosystems, altering the basic make-up. It messes with our brains and blood chemistry- think about diabetes and alcohol, or the idea of a sweet tooth. It’s called generally accepted addiction, folks. Like coffee.
3. We have created a need for ourselves.

In her 10 sugary foods article, Tina identifies a few groups of foods that bring the sugar when you wouldn’t think they do:

LIQUIDS: (2) Vitamin Water, (7) Juice, (10) Bottled Iced Tea

Anything that isn’t water and claims to be healthy? It’s probably full of sugar. You can even get something that’s 100% juice- but then they add a whole bunch of sugar to it. And she writes that 8 oz. of Snapple Lemon Iced Tea has 24 grams of sugar. 8 oz. of Coca Cola? 26 grams.

BREAKFAST: (1) Breakfast bars, (3) Cereal, (5) Bran Muffins, (6) Dried Fruit, (8)  Flavored Yogurt, (9) Oatmeal

Breakfast is the time when you need a pick-me-up, right? Or maybe we’ve just conditioned ourselves that way. Here we are, waking up every morning and throwing sugar and caffeine into our systems. Lots of am stimulants- how much does that depend on use being conditioned that way as we are young? Sugar hasn’t been around forever- only for the past few hundred years, and most of that time it was a luxury item. We’ve changed our chemistry.

WHAT?!?: (4) Spaghetti Sauce

I used to make my own spaghetti sauce all the time and one of the secrets was to add a little sugar to balance out the acid-y taste in the tomatoes. Not so much that it would make this kind of a list, but I can believe it in the jars.

Photo Credit: tom.ride-earth.org.uk (via Flickr under CCL)