Give Me Some Sugar

When we lived in Little Rock, I heard a grandmother called "Meemaw" say to a child, "Give me some sugar." The little one ran over and hugged and kissed her.

I'm addicted to this expression. I think it's the sweetest thing since ... sugar.

But I think of it every time I drop a teaspoon in my coffee or add a cup to baked goods.

"Give me some sugar ..."

Ever since the beginning of Fresh Mouth, we took heat for still including sugar in our diet. I vowed once we got rockin' and rollin' on the initial phase of our experiment to address the sugar issue. With Halloween around the corner, I'm trying to get a handle on family intake.

I seem to have the secret sweet tooth. I drink straight up sugar in my two-to-three-cup coffee habit in lieu of artifical sweeteners. I may be saving my brain and body from the unknown or alleged effects of aspartame and the like, but my teeth are suffering. Since I gave up the artificial stuff in February, I've had three cavities. Before this, I only ever had two. And I floss and brush at least twice daily. It's my sweetened coffee habit that's killing me.

The baby eats the least amount. He indulges in the homemade baked goods, but his diet is primarily fresh produce, meats and dairy. Aidan and Patrick get the most in everything from organic peanut butter and cereal to dried cranberries.

Our single biggest family sugar source is yogurt.

This week I capitalized on seasonal pumpkin puree sales for a lowfat pumpkin bread that's healthy and spicy. We're eating it for breakfast with yogurt with less added sugar - the new Fage brand yogurt with 7g of sugar per serving versus our old Stonyfield Farm vanilla with 34 g per serving. We really love Stonyfield, but it's because it has more sugar than our Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream that has 21 g of sugar per serving.

One cup of sugar equals about 200 grams. With our pumpkin bread of 10 slices, each serving has about 15 g. Add that to the 7g of Fage yogurt, and we're still coming in less than the Stonyfield yogurt serving.

This week Consumer Reports released a report about kids and sugar cereals that noted:

"The bad news is that 23 of the top 27 cereals marketed to children rated only Good or Fair for nutrition. There is at least as much sugar in a serving of Kellogg's Honey Smacks and 10 other rated cereals as there is in a glazed doughnut from Dunkin’ Donuts. Two cereals, Kellogg's Honey Smacks and Post Golden Crisp, are more than 50 percent sugar (by weight) and nine are at least 40 percent sugar. And that's not the only issue. Although Kellogg's Rice Krispies has only 4 grams of sugar per serving, it got only a Fair rating, largely because it is higher in sodium and has zero dietary fiber. Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Bite Size earned a healthful cereal score of Good; it has 12 grams of sugar per serving but is also very low in sodium and has a hefty 6 grams of fiber." More ...

We still eat some cereals including "Earth's Best Organic On-the-Go O's" which come in at only 4 g per serving.

Our pre-Halloween blitz is about less sugar. I'm reducing my portions in my coffee, and am making recipes for the family with less. Here's this week's pumpkin bread recipe and a wonderful pesto that I made with bushels of basil I got from a neighbor. He works at a vineyard owned by Italians who picked their plants this week after an early freeze.

Rosie's Pesto
from In the Kitchen with Rosie by Rosie Daley
Note: My changes to the recipe are parenthetical ...

1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
2-5 garlic cloves
1/4 cup pine nuts ( I used walnuts)
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
(I also added about an 1/8 cup of olive oil to moisten this mixture.)

Put the basil, garlic, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese in a blender or food processor. Turn the machine on and drizzle in lemon juice (and oil if you choose to use it). Continue to puree until a smooth paste is formed.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe
Note: My changes to the recipe are parenthetical ...

1-1/2 cups of unbleached, all-purpose flour (I used half and half white and wheat flour.)
1-1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 cup firmly-packed brown sugar (I reduced this to about 2/3 cup)
1/2 cup low-fat or nonfat buttermilk
1 large egg
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1/4 cup chocolate chips (I elminated these)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves together in a small bowl.
In a large bowl, beat pumpkin puree, brown sugar, buttermilk, egg and oil together. Add dry ingredients to wet, stirring just until moistened (overmixing will cause the bread to become too tough). Add chocolate chips.

Pour into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour.

Nugget o' the Moment: "Give me some sugar." Or a little less anyway.