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Sweet! It’s Spring And Maple Sugar Time

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Americans tend to like sweet stuff and most of us eat more of it than we should.

Although we’re warned to be conscious of the amount of sugar we eat, that doesn’t mean never eat anything sweet.  Of course, some people choose not to, but if you do – eat the good stuff – like real maple syrup.

 

Who Made Maple Syrup First?

Maple trees are tapped in early Spring for the sap used to make syrup. The sap is a clear, watery liquid which is boiled down to concentrate it into syrup.

Native Indians in the US and Canada were probably the first producers of maple products. They would make gashes in the trees, collect the sap, let it partially freeze to enrich it, then reduce it by heating, sometimes by dropping heated stones into the collected sap.

 

Ideal Conditions

This year’s harsh winter created great conditions for an incredible maple syrup season. The below freezing nights and above freezing days were ideal and nearly doubled production at some sugar shacks, especially for light grades of syrup.

The syrup color generally depends on the time of the season the sap is collected.  Lighter syrup tastes cleaner and more sugary and usually results from colder temperatures earlier in the season. Dark syrup has a different sugar content, a taste that lingers in your mouth, and usually comes from sap collected later in the season.

 

Some Maple Sugaring Facts

According to the Stamford Museum and Nature Center (CT):

  • About 40 gallons maple sap are needed to make 1 gallon of maple syrup
  • Fresh sap is 2% sugar; maple syrup is 67% sugar
  • A tree must be at least 10 inches in diameter before it can be tapped; each taphole averages 10 gallons of sap a season
  • A sugar maple takes about 40 years to reach 10″ in diameter and there is no permanent damage if only 10% of its sap is collected annually
  • In the US, Vermont is the largest syrup producer, Maine is second, New York is third
  • In 2006 the US produced 1,449,000 gallons of maple syrup — Canada produced over 7 million
  • Maple syrup has 40 calories a tablespoon; corn syrup has 60

 

What’s The Difference Between Real Maple Syrup And Commercial Pancake Syrups?

The sticky stuff, often called pancake syrup, that you likely find in your local diner and in the Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Butterworth’s bottles on your supermarket shelves is not considered “real” maple syrup. That’s because it’s not made from maple sap  but rather from a mixture of corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup,  and a chemical soup of colorings, flavors, and preservatives.

Real maple syrup is graded.  In the US (Canada has different grading) the grading is:

  • Grade A Light Amber:  light amber color, light and mild maple flavor
  • Grade A Medium Amber: medium amber color, a bit more maple flavor, the most popular grade for table use
  • Grade A Dark Amber: dark amber color, strong maple flavor
  • Grade B: dark color, usually used for cooking and baking

 

 

A Healthy Eating Lesson On The Subway

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New York city, uptown #2 train, Saturday night.  Not too crowded, most people are wearing their subway stares – avoiding eye contact, eyes glazed over, ipod earbuds in place, bodies rocking with the motion of the train.  My trip isn’t long enough to pull out something to read, so I start to scan the ads that run above the seats– something I’ve entertained myself with since I was a little kid.

One whole side of the subway car I was in was filled with posters for New York City’s “Are You Pouring On The Pounds” campaign — aimed at teaching people to reduce their sugar intake (and lose or keep off weight) by cutting down on sugary drinks. It also encourages New Yorkers to drink water, seltzer or low-fat milk instead of the sweet stuff.

The posters are filled with liquid pouring out of bottles of soda, “sports” drinks or sweetened iced tea and turning into blobs of fat as it reaches the glass. Large graphics leave you with no doubt about the number of teaspoons or packets of sugar in each drink — or the total amount of liquid sugar that you could drink daily – as shown in the photo above.

For example: a 20 ounce bottle of soda is equivalent to 16 packets of sugar and a 32 ounce gigantic size cup – the kind so popular in movie theaters, gas stations, and arenas — contains the equivalent of 26 packets of sugar.

Do You Forget To Count The Calories You Drink?

It’s hard to overeat without noticing it. But, many people who gain weight — and can’t figure out why — forget to include the calories in what they drink.  Sugary drinks can add hundreds of calories and they don’t even make you feel full.

On average, Americans now consume 200 to 300 more calories each day than 30 years ago, with nearly half of those calories coming from sugar-sweetened drinks. A survey of adult New Yorkers shows that more than 2 million drink at least one sugar sweetened soda or other sweetened beverage each day – often at 250 calories a pop. Teenagers who drink sugary beverages get an average of 360 calories from them each day.  (They’d have to walk 70 city blocks to use up that many calories.)

Some Facts

A teaspoon of sugar weighs about four grams and each gram of sugar has four calories – or about 16 calories per teaspoon of sugar. On average, Americans consume about 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day – the equivalent of around 350 calories.  (Added sugar refers to the extra, empty calorie, added sweeteners, not the sugar that naturally occurs in foods like fruit and milk.)

The quickest way to decrease some of that sugar is to cut down on soda and sweetened drinks.   Sugary drinks, including sweetened tea or sweetened water that claims to be healthy, account for about one-third of added sugars.

Eating large quantities of sugar can lead to obesity and health problems like diabetes and heart disease. The American Heart Association recommends a daily max of six teaspoons of added sugar for women and nine teaspoons for men.  That’s quite a bit less than 22 teaspoons Americans generally average.  Too many spoonfuls of sugar may create the need for medicine rather than making it easily go down!

Does The Label On The Front Of The Food Package Tell You The Whole Truth?

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I was recently helping a client learn how to interpret nutrition and ingredients labels of food products.  He clearly wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of spending the extra time to read labels.

It does take time.  But, you don’t have to do it for everything.  It’s particularly important to get a feeling for products that might have a laundry list of ingredients.

It’s also really important if something screams “healthy,” “loaded with fiber,”  “reduced calorie,”  “contains a day’s worth of nutrients,” and a whole host of other “you’ve got to buy me because I’m great for your health” claims.

 

Does The Front Of The Box Tell You The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth?

There just might be a kernel of truth surrounded by a great big blob of calories, sugar, chemicals and other stuff.

My client pulled out an Oats and Chocolate Fiber One Chewy Bar that his wife had bought for him.   She thought that with140 calories per bar and a label emblazoned with “35% daily value of fiber,” it must be a good snack.

The Facts

According to the nutrition label, each bar has 140 calories, 4 grams of fat (1.5 grams are saturated fat), no cholesterol, 95mg of sodium, 29 grams of total carbohydrates (9 grams of which are dietary fiber and 10 grams are sugars), and 2 grams of protein.

The calorie count isn’t bad, there isn’t too much sodium, there are 9 grams of fiber, but there are also 1.5 grams of saturated fat and only 2 grams of protein.

The ingredients label:  chicory root extract, semisweet chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural flavor), whole grain oats, high maltose corn syrup, rice flour, barley flakes, sugar, canola oil, glycerin, maltodextrin, honey, tricalcium phosphate, palm kernel oil, soy lecithin, salt, nonfat milk, fructose, malt extract, cocoa processed with alkali, baking soda, caramel color, natural flavor, mixed tocopherols added to retain freshness.

Hmmm:  It seems that eight ingredients are sugars or forms of sugar:   # 2 (semisweet chocolate chips), 4 (high maltose corn syrup, 7 (sugar), 9 (glycerin), 10 (maltodextrin), 11 (honey), 17 (fructose), 18 (malt extract).

Not only are there a whole lot of ingredients for a 140 calorie bar, there sure is a whole lot of sugar.  Nine grams of fiber may be 35% of the daily recommended amount of fiber, but this bar is filled with sugar – 8 of its ingredients are sugar and this measly140 calories is using up a full 10% of the recommended daily value of sugar for a 2000 calorie diet.

 

What Do You Think?

The 35% of your daily fiber label on the front of the package is true – BUT – with this much sugar, 1.5 grams of saturated fat and only 2 grams of protein, is this a healthy food?

 

 

When Your Mouth’s On Fire From Red Hot Chili Peppers

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I was recently in a restaurant that specializes in chili – hot, hotter, and hottest.  I happened to be facing a table of four large thirtyish guys. One guy cherrily ordered, “hottest.”

Shortly after this big, burly guy dug into his chili – with gusto, I might add, he was sitting glassy eyed, rivulets of sweat dripping off of his bald head, practically unable to speak.  The waitress, obviously having seen this reaction before, came running over with a glass of milk with orders to, “Drink up.”

Have you ever had this reaction to very spicy food — maybe from that dish you made when you got a little too zealous with the chili powder? Or perhaps, like this guy, from being a little too macho and ordering “hottest” after assuring everyone that you love really hot and spicy food.  Or maybe when you accidentally grabbed the wings known as red hots at a Superbowl party.

What Causes The Burn?

Capsaicin is mostly responsible for the “heat” in chili peppers.  To stop the mouth flames you need to neutralize capsaicin’s burning heat that binds to your taste buds. Capsaisin is soluble in both alcohol and fat so full fat dairy and alcohol are solutions.

What To Do To Tame The Flame

What do you do as your mouth is sending a five-alarm signal, your face is on fire, and you are sweating enough to water every plant in the room?  Here are some solutions that are easy – even when you’re in a restaurant or someone else’s home.

  • The most common flame relievers are full fat dairy, acid, and sugar – although some people also swear by nut and seed butters  (peanut, almond, tahini).  They may all have some degree of effectiveness.
  • Ice and water will feel pretty good, but only temporarily. The burning pain will come roaring back. Because capsaicin is soluble in alcohol and fat, sometimes beer is suggested as a solution. The alcohol helps neutralize the capsaicin molecules.  But beer is about 95% water and won’t really neutralize the capsaicin clinging to your tongue.
  • High fat dairy products like milk, cheese, sour cream, yogurt, and ice cream coat your mouth and can break the bonds capsaicin forms with the nerve endings – and, since they’re cold, they feel good, too. Aha! An explanation for why spicy Mexican food is often served with sour cream.
  • Sugars bind to pain receptors more readily than capsaicin so sweet things may work, too.   Sugar, fruit, honey, molasses, even carrots have all been used.  Highly sweetened non-carbonated drinks may work.  Try some sweet tea.   Hoisin may work for Asian dishes, Lassi (sweet and dairy combination) if you are in an Indian restaurant.
  • Acid can cut through the heat so use vinegar, lemon or lime juice, anything acidic that doesn’t mess with the taste.  Beer with lime?

Ever over spice something that you’ve cooked?  There are ways to remedy that, too.  Check out my next post.

Do Fat Free Calories Count?

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Do you think you are being oh-so-virtuous by grabbing the reduced fat cookies or crackers off of the supermarket shelf?  I hate to disillusion you, but sometimes there isn’t a big difference in calories between the low or fat free version and the regular version of the same food.

In many reduced and fat free foods the fat is replaced with flour, sweeteners, or other starches and fillers which make the reduction in calories very small or, sometimes, nonexistent.

Reduced Fat Snack Food Hits The Supermarket Shelves

When fat free and reduced fat foods – especially snack foods like cookies, crackers, and chips hit the market — they were touted as products to help with the rising tide of obesity. Even things like pretzels, marshmallows, and gummy bears, foods that never contained fat to begin with, had “fat free” plastered all over their labels.

These fat and reduced fat foods certainly were not a panacea and consumers began to realize that they weren’t the magic bullet they were hoping for. Consumers choosing these foods were eating less fat  — but — they were still eating too many calories.

Calories Are Calories

Whether they’re from fat or carbs or protein, a calorie is a calorie.  If you eat more calories than you need you probably will gain weight. Reducing the amount of fat that you eat is one way to limit your overall calorie intake – as long as you don’t replace those fat calories with calories from another source.

Fat Free Is Not Calorie Free

Unfortunately, many people interpret “fat free” as “calorie free.”

Eating reduced or fat free foods isn’t always the answer to losing weight –especially when you eat more of the reduced fat food than you would of the regular one. And, because a lot of fat free foods aren’t very filling, it’s easier to eat a lot of calories and not feel full.

How Many Calories?

Compare the calories in the reduced or fat free versions to the regular version:

  • Reduced fat peanut butter, 2 tablespoons:  187 calories;  Regular peanut butter, 2 tablespoons:  191 calories
  • 3 reduced fat chocolate chip cookies, (30 g):  118 calories;  3 regular chocolate chip cookies, (30 g): 142 calories
  • 2 fat free fig cookies:  102 calories;  2 regular fig cookies:  111 calories
  • 1 small (2½ inch) low fat blueberry muffin:  131 calories; 1 small (2 ½ inch) regular blueberry muffing:  138 calories
  • 2 tablespoons fat free caramel topping:  103 calories; 2 tablespoons homemade (with butter) caramel topping:  103 calories
  • ½ cup fat free vanilla frozen yogurt (<1% fat):  111 calories;  ½ cup whole milk vanilla frozen yogurt (3-4% fat):  133 calories
  • Low fat cereal bar: 130 calories;  Regular cereal bar: 140 calories
  • 16 Low Fat Wheat Thins:  130 calories;  16 regular wheat thins: 150 calories
  • 3 low fat Oreo cookies: 150 calories;  3 original Oreo cookies: 160 calories