Pages

Saturday, February 18, 2012

I bought a five pound bag of sugar today, which I'm noting here to remind me. I'm curious to see how long it lasts. Five pounds, four people, this should give me a decent idea of how much sugar we consume. Just out of curiosity.

I'm going to guess, maybe...five pounds a month? It doesn't seem like I buy sugar all that often. I don't buy processed foods. I never buy jelly. We do eat honey but we don't cook with it. Very occasionally we have molasses on biscuits. Treats out of the house will be excluded. But this will still be a decent rough estimate. Oh wait, plus chocolate chips. We do eat a titch of chips...hum.

"USDA advises people who eat a 2,000-calorie healthful diet to try to limit themselves to about 10 teaspoons of added sugars per day. In fact, the average American does not eat a healthful diet, but consumes 20 teaspoons of added sugars per day." Most of which is consumed in soft drinks. We don't buy soda. Its too expensive. The kids drink milk or water. We don't even buy juice. And frankly, I can't imagine eating 10 tsps. of sugar a day....unless its a baking day. But in general, no.

Its good to think this through. There are about 113 teaspoons of sugar in a pound. Which puts us at about 4 teaspoons per person per day, if we are indeed consuming a five pound bag every month or so. And honestly, I doubt we are even eating 4 teaspoons a day.  ...except for chocolate chips.  

Maybe I'm in denial, buying bags of sugar more often than I realize? Time and the blog will tell. Shall I count bags of chocolate chips as well?  uh oh...

2 comments:

  1. mmm...sugar is a beast. I stopped drinking soft drinks at the age of 12 when I realised how PACKED they are with sugar and other rather unsavory things. Your kids are so healthy with their milk and water Kat! Missing you guys :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Okay, today I ate SO MANY girl scout cookies before I went to go work that I gave myself a stomach ache.

    Ridiculous.

    How much sugar is in thin mints? I don't know! Sigh. ten teaspoons of sugar? Possibly.

    It wasn't good. I can tell you that.

    But still don't leave me alone with those coconut circle ones. Thanks for standing up for reality, K. love, Val

    ReplyDelete