Election Night...attention will surely be more on what went into the ballot box than what goes into our mouths, and here in Virginia, some of us may find ourselves grabbing a plate of comfort food and/or a stiff drink, or several, as we face a possible Republican sweep of key state offices.
This isn't the place, though, to rant about the state party's big time ball-dropping (IMHO) after voters of the the Old Dominion actually went for Obama a year ago. Instead, let's talk about grabbing a plate of healthier food -- and how in trying to do that, some of us might possibly get fooled. Let's talk about Hidden Fat, Sugar and Salt.
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This evening we're continuing a group review of David Kessler's The End of Overeating, started by Edward Spurlock, whose last contribution, on Ch. 19 -- with links to previous installments -- is here.
We learned earlier in the book that "hyperpalatable" foods – defined as those loaded with fat, salt and sugar –- can virtual compel lab animals -- and many people -- to seek them out, to keep eating until the food is all gone, and to repeat these activities until they become settled habits, if not actual addictions. Readers of the series may be yawning by now at these truisms. The End of Overeating is one of those hologramic works that contains the message in every chapter -- but with different evidence, emphasis, examples and applications.
Chapter 20, "What Consumers Don't Know," emphasizes the sneaky presence of added fat, sugar and salt in everyday items and how we, the consumers, may participate in kidding ourselves and feeding our habits unawares.
A lot of people out there have absorbed the message that excess fat, salt and sugar are not good things. As a result, they tend to report not liking things that they are aware contain a lot of these ingredients. But offer them something in a focus-group situation that is not labeled or misleadingly labeled...and they are likely to go for what's high in salt, sugar and/or far, all the while stating they like it "because it tastes good," and is -- according to their perception -- not too fatty, sugary or salty.
Fat, sugar and salt seem to do their magic on us whether we consciously taste them or not. People will go for them even while attributing the attraction to other qualities, such as the visual appeal of the food or a single healthy ingredient, while neglecting the layering and loading that can turn fried, cheese-laden broccoli into a potential heart attack trigger.
Have you ever deconstructed a fast-food burger? Acutely aware of their addictive potential, I did this the last two times I was stuck with such a burger in a setting with no very good choices.
Lift off the top half of the bun. Look at the cute litle sesame seeds, the whiteness within, feel the smooshy texture, take a bite of just the bun. It tastes sweet! Yes, Kessler reports, it is likely to rank 7 or 8 on a sweetness scale of 15. (You may also notice that while lettuce shreds were spilling messily from around the edges of the sandwich, there are precious few lettuce shreds in the middle.)
With its also sweetened sauce or ketchup, the burger might be uneatable to adults were it not for the sharp flavors of onion and pickle that block the sugar from consciousness. But the sugar still does its work. Sodium, too, if you look at the ingredients list, is almost off the charts.
Take the burger apart and consume the layers one at a time, and it is much less addictive. I threw away part of the bread, which by itself, was uninteresting at best.
Large amounts of salt in bread also are needed to cover up "the bitter taste of flour," one of Kessler's sources alleges. This one really gets me. Bitter flour is rancid flour. That is even true of corn flour, which goes rancid very quickly due to the large amount of oil. I was able to verify this myself the other day after buying corn flour ground right in front of us at the historic flour mill at Phillipsburg Manor, Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. We made corn bread right away and there was not a trace of bitter. (And froze the rest of the flour. Freezing I believe destroys Vitamin E, but eating rancid flour is worse!)
Some producers hide sugar, Kessler alleges, by using multiple types in order to push sweeteners below first place in the ingredients list. His example is Kellogg's Sugar Frosted Flakes.
Ingredients (emphasis in this and other quotes added by me):
MILLED CORN, SUGAR, MALT FLAVORING, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SALT, SODIUM ASCORBATE AND ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), NIACINAMIDE, IRON, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), VITAMIN A PALMITATE, FOLIC ACID, BHT (PRESERVATIVE), VITAMIN B12, AND VITAMIN D.
Yes, malt flavoring is a sweetener:
Malt flavoring is most often derived from barley. Malt flavoring is typically a sweet, light flavor that can be added to ice creams, milk, puddings and many other sweet foods and beverages.
Frosted Flakes have 110 calories per 1.1. ounces, including 11 grams of sugar, according to the maker. This, a gram-teaspoon conversion shows, is 2.6 teaspoons of sugar. The same serving also contains 16 grams of other carbohydrates and 1 gram of protein. I don't know how many people measure out exactly 1.1 ounces.
Another Kessler target in this chapter is salad dressings. Ranch, he states, owes its popularity -- especially with kids -- to being sweet.
Browsing around for more on this, I happened on a mail-order site that specializes in single-use or travel-size packages of everything! If you're susceptible to cute, it might be worth a visit. Visions of tiny gift baskets dance in the head...or what about taking on that tedious plane ride a 2-ounce jar of caviar and a tiny package of gourmet, organic whole-grain crackers? (You could also get youself some of those mini packets of peanuts the air lines are too cheap to offer any more...for a few cents each.)
Oops, got distracted. Anyway, this mail-order site conveniently sells single-serving packets of many salad dressings and has the ingredients listed. Here's what they show for a Ranch dressing:
Kraft® Ranch Dressing...1.5 oz travel size salad dressing in individually sealed single serving pouch. Ingredients: Soybean oil, water, vinegar, sugar, egg yolks, salt, contains less than 2% of whey, garlic juice, natural buttermilk flavor (buttermilk, natural flavor, dried sour cream, (cultured cream, salt), modified food starch, lactic acid, citric acid, karaya gum), xanthan gum, with sorbic acid and calcium disodium edta as preservative, phosphoric acid, polysorbate 60, spice, dried parsley, lemon juice concentrate, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, natural flavor.
BTW, "natural flavor" often means free glutamate, the same active ingredient at MSG. Sugar is there all right, but it's also in many other popular dressings, even
Kraft® Mayonnaise...Ingredients: Soybean oil, water, eggs, vinegar, contains less than 2% of egg yolks, lemon juice concentrate, salt, sugar, dried onions, dried garlic, paprika, natural flavor, calcium disodium edta (to protect flavor)
and
Kraft® Free Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing...Fat Free. Ingredients: water, sugar, apple cider vinegar, vinegar, salt, contains less than 2% of cucumber juice, raspberry juice concentrate, onion juice, lemon juice concentrate, xanthan gum, propylene glycol alginate, modified food starch, citric acid, with potassium sorbate and calcium disodium edta as preservatives, poppy seeds, vitamin E acetate, red 40, dried garlic
and
Kens® Fat Free Honey Dijon Dressing...Fat Free. Ingredients: buttermilk, high fructose corn syrup, distilled vinegar, maltodextrin, dijon mustard (distilled vinegar, water, mustard seed, salt, white wine, spices), honey, invert syrup, contains less than 2% of: cellulose gel and cellulose gum, salt, sour cream solids (milk), garlic, non fat dry milk, sugar, spices, potassium sorbate and calcium disodium edta as preservatives, xanthan gum, titanium dioxide, egg white, onion, phosphoric acid, propylene glycol alginate
Uhhh....invert syrup?
Inverted or invert sugar syrup is a sucrose-based syrup, produced by splitting each sucrose disaccharide molecule into its component monomers, glucose and fructose. The splitting is achieved through the action of invertase (a glycoside hydrolase enzyme), or an acid. Comparing solutions with the same dissolved weight of sugar, inverted syrups are sweeter than sucrose solutions.
The glucose present in inverted sugar syrup is substantially more hygroscopic than sucrose. This means that the syrup tends to keep products made with it moist for longer than when sucrose is used alone.
And, while sugar is not added to the traditional variety, sweetness is part of the appeal even of gourmet balsamic vinegar, as the late grape picking and the production method concentrate the grape sugar. Balsamic vinegar has 3 grams of sugar per tablespoon, in contrast to regular wine vinegars, with virtually none.
Take-away from this, same as many other chapters: check ingredients. You can find hidden and potentially addictive salt, sugar and fat not only in fast food but in other restaurants as well as grocery-store items.
Sharp and hot flavors can disguise potentially addicting sweetners, but they have better uses -- on their own, they can jazz up many a dull dish. Less oil and salt may be needed, for instance, in a soup or a dish of beans by adding a generous spash of hot sauce.
Do you have a favorite hot or sharp flavored condiment? Please read down and fill out the poll past the diary roster, and sign up for a diary if you wish by replying to the tip jar!
(BTW, verjuice is the juice of unripe grapes, used in medieval cooking and now becoming available commercially. Anybody tried it?)
Scheduled WHEE diaries:
November 4
Weds AM - ???
Weds PM - Edward Spurlock - Geek My Fitness: "He's the DJ, I'm the Rider"
November 5
Thurs AM - cdkipp
Thurs PM - ???
November 6
Fri AM - ???
Fri PM - ???
November 7
Sat AM - ???
Sat PM - Edward Spurlock (Kessler, Ch. 21)
November 8
Sun AM - louisev
Sun PM - ???
November 9
Mon AM - NC Dem
Mon PM - ???
November 10
Tues AM - ???
Tues PM - Clio2 (Kessler, Ch. 22)
Note, I may have to exit the discussion at short notice in the next couple of hours, but will be back for sure later to read all comments and update the schedule!