Suiker Addict

Food can illuminate lots about the region it is served in. Belgian chocolate. French wine. Chilean sea bass.American…Sugar?

By Dutch standards, I’m a sugar (suiker) addict. It’s not my fault, I plead! In the U.S, sugar goes into food without our knowledge. When I bought peanut butter here last week, I discovered for the first time what actual smashed peanuts taste like—absent sugar. Then I realized how much sugar must be in American peanut butter. Probably a cup. Here, the contrast between food modified by sugar and the real thing is made grossly apparent.

Before Europe, I would not call myself a sugar-lover. Let me tell you about my childhood: whenever I went to birthday parties I was taught to ask for water and decline soft drinks, which were disallowed in my house; sugary cereals were off-limits (except lucky charms which I love, and were given as a treat.) However, to be an American, along with liking everything supersized, is to be addicted to sugar (unless you grow all your own food and make ketchup from scratch.) We cannot help it that everything we eat is loaded with saccharine—even the things we think are healthy. Think of all the ingredients on the label that you have never heard of…

About the only cereal here that I can find at home is Raisin Bran. And even that is different—bits of dried banana, apple and nuts compliment the flakes. And this: the raisins have no dusting of sugar. What!? No sugar? It never dawned on me that Raisin Bran could be any other way. I never thought about the sugar before. Afterall, I thought I was chosing the healthy option from among the likes of tasty Fruit Loops and Coco Puffs. Like McDonalds, who tailors their menu to fit cuisine norms around the world, Kellogs cereal also adjusts.

It is scary to learn something new about your taste buds: they have been conditioned to expect the sweet. I feel bereft without juice each morning (most juice we drink in the States is not even pure juice I am learning…) I load my chai lattes, tea and coffee with either a spoonful of honey or sugar. The Dutch do not put honey in their tea or sugar in coffee.

To an American (me), natural cereal tastes like dog food. We consider food with less sugar, diet food, and inherently less tasty. Not only do Americans put sugar in our food, but worse, all sorts of sugar substitutes of which only chemists know the composition of. Perhaps we eat so much high fructose corn syrup because the government gives enormous subsidies to corn, thus helping to negate any original nutritional content.

And you wonder why Americans are obese. Experts around the country are scratching their noggins, trying to come up with highfalutin solutions to one of Americans largest killers. The answer is comically simple. What would American’s average body mass index look like if every morsel of food had fifty percent less sugar? Or 100% less, as seems to be the case over here. At first we would cry a bit. I’m missing sugar right now. (As we speak I am sprinkling sugar over my cereal.) Eventually though, I bet our bodies would adjust. Wish me luck.