The Sugar Blues

by Marcina Wagner, Reference Librarian

If one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2017 includes losing weight, you already know that you need to eliminate or cut down on sugar. Although the consumption of sugar remains controversial—a recent article in the New York Times, “How the Sugar Industry Shifted the Blame to Fat,” reveals that since the 1960s, the industry has downplayed the negative effects of sugar— medical professionals have linked it directly to the obesity epidemic, and Dr. David Kessler, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, claims that it is as addictive as cigarettes. 

In Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, Michael Moss argues that the food industry is jeopardizing our health by creating products that generate cravings for those three ingredients. Perhaps the industry’s interest in its bottom line rather than our well-being will motivate you to ban sugar from your diet. 

Yocum has many vegan cookbooks, The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone, for example, that provide desserts made without sugar although the sweeteners can be as high in calories as sugar. Better yet have fresh fruit for dessert or a snack. If your pantry has a canister of sugar left over from making holiday cookies, here’s an idea:

Make a sugar scrub for yourself or as a gift. The article, “Heal with Herbs” from Organic Gardening, found on ProQuest, offers this moisturizing body scrub, perfect for this wintry time of year.

Recipe
½ cup coconut oil
1 cup sugar
10 drops of your favorite essential oil (I’m going to use lavender.)

Mix the ingredients together then store in a glass jar.

P.S. The Yocum Library owns Sidney W. Mintz’s Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. This book is a classic in the field of Food Studies.