On last night's "Colbert Report," Stephen Colbert was in a "panic" over a sugar shortage. But we aren't really running out of sugar.
The current sugar crisis is political in nature, as explained by Colbert's guest Marion Nestle, NYU professor and author of the book "Food Politics."
But in Colbert's comedy, he did touch on one serious question: what if we had no sugar?
Can you imagine an America with no sugar? Juice would contain nothing but 10% juice. And we'd all be eating uncaramelized apples.
If we had less sugar, we might be able to enjoy foods without them being too sweet. The juice line is particular was hilarious, because we sell "juice cocktails" that are mostly water and high-fructose corn syrup (or even sugar). Juice is sweet.
I was on the plane back from Quebec when I was offered beverages. I asked what kind of juice they had. The flight attendant said orange and cranberry. I was excited to hear that they had cranberry; after all, it wasn't easy to find. I asked if it was 100% cranberry juice, and she got this look on her face. Turns out it was cranberry juice cocktail. The standard for that had become a juice cocktail was "juice." Not in my world.
As Americans, we could use less sugar, and more sugar, instead of high-fructose corn syrup. Politics on sugar shouldn't be the dominant force, people's health should win out.
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