Sugar, You Sneaky Bastard

I've had a fascination with sugar lately. The world is suddenly realizing that too much sugar leads to health problems and weight issues. As kids we're taught to eat sugar in moderation and parents fear that sugar high that will leave their children bouncing off the walls. So as much as we're all aware that too much sugar is a bad thing, we weren't ever told exactly why.

My understanding is still in its beginning stages, but I've read a book or two, a few articles, and watched some documentaries that reveal how sugar affects the body. Of course, we can find sugar in fruits and vegetables, but this is the naturally occuring fructose that our bodies are able to use productively because of the fiber that accompanies it. It's that added sugar that'll get ya. I've considered myself to be a relatively healthy person for a while now, but not until fairly recently did it occur to me to check for added sugars in products like pasta sauce, ketchup, peanut butter, cereal, yogurt, and milk. I love all these things and therefore they should love me. But it's an unrequited love, sadly. A good amount of sugar that is found outside of your produce is refined (aka Sucrose) and therefore stripped of any nutritional quality. Instead of turning into energy your body can use, it creates a huge imbalance that, in short, can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and weight gain if you're consistently consuming too much. The American Heart Association estimates that we should be intaking no more than 25 grams of added sugar, which excludes the delicious fruits and milk that most of us adore, but we consume a rough average of 83 grams each day. That's madness.

I am no nutrition expert, but I've definitely discovered a passion there, one that I plan to pursue in a way I haven't yet figured out. The funny thing is I was planning on sharing two chocolate bark recipes today and now I've ironically rambled on about the dangers of added sugar instead. Don't get me wrong, I love sugar and indulge in something sweet every day. But it's all about moderation, people.

As I mentioned, this post went in a different direction than intended. Ah, the beauty of free-writing. For a couple of reasons, I'm not going to share a recipe for sweet treats at this moment; One being my current focus on store-bought products that should never have added sugar in them, and two being that I just made SUCH a delicious pasta sauce from scratch. And I have to share that now, instead. I would like to preface this creation with a fun fact from my refrigerator. I have a bottle of Kroger Pasta Sauce whose third ingredient listed is sugar, hitting your system with a whopping 9 grams per 1/2 cup. I don't know about you, but I use more than half a cup of sauce on my pasta, so you do the math. It baffles me that companies feel the need to add sugar to a product like this one where the focus should be to bring out the naturally sweet tomato flavors with various spices. That's the entire purpose of spices.

Veggie Madness

Ingredients

Makes 2 Servings

• Big Gulp of Olive Oil
• 1/2 White Onion
• 2 Cloves Garlic, crushed and diced
• Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, to your liking but don't leave them out!
• 1 14.5-ounce Can Diced Tomatoes
• 4 oz. Tomato Paste (Smallest size I can find is 6 oz)
• 1 Cup Packed Spinach, shredded
• 2 Zucchini & Spiralizer Tool
• Parmesan, for topping

Instructions

1. Heat saucepan over medium-low with olive oil, add onions and saute for a few minutes until they begin to look translucent 

2. Add garlic and crushed red pepper flakes, saute together for another few minutes until the mixture becomes very fragrant 

3. Add in the can of diced tomatoes, including the juices, and stir

4. Add the tomato paste next, stir well, and throw in all of your spinach

5. Continue stirring occasionally. While the sauce is cooking, make your zucchini "noodles" by pressing one end into the Spiralizer and twisting against the blade. 

6. When the spinach has cooked down into the sauce, you're set to go! 

7. Top half of your zucchini pasta with half (or more...) of the sauce and sprinkle in some Parmesan for added flavor

If you don't have a spiralizer, you should get one. It was gifted to me (Go Ari!) for Christmas and I never owned one before. Obviously you can cook regular pasta to serve your sauce with, but I love the extra dose of veggies. 

Fresh food, I love you. It really is a privelege, so we should all be taking advantage more. 

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