Cookies

You know when you walk up to a beautiful plate of holiday cookies and they're so festively decorated and you think "Ooh... I'll have just one..." and before you know it you've eaten, maybe seventeen? And a little while later you're completely buzzed on all that sugar, feeling bubbly and giddy? Then a bit later you're grouchy and miserable, and you just want to take a nap?

Which brings up this headline "Sugar Can Be Addictive". Duh. Sure, this is one of the first (animal) studies to demonstrate the brain changes, neuro-chemical responses, and behaviors associated with sugar intake, but was there any question really? Anyone who has tried to cut back on sugar knows about addiction. Funny thing is, now that we eat less sugar around here (or try to) I find that I'm more sensitive to it. Of course I pretend that I have control over my addiction. I'll have just a little something to perk me up when I'm feeling out of sorts. I intend to sort out what's bothering me while I'm feeling better... Um, maybe I need to stop pretending.

And then there's this whole issue of high fructose corn syrup. As my kids know, I'm something of a freak with respect to it. It's in EVERYTHING. It's no surprise to find it in sodas and jelly, but in peanut butter? What needs to be in peanut butter besides peanuts and salt? We now buy Trader Joe's peanut butter: only peanuts and salt. HFCS is in many yogurts, breads, ketchups, nearly everything. Unless you very conscientiously check the labels of everything you buy and choose products that don't have it. Which we do now.

Why the concern about HFCS? The studies I've read (the ones not put out by the food industry whose studies dominate Google search results of course) suggest that HFCS is digested, absorbed and metabolized quite differently than raw sugars. It's more like mainlining sugar. Our bodies can't regulate it's absorption very well. And if sugar is addictive... imagine what HFCS is like. It gets into your blood faster, in a less controled way and is metabolized differently. No wonder it's in everything. Think about it.

So earlier this week the health news headlines were abuzz with new research results on the best diets for controlling blood sugar for diabetics (and everyone else as far as I'm concerned). The new ideal is the low glycemic index diet. The glycemic index is a measure of how fast the sugars in a food are absorbed into the blood stream. Lower GI means slower absoprtion, which results in a more stable blood sugar level, and in turn less stress on the pancreas and kidneys. Slower absorption means more stable bloods sugar... I wonder how this affects the addictive qualities of sugar...

In light of all this news about raw vs refined sugar, good fats vs bad fats, less pocessed foods vs more processed foods, I modified our recipe for spritz (cookie-press) cookies today. Whole wheat flour, Earth Balance spread (that would be a blend of the better fats), agave nectar (low GI), with the regular egg and vanilla. Then I performed my one-dog (me), one-time study on the effects of such improvements cookie dough. I ate plenty of it as we made the cookies. Then I waited for the highly predictable sugar-crash and associated grumpiness and need to take a nap.

Now, whether this was an artifact of a poorly designed study (which it was) and researcher bias (definitely there) and subject expectations (also present), I can report a complete lack of a sugar high and subsequent crash. Whether real or not, I feel better feeding these cookies to my family. And they don't have nearly the face-stuffing goodness of standard ones.

Of course, as you can judge by the picture today, Little Dudely and Dee Dee negated a substantial fraction of my efforts by lavishly decorating the final product with all sorts of highly refined sugars...