it’s no secret that americans have a weight problem. more than that we have a denial problem and a ‘it’s not my fault that i’m fat’ problem. we like to blame others. we like to sue others. what we have failed to do is accept responsibility for our actions and change course to correct them. however in attempting to help others work with issues regarding weight i am perplexed as to the lack of support by nutrition labels. okay, follow me here. in the u.s. we use the standard tables for weights and measures: pounds, ounces, gallons, tablespoons, etc. this is crazy confusing to the average user. i have a culinary degree and at times it’s confusing to me. the remainder of the world uses the metric system: grams and liters. that’s it. nothing more. if it’s weight, it’s measured in grams and if it’s volume, it’s measured in liters. here’s the thing though, u.s. nutritonal labeling is done in grams. this causes much confusion for the simple fact that 99% of people don’t have any idea what a gram looks like (save for drug dealers) and only know what a liter looks like because it’s so close to the quart.

here’s where things go south quickly: we have to do math when looking at nutrition labels and that brings us back to the lazy part: we won’t do the math. okay, okay, before you attempt to chastise me for going off like this, i will back up my findings in some upcoming posts (more on that later) and look, most specifically, at sugar. why sugar? because we all have a frame of reference for sugar, in what it looks like and how much it should/shouldn’t be. this can give you a rational look at what a gram is you can use it to enrich your lives. sugar is in just about everything (save diet sodas and whatnot) even the buns at fast food restaurants.

here’s a quick one for you: mike and ike’s (the rabbit’s #2 favorite candy, btw) have 1 gram of sugar per piece of candy. what does this translate to: each piece is equal to roughly 1 teaspoon of sugar. so that means if i’m having a serving of mike and ike’s (23 pieces or 40 grams, however you want to look at it) i am putting down the equivalent of 7.66 tablespoons of sugar. yes, that’s tablespoons, for those keeping track at home. it took a bit for that to settle in, seeing as how i put down almost an entire box, which is about 7 servings.

what i will do over the course of a few posts is look at various food items, not just candy, and show you side-by-side the actual measured sugar content of a serving, can, bottle, etc when put next to the actual product. it was alarming to me and possibly will be alarming to you. i’m not saying to go out and get on the south beach diet or anything, but in taking it from a pro i hope to shed some light on difficult issues.  stay tuned for future deets.  that is all.