When I don’t have to get a fast start on my day, I love to browse through my junk email. I love ads that try to scare you into buying something. And one this morning started with this headline – actually, I have seen it many times before – “The worst ingredient in our processed food is Sugar.” There are four kinds of sugars we commonly have in our diet. They are glucose, fructose, sucrose, and dextrose. Some seem sweeter to us than others. Two of them have the same chemical formula, C6H12O6 If you could hold a molecule of one up in front of a mirror, it would look like the other one; i.e., they are mirror images of each other. Fructose is interesting because as the name implies it comes from fruit. Before the advent of high fructose corn syrup, honey was the source most often found in our diets. It is used in many commercial products because it is estimated to be twice as sweet as sucrose, the main component of our table sugar. Since it is sweeter to us, they can use less to sweeten a product. Wow! I seem to have wandered off into the field of organic chemistry – ugh!
Back to this morning ad. All sugars will provoke what is called an “insulin response.” It is basically the body’s way to maintain your blood sugar in a normal range. This morning the ad was saying that the more sugar you consume the more insulin your body produces. It’s a fact. However, – here, I must remind you here that I am male and the reason this ad was directed at me –, they say the more time your body spends making insulin the less time it has to make testosterone and with less testosterone will you turn into a eunuch and you will have a zero sex life. I guess your body can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. I read on far enough in the ad to see they are trying to sell you a diet plan. I guess if you give up your cake and ice cream you can have sex too! I got to thinking. What if you don’t currently have a girlfriend or wife? Does that mean you don’t have to give up your sweets? Oh well, the mysteries of life.
