How Many Teaspoons????

I just ran into this excellent, excellent post about sugar in foods that are supposed to be good for you.

http://mtbakercrossfit.blogspot.com/2008/01/coming-soon-my-newest-rant-poisoning-of.html

Try this exercise yourself some time.  One teaspoon of sugar weighs four grams.  If you can divide by 4 (and please tell me you can divide by 4!), you can visualize how many teaspoons of sugar are in that product you are about to consume.  If it’s more than one, maybe two, run, don’t walk, to the nearest garbage can.  Then go have a nice piece of cheese or a few nuts.

One thing that the author of this post does not mention is that all carbohydrates (other than fiber) break down into sugars.  This means that, if the label of a food says that it contains 40 grams of carbohydrate (as in 2 oz of dry pasta), you are putting 10 teaspoons of sugar into your blood.  And of course, many people eat more than one serving.  If you eat 4 oz, you are consuming 80 grams, or 20 teaspoons of sugar.  This is just under 7 tablespoons, which, in turn, is just shy of a half cup.  Would you serve yourself a half cup of sugar with a nice marinara sauce on top?