Post #6 - Kayla Snell

I come from an ex-overweight family. Both my mom and dad had periods in their lives where they were overweight. Mom lost her weight before going to college. My dad had heart problems as a result, and had a really hard time losing the weight until after his last surgery when I was in third grade. He's currently clear of problems and at a decent weight. One of my younger brothers grew up a chubby kid, an now he's one of the leanest people I know. Even I had my own period after quitting tennis and starting college where I was at least 20 lbs overweight. Only my youngest brother has yet to experience life overweight.

As a result, my childhood upbringing was incredibly health obsessive. I had no choice but to participate in at least one sport. There were vegetables at every dinner and my mom was there to monitor how much food we were eating and how many treats we had during the day. She never hesitated to tell us if we've had one too many or if my pants were looking a bit too tight.

Surprisingly, I've become health obsessed too, although not quite to the extent of my mom. Which was why visiting a friend of mine in Connecticut ended up having a few surprises for me. I knew that they did not have the healthiest lifestyle. It can't be helped, the multiple food allergies and dietary restrictions means that they eat whatever they're allowed to and only care about if it'll result in stomach aches or not. Once we had chips and guacamole for dinner.

That's is. Just chips, guacamole, and sour cream. Nothing else.

"It's just for this week, I'll go back to eating healthy when I'm at school," I rationalized. Still, it has become a habit for me to check labels for almost everything I eat. So despite the fact that I was giving myself a break from my usual healthy eating, I impulsively looked over the food labels while chatting with my friend.

I was more frustrated than shocked when I realized that both the chips and guacamole included sugar as an ingredient.

I voiced my frustration to my friend, because why on earth is sugar a necessary ingredient in guacamole? It's not supposed to be sweet. And the main ingredient, avocado, is supposed to be healthy. Do they really have to add extra sugar to it? Same with the chips. I know they're not supposed to be healthy to start, but why sugar? It's a salty snack, not sweet.

The same is true of so many foods I see at target when I'm trying to shop. Everything from canned tomatoes, to peanut butter, sauces, dressings, yogurt, all have added sugar. A quick google search just now tells me why companies do this. A couple main reasons are to improve taste and to increase shelf life. So yes, there are benefits, but only for the big companies and not consumers such as myself trying to cut back on all the extra sugar in my diet. That's also not to say that sugar has no place in someone's diet, because it does. But do I want to have sugar in a majority of the foods I buy? No. Time and place.

As for my chips and guac dinner with my friend, I shrugged my shoulders and continued to eat.