Sugar

With all the cancer going on around me lately, I've decided to try to really rein in the processed sugar I'm exposing my body to. From what I read, cancer really likes to gobble up the white stuff and use it for its evil purposes. And I'm really into not allowing evil to take up residence in this 5 foot 3.5 inch frame.

So, I started a couple of weeks ago by ixnaying the sugar in my Route 44 unsweetened tea from Sonic. This has been my cheap, carpool-endurance enhancing, thirst-quenching routine a couple of days a week since school started back.

Problem is, I am using two packs of sugar every time I get a drink. So, this week I decided to switch to sweetener instead. Saves me 32 calories, exposure to processed cane, and the worry. BUT. Now I have another problem: am I going to become like those poor, abused rats in experimental labs across the world that develop saccharin tumors?

ARGH.

Another sugar-enhanced drink in my life that I've said "arrivederci" to is Coke. I haven't enjoyed one since January 1, thus saving me the 39 grams of sugar in 12 ounces. However, looking at the Coconut Creme creamer* I use in my coffee, I discovered each tablespoon contains 5 grams of sugar.

Now, I'm no Einstein when it comes to math, but my world started spinning when I looked at this number. Then, the geek in me had to do an equation.

1 fluid ounce = 2 tablespoons. Applying a very lame version of Algebra, I determined that 12 fluid ounces = 24 tablespoons. And 24 tablespoons times 5 grams equals a whopping 120 grams of sugar!

So if I drank the equavalent of a can of Coke in creamer alone, I'd get three TIMES the amount of sugar.

Uh oh. That can't be good.

Considering, in every place but really nice restaurants who spend thousands of dollars annually on superior coffee beans, I need creamer to offset the taste of coffee, this is a problem.

Now I am on the hunt for a good replacement creamer.

I swear, if I discover one more product that contains processed cane sugar that I really love and have to figure out a replacement for, I might just write an angry note to the sugarcane producers of the world.

The bigger problem there? The largest producer of sugarcane is Brazil.

Anybody in to interpreting from Engligh to Porteguese?


*Which I got hooked on when my coffee-loving buddy poured me a tall glass of ground, steeped beans with whipped creme and green/red sprinkles on it. Loved BOTH pours, LR!!!

The Fairy

"Grandma is going to have chemotherapy."
"What's that?" asks The Babe.
"It's medicine that attacks cells that aren't nice."
"Is the chemoFAIRY going to make her all better?"
"Honey, it's chemoTHERAPY."
"FAIRY?"
"No. THERAPY."
"FAIRY?"
"Oh, never mind."
"Well, is the fairy going to get her better?"
"We sure are praying that it does, buddy."

I love that my littlest guy thinks a fairy is going to visit his Grandma and make her all better. It's just so sweet my teeth feel violated.

When I think about a little Tinkerbell, coming down and waving her magic wand around Mom and making the cells go away, it makes me smile.

I imagine, when The Babe prays and asks God to help Grandma get better, that he is thinking about that Fairy.

You know, I'm not above letting a Fairy do the work. Of course, I prefer to think of Angels working with Mom's cancer, but I'm not going to get in the middle of a perfectly good four-year-old interpretation.

God works in strange ways sometimes. If he wants to send a gnome to work with the cancer, I'll gladly invite him over for lunch to thank him. I'm for whatever works here.

Angels? Gnomes? Fairies? Bring it!