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My Turnby Marie Lo |
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From The Asian Reporter, V20, #01 (January 5, 2010), page 6.
Farewell to sugar
Farewell to sugar … for a few months anyway.
That’s our resolution for 2010: to give up refined sugar for five months. Our desire to forego sugar is a predictable New Year resolution shared by many — to become healthier. According to the American Heart Association, Americans on average consume 22 teaspoons of sugar a day, which is two to three times more than the recommend amount. High sugar consumption is related to obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
Five months may not seem like a long time, but both my husband and I grew up in households where sugar was treated like a celebrity. We oohed and aahed over sugary confections. It was always the star attraction at any meal, and we would dutifully down our meals so we could get to the "good stuff."
For my husband, sugar was the centerpiece of family rituals. This came in the form of annual Christmas cookies made from a 50-year-old cookie recipe and grandma’s homemade pies, which anchored family gatherings. In fact, no pie, cake, cookie, or fudge recipe is younger than 50 years old, and with each bite, there is a reminder of our place in the family history of sugar rushes and tooth decay.
In my family, we went pro with sugar. Back in the ’80s, my parents opened a bakery. No one in the family had experience baking, but my father was always looking for a business opportunity and the chance to work for himself. My father named it Boris Bakery after his favorite tennis player, Boris Becker, an unseeded player who had just stunned everyone with his win at Wimbledon. My father was tickled by the name and would delight in saying, "Boris Bakery — get it?"
I must have been 12 or 13 years old at the time, but even then I knew it was not a good idea to mix tennis with baked goods. I imagined the many confused customers who walked in expecting German pastries only to be confronted by a Chinese family selling egg tarts, almond cookies, and sponge cakes that looked like rolled logs.
I helped out after school and had to endure questions from customers surprised to find themselves in a Chinese bakery. Trying to orient themselves, they’d ask, "So, is your father named Boris?" "No," I’d say, hoping that would be the end of the conversation. I prayed they wouldn’t ask me who Boris was.
My mother tried out recipes at home, and then hid the various cakes and cookies throughout the house. My brother and I were addicted, and we would search for sweets in closets and cabinets. I also have to admit to eating quite a few pastries when hanging out behind the cash register. Yes, mom and dad. That was me.
Even today, many years later, there are still frozen cakes in my parents’ freezer, ready to be defrosted at a moment’s notice for an unexpected guest, a potluck, or just to satisfy a sweet tooth.
My husband and I want to model our values for our daughter. We are reluctant to give her any sugar, and currently there is an inverse relationship between the amount of sweets she is allowed to have and the amount we consume. She is one and a half and it is just a matter of time before she figures that out.
In the spirit of new beginnings and a healthier 2010, we are saying goodbye to hyperactivity and sugar headaches as well as the crashes following delirious highs. Even so, sugar has been such a key ingredient in family history and get-togethers that this farewell will be bittersweet.