I was explaining this to my daughter in quite simplified terms the other day- we evolved to taste sugar and enjoy it because finding a sweet edible plant meant we had a source of energy to help us hunt that day. Pretty useful if you’re a hunter-gatherer.
So we seek out sugar. Now we can get it whenever we want it, in much more massive quantities than we are supposed to be processing. Most of us are addicted. I’m not an exception.
You’re perfectly right. And it’s not just about energy, which there is a lot of in oils and proteins too. In nature, the sweetest things you’ll get are different kinds of fruit - all packed full of vitamins, antioxidants, fiber and whatnot. And they’re seasonal, so if you don’t eat them right away, you’re going to have to wait another year. So our taste makes us eat as much as we can. Sugar, of cours, is cheating.
(I just happen to be on my way to buy some pastries.)
The sweetest thing in nature is honey, nearly pure sugar that doesn’t spoil. Honey tends to be available year round in Africa where our taste buds evolved.
And with medicinal properties ;) A bit tricky to get though.
A bit, but it’s a major caloric source in forager diets.
Fage is definitely my favorite yogurt. I’m always like “how the fuck is this so God damn good? It has virtually no sugar or anything added”
Also in case you didnt know, for many reduced fat items they just end up adding more sugar.
Fage 2% with some low sodium mixed nuts and low sugar dried cranberries is one of my favorite breakfasts these days. No joke.
I love fage, mixed with some roughly chopped cherries is so good. I’ve switched to making my own yogurt recently but the original starter I used was fage and it hasn’t let me down
It’s good because fat tastes good too.
If you eat Siggis yogurt, there is a full-fat option with barely any sugar that is way, way, better. I don’t typically like yogurt, but like it. Add honey if needed.
I happen to be eating it right now.
And don’t forget bread. So much sugar in the US…
Subway bread is considered cake in Ireland.
I think some years back there was a lawsuit in New York about whether it should be classified as cake
You can make yogurt in an instantpot with very little work (heat up milk, leave on the yogurt setting for 8-12 hours, done) in about 12 hours, highly recommend it. Only ingredients are milk and yogurt with live cultures (which you can buy once, then just freeze a few oz of your homemade yogurt to use for making more yogurt in the future), you can add as much or little sugar, honey, etc as you want. To make it into Greek yogurt or cheese, just strain through cheesecloth for different amounts of time. Can even use the drained whey for protein shakes if that’s your thing.
Kefir is also an option. It incubates at room temperature. Just need a scoby, container and milk.
I was going to say there’s a lot of variation within brands.
Most yoghurts have a “greek” variant with about 5g per 100g carbohydrates.
Honey is more or less flavoured sugar IMO.
Berries are a great combo with yoghurt, also chopped nuts.
The oats and honey you add makes up for the lower carb count.
I really need to quit chugging ragu… That’s so much sugar.
Did you use the calories or the grams of sugar to determine the amount?
Oh, I didn’t know there was a reduced sugar Ragu.
And yet somehow still with a lot of sugar.
No added sugar doesn’t mean no sugar. Ripe fruits like tomatoes and peppers contain more than trace amounts of sugar.
I know it’s a huge shock to you but yes tomatoes have NATURAL sugar in them.
Veggies have sugar too. Mind blowing right?
A cup of pure tomato paste has 32g of sugar, since tomatoes are fruits that contain sugar. It doesn’t look like that sauce has any added sugar at all based on the ingredients, but it does have carrots, which are also high in sugar (for a vegetable)
i guarantee im not eating any of that sugar
Try making tomato sauce without sugar. Get back to me when you’ve tasted your horror.
I’ve never tried stevia in tomato sauce. I’ll give it a try sometime. I’d worry about making it too sweet though since a lot of sweeteners are thousands of times sweeter than sugar.
I haven’t either, but I think it would work pretty well. The nice thing about stevia is that there are different products to buy with different levels of sweetness. I always put a stronger stevia extract in my tea at home that I get from Amazon because the stevia packets they have in restaurants next to the other sweeteners do not even come close to as sweet.
Then I have to use the tiny little cocaine spoon that comes with the extract to put some in my tea, and less than a full spoonful because it’s so sweet.
I’ve also seen stevia products made specifically for baking, so that might be worth a try since I’m guessing they tried to get it 1:1 with sugar.
They also taste disgusting.
I’d rather eat sugar or nothing at all over that shit.
No.
Why?
I know there are people who aren’t supposed to eat sugar, but there really isn’t anyone who doesn’t like sugar. Maybe I’m wrong. If there are, probably very few. I know a ton of people who dislike stevia, it tastes like a chemical to them not a sweetener. I am one of them and I am not alone.
Edit to add: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120531102334.htm
I guess it’s like cilantro.
Yes. And I love cilantro. Taste buds can be weird. If you’re just feeding yourself I’d say stevia recipes count but I wouldn’t serve it to a group of people.
Add cherry tomato while cooking pasta, season it, mix/mush, done.
Counterpoint:
https://www.raos.com/products/marinara-sauce
**Ingredients: **Italian Whole Peeled Tomatoes, Olive Oil, Onions, Salt, Garlic, Basil, Black Pepper, Oregano.
If you can afford it, using good quality Italian tomatoes really make a difference.
I don’t add any sugar in my sauce and it is pretty good and the acidity is at a good level.
I only use Cento san marzanos as the base for my sauce. And i learned to make sauce from my italian grandfather. A small amount of sugar always improves the sauce.
Do they contain more sugars by default perhaps?
Yes, but San Marzano tomatoes that are sweeter are still only 3g of sugar per 100g, and 2g of net carbs per 100g.
And if you make a mirepoix for your sauce, the sugars in onions and carrots are higher.
So for people that are afraid of sugar, a sauce made with tomatoes, carrots, onions and celery isn’t as scary as adding sugar.
And the acidity isn’t considered as well. From experience, they are less acidic as well, so you don’t need to add sugar to mask that.
What makes a tomato from Italy better?
They tend to be less acidic and a bit more sweet. If you use a mirepoix and San Marzano tomatoes, it contains all the sugar you need, and the total net carb is still low.
I have done that, it’s not bad, a bit bitter but still pleasant in my opinion.
Though I do like my coffee black so maybe I just have a liking of bitter tasting items.
This is ridiculous, I hardly ever make tomato sauce with (added) sugar and it tastes delicious. I suppose if you’re used to sugar being in everything it may taste odd, but it is far from horrendous
Nah, a small amount of sugar improves tomato sauce. It cuts the acidity.
After reading the other comments for a bit, it may depend on the tomatoes. The tomatoes I tend to use don’t need to balance out as much, I suppose
The tomatoes used for sauce often time have a higher acid content so you want a little sugar.
Some tomatoes, especially older heirloom varieties have more sugar than modern varieties and actually will make candy sauce if you’re not careful.
I spent the summer growing Cherokee purple just to make spaghetti sauce and it was like fucking dessert, no sugar added.
What is this referring to Natural sugar or added sugar? Normally the yoghurt doesn’t have added sugars beyond what were presswnt are in the milk originally.
For sauces you can easily read the labels and find which ones contain added sugar, at least in europ it’s mandatory listing that.
It’s added sugar - and yoplait/chobani add a lot of sugar. Yogurt with no added sugar has no more sugar than the milk used to make it does and it is mouth-puckeringly tangy. I make my own yogurt and you pretty much need honey with it to make it palatable with fruit (some people eat unsweetened yogurt without the honey… Those people scare me)
Greek yoghurt (first picture) tastes fine with out added sugar but only the normal fat one 5%, if you remove fat then yes you need to add something…
I de-sweetened my palate over time. I don’t add any sweetener to my yogurt (made in an Instant Pot) . That said, I ferment it for 8 hours because I don’t want it too tart. It’s perfect for raita or tzaziki. For breakfast uses, I add cheap vanilla flavoring with fresh fruit. Not scary at all!
Yoplait and Chobani definitely have extra added sugar.
Is that added sugar, or sugar from the other ingredients?
The “other” ingredients is tomato puree, salt, and herbs like oregano. There isn’t any sugar except the processed sugar that they add to the sauce.
Tomato sauce is surprisingly easy to make. There’s virtually no need to buy sauce from a jar unless you just can’t be bothered to do anything yourself.
Tomato puree has a lot of sugar, because tomatoes contain a lot of sugar. Pure 3-times concentrated tomato puree is 18% sugar.
For example, the Ragu ‘Simply’ is only your “other ingredients”. The only sugar in that sauce is innate to the Tomatoes used in the puree.
Sugars exist in all sorts of foods and when it’s incidental to the fruit and/or vegetable content it’s mostly fine.
Tomatoes have plenty of sugar in them… most fruits do.
Or you have a busy life?
I hate this mindset of, if you don’t make all these things yourself you just can’t be bothered to do anything yourself. Guy, I have a super busy day to day, I’m struggling to find time to work out every day, I’m not making all my food from scratch.
I feel exactly the same way, but I have to find time as often as I can. Most prepared food is garbage, and I’m cooking for people I care about.
Go for it. Just know you’re sacrificing your health, which makes you wonder why you’re going to the gym in the first place.
So if I don’t do every single thing there’s no point at all? If I order meal prep, I’m not making my meals so might as well not go for a jog?
With that mindset I hope you never do a single unhealthy thing because if so, it makes me wonder why you’re even taking the time to make your meals. I hope your doing cardio every day, if not, why even bother with meal prep if your heart is shit. I hope your monitoring your micros and macros, if not, you’re just wasting time making meals… This all or nothing mindset that you’re pushing is why people don’t even bother. You just told me, if I’m not making meals then why even go to the gym. You’re telling people there’s no point in working out unless they do all this extra stuff that people don’t have time for. Why? Why discourage healthy behavior?
Also, this just sounds privileged as fuck. I’m glad you have a life where you don’t have to work that much or have that many responsibilities outside work, but all of us aren’t lucky enough to have the time to make every meal from scratch. Sometimes I don’t have a free moment to myself all day. And other days I don’t have the time to do it. And plenty of people don’t have the money to buy all fresh ingredients that spoil quickly if not used. Jesus dude, out of touch much.
When you juice it, the natural sugar has the same effect as added sugar.
It’s only better when it’s locked in with the fruit solids because then it’s a slow release rather than a fast sugar shock to your system, which can fuck with your insulin tolerance because that also needs to spike for your body to do anything with all that sugar.
The Ragu one has 0g added sugar, so for that one it’s just the tomato sugar, so it’s misleading.
It doesn’t ultimately matter, but it looks like total sugar. I don’t believe fage has added sugar, but it has some left from the milk.
But it does matter a great deal. The sugars innately in most fruits usually have a low glycemic index, so generally aren’t really that bad for you.
So presenting granulated sugar to represent the innate sugars in a tomato is misleading.
Fruits healthfulness is commonly exaggerated. Consuming the fiber in whole fruit along with the sugar is better than just straight sugar, but it’s still something that should be moderated. Most fruits have way more sugar than fiber as well. Also that really only applies to whole uncooked fruit, using heat and mashing up fruit removes pretty much any of the benefit from the fiber.
I always find it interesting that our ancestors were for the most part fruitarians (fruits, grasses) about 3.5 million years ago. As we evolved, we expanded our diets to include vegetables, meats, and grains, leading to a better balanced diet, which is good especially considering we don’t hunt and gather like they once did.
as we evolved
In the last 12,000 years since the invention of agriculture? Barely. People, exactly like yourself, have been walking around for 250,000 years. This is all brand new.
You can actually see genetic pressure away from adult lactose intolerance in populations where milk and cheese are historically consumed
Yeah, I agree, and I don’t mean to say that no evolution or change has occurred, but still 12,000 years is still a very short period of time, so “Barely”
Kinda misrepresentative using granulated sugar. Not all sugar is the same, nor does it have the same effect in your body.
Added sugar will be granulated sugar (or worse)
Most added sugars are going to be HFCS these days. But also, that’s under the assumption of added sugars, which the image doesn’t make any specifications about; a lot of ingredients used in pasta sauces, for example, are going to have natural sugars already.
I just take issue with the misleading image, which would have you believe that a cup of Yoplait is 45% sugar, even though you can read the label and do the math, yourself. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a lot of sugar, but not “nearly half the product” levels.
That’s the “worse”!
Also 45%? Are we looking at the same image? If you dumped those shot glasses of sugar into those yogurt cups empty, the cups would still be close to empty, not half full…
Sugar is sugar, there’s a lot of marketing trying to make it sound like it’s not true. There is no good sugar, there is only less bad sugar. High fructose corn syrup is probably the worst, but honey is just liquid sugar.
Hmm that’s super interesting.
Cool ad?
Flavor aid
This is why I make my pasta sauce from scratch. Plus it tastes way better letting the natural sugars in the tomato get all roasty toasty.
It honestly isn’t that card to take a can of diced tomatoes and throw it on the frying pan, add some garlic, olive oil, salt, and herbs of your choosing, reduce to a suitable volume, good to go. I’m surprised more people don’t do that.
Feel free to share your recipe though, I’d be curious how others do it
even just a heap of “Italian seasoning” thrown in there makes a passable sauce. A can of crushed tomatoes and a can of tomato paste and a handful of Italian seasoning (with salt to taste) and you’ve got a decent college-kid budget sauce.
Not only it tastes better every time, the flavors in the homemade sauce are way more pronounced than the ones that are supposed to be in the bought one
I don’t even get why sugar is added. Tomato sauce is already sweet on its own.
My wife and I like to get a local brand because it’s honestly the best I’ve ever had. Each serving (3oz, 85g) is 15 calories.
Removes acidic flavours
It sorta depends on the ingredients you’re working with, some tomatoes are sweeter or more acidic than others. Where I live tomatoes tend to be somewhat watery and lack a bit of intensity of flavour. If I’m making sauce at home I’ll taste a bit and add some sugar and/or red wine vinegar to balance out the flavour.
![This is how much sugar you are [possibly] eating.](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/9694cd80-f133-4b02-80e3-1e937a78ea83.png){kind=link}