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.

  • angrystego@lemmy.world
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    29 minutes ago

    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.)

  • ManaBuilt@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Shout-out to Rao’s for actually not having a whole lot of sugar and being genuinely one of the best pasta sauces you can get in a jar. Add a little Tabasco sauce and red wine and let that simmer for an hour or so and it’s perfection.

  • bluewing@lemm.ee
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    2 hours ago

    This is why I make my own fresh tomato sauce. A single pound/half kilo of ripe tomatoes and about 15 minutes, you can have a fresh pasta sauce at home.

    Them little old Italian Grandmothers ain’t wasting all day to slow cook a tomato sauce. Unless they want to show off. They got lemoncello to make and drink…

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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      4 minutes ago

      Tomatoes are about 95% water, 1% fibre, and 4% other carbs (sugars and starches). Even with no added sugar, any tomato sauce is basically all carbs and sugar (if you ignore the water).

      Even though we think of tomatoes as a vegetable they’re actually a fruit. Eating a whole bunch of tomato sauce is not much different from eating a bunch of pureed strawberries. Tomatoes just don’t taste as sweet as the strawberries because because they’re more acidic.

    • finestnothing@lemmy.world
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      15 minutes ago

      If you want a sauce that adds a lot to anything you put it on, I recommend Alton Brown’s tomato sauce, adding a decent amount of fresh basil to the recipe if it’s in season near you makes it even better but isn’t necessary https://altonbrown.com/recipes/pantry-friendly-tomato-sauce/

      It’s more work than just cooking down tomatoes, but it’s so worth it. I do double, triple, or quadruple batches and freeze it in 32 oz mason jars. Great on eggs, pizza, pasta, base for soups, burgers, and anything else you want tomato flavor added to really

  • Frostbeard@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Pretty much any fruit flavoured food that is not artificial will contain sugar from the fruit juice. But most companies add sugar anyway.

  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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    2 hours ago

    Right, bad healthcare => no pressure to make people’ lives healthier. I guess that’s why you still don’t have a less sugar novement?

    • Pandemanium@lemm.ee
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      14 minutes ago

      There’s a bit of a sugar replacement movement, which isn’t necessarily healthier. Most of the sugar replacements have been linked with stuff like dementia if consumed regularly for a long period. And most of them taste a bit off. The other part of the problem is that when you eat something sweet, your body expects sugar. When it doesn’t get the sugar it’s expecting, it will feel like you are still hungry even though you just ate something.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      There is a bit of a grass roots one, but part of the problem is that it’s entirely on the consumption side, as in people deciding to have less sugar. Even proposed legislation solutions involve controlling the consumption side, though at the final product production level.

      Which means that sugar producers are still trying to produce the maximum amount of sugar to make the most profit and the lowered demand just ends up driving the price down and makes it more attractive to others to add more sugar. If that lower price is still profitable, then sugar producers can continue full steam ahead.

      I’ve noticed something similar with plastics. Demand is lowered in some areas by legislation (like no plastic straws or single use bags), but plastic is still being produced at volume, so prices go down and other products switch from non-plastic packaging to plastic. I’ll call out Betty Crocker homestyle instant mashed potatoes specifically here, that went from a cardboard box containing two paper/metal pouches to a single plastic pouch, which also means it’s more of a pain to make only half the package and more likely to create more food waste in addition to plastic waste.

  • Ravi@feddit.org
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    3 hours ago

    Check out how much sugar they put into frozen pizza. It’s basically a sweet.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      58 minutes ago

      The Ragu one has 0g added sugar, so for that one it’s just the tomato sugar, so it’s misleading.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      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.

    • Coreidan@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      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.

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        52 minutes ago

        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.

      • Lightor@lemmy.world
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        55 minutes ago

        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.

        • HowManyNimons@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          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.

      • The Menemen!@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Tomato puree has a lot of sugar, because tomatoes contain a lot of sugar. Pure 3-times concentrated tomato puree is 18% sugar.

  • Coreidan@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Pretty much any food you buy that comes from a box or a jar is going to be littered with sugar.

    If you want to cut sugar out of your diet you need to start eating whole food that you prepare yourself.

    Most people are too lazy for this so they scarf down processed foods that slowly kill them.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    stares in European

    I’ve heard of one of those brands but have never tried it myself (Chobani) and who impregnated the tomato sauce? 🤨

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        Fair. Still not available in my particular part of Europe, though.

        Here in Denmark we have so many domestic variants of yoghurt (big dairy producer per capita) that most grocery stores simply don’t have room for/incentive to offer any imported ones, except for Greek yoghurt for the purists 😄

        In fact, there’s a great Scandinavia and the World comic about how much we love yoghurt 😁

        • Deway@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          Makes sense. The only reason I know Yoplait is because I live in a neighboring country and speak French.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    I might advise not downing an entire pound-and-a-half jar of spaghetti sauce in one go.

    • Donkter@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Maybe it’s saying instead of eating yogurt just slam 1.5 lbs of tomato sauce instead?

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      The actual spaghetti you add it to has an even higher percentage of carbohydrates - in the form of starch which the human body easily turns into sugars - than the sauce so paradoxically you’ll end up with less sugar in your blood stream by downing that sauce by itself than if you eat it with spaghetti.

      (That said, this is for uncooked spaghetti: when you cook it it grows by absorbing water which reduces the fraction of carbohydrates in the final product, so depending on the type of spaghetti it might or not end up with more carbohydrates than the sauce).

    • phorq@lemmy.ml
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      9 hours ago

      Yeah, you’ve probably grown accustomed to most memes using high fructose corn syrup which is clear and easier to hide.