A blog intensifying the flavor of life and toasting those who share in the feast, rather than settling for a dry, plain, melba toast existence.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

food versus non-food

The sugar free, maple flavor, low calorie syrup on my kitchen table is not food.

I do not know if anyone ever intended for it to be food or if the plan was merely to come up with something that resembles food, leaving it up to those who market syrup to make sure it gets onto the beautiful stack of pancakes adorned with a pat of no-one-will-ever-believe-this-is-butter, as pictured on the label. It is the idea of syrup that is being sold; not syrup itself.

Though there are only 30 calories in a one-fourth cup serving, the ingredients that comprise this delicacy are mostly non-edible.

Ingredients: water, sorbitol, cellulose gum, natural and artificial maple flavor, salt, sucralose, sodium benzoate (to preserve freshness), caramel color, phosphoric acid, acesulfame potassium, potassium sorbate (to preserve freshness), sorbic acid, citric acid.

Sorbitol has unpleasant side effects; cellulose gum is derived from wood pulp; sucralose (Splenda) can make you crave sugar; and acesulfame potassium contains methylene chloride--a known carcinogen which causes cancer. Sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate are added to preserve freshness. The freshness of exactly WHAT?

It is gluten free for all who are finding gluten avoidance to be the answer to whatever it is that ails them. Refrigeration is not required. It is best if purchased by September 18, 2016, but if not consumed until 2026, it would probably be just as good.

In case someone reading this is tempted to think that I should be grateful for this gift, I would like to point out that it was among the "treats" my parents were pawning off on us after cleaning out their cupboards and heading back to their home Up North after a winter in Florida. The syrup took the place of the jello this year. (Refer to my post entitled "I hate jello," for further explanation.) It was in a grocery bag right next to unsalted Saltine crackers and unsalted pretzels, more items on my "foods I hate" list.

Though it truly is not fair for me to judge the syrup without tasting it first, the syrup remains unopened. I wanted to protest when I received it but decided instead to be compassionate toward my parents by not giving it back, thus prohibiting them from the ingestion of this chemical compound. Though I may sometimes take items we do not prefer to a food bank or pass them along to friends, I could not in good conscience do that with this item. For fear of harming wildlife, I cannot even pour it on the ground.

Perhaps the saddest part about this wanna-be syrup is that real maple syrup is one of my favorite things. I still remember with fondness the school field trip in which my class went to a cider mill and a place in which maple syrup was made. I remember learning about the process of the sap running out of the spickets into pails that would be emptied into a large vat which boiled out impurities. We were given small, Dixie cups filled with warm, maple syrup to taste. It was 100 percent natural, straight from a maple tree. It was some of the truest goodness I would ever experience.

Natural maple syrup can be purchased in most grocery stores. The kind I get has one ingredient: pure, organic maple syrup. There are 220 calories in a one-fourth cup serving, and it is worth every single one of them. It costs more than the sugar free, maple flavor, low calorie syrup. Because it is food.




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