Rose's Coconut Cupcakes are truly delicious.
Even my husband, lifelong coconut phobic,
liked the one without toasted coconut on top.
As Rose's cakes goes, this is probably
one of the easiest.
Canned coconut milk is everywhere these days.
I found organic at Trader Joe's.
It made twenty four mini cupcakes
and nine regular size.
clued me in on the baking time for
the mini's. I'm never sure
when a different size pan is used.
The Coconut Butter Cream was
a three part production
but not complicated.
It was fun learning to make a custard
with coconut milk.
This was mixed together with butter, sugar, whipped
egg whites and Coconut rum.
I added extra coconut extract instead and it was fine.
I came very close to dropping out of
After watching more than a dozen
documentaries on sugar
it became quite clear
sugar is not my friend.
In fact, it made me bloody furious.
And I don't even drink sodas.
Well, you are probably thinking,
what is the big deal?
If you are at all curious
here are a few to watch.
or
or
or the grand slam
and the eye opening reality of
where sugar comes from
Just the tip of documentaries from
top medical doctors around the world.
Obesity is not the only fallout.
There is something known as
Thin on the outside
Fat on the inside
syndrome.
More than the daily recommended amounts
puts everyone at risk for metabolic diseases.
Say it ain't so!
recommends six teaspoons of sugar max,
which is 24 grams, per day for women.
Men get more. Children less. And under two
years of age, zero.
That includes all added sugar, even the hidden stuff in food.
4 grams = 1 teaspoon
Reading food labels has been an education in itself.
All attempts to make food labeling easier
to understand have been blocked
by food lobbyists.
The quantities may not seem like much
but the accumulative effect is staggering.
If every single product had the teaspoon/grams
of added sugar per serving boldly labeled
on the front of the package,
we might rethink our purchase,
which is exactly why they fight it
again and again.
During the Bush administration
The WHO was effectively blackmailed
by having millions of dollars withdrawn
unless this guideline was shelved.
It was but not forever.
80% of grocery store products have been carefully laced
with sugar.
Food corporations aim for
"stomach share"
world wide.
Unfortunately for some of the
lower consuming countries,
smaller amount of weight gain
from sugar
trigger metabolic disease
in populations
which were historically leaner.
No country is safe.
Corporations are targeting
"emerging markets"
with a vengeance.
This lacing of food with sugar is equivalent
to lacing cigarettes with nicotine.
The strangest side effect
is how our taste for food has
been changed without us realizing it.
Fun Fact
Phillip Morris Tobacco Company
bought
Kraft Foods conglomerate
I always wondered why this crazy
obesity epidemic happened.
The consumption of
30-60 tsp in 24 hours
would take approximately
two hours of running
or
ten miles of walking
to burn off.
The average American
consumes 30 teaspoons per day.
That's just the average.
Many consume many times over this amount.
One soda can have from 24 to 36 grams of sugar.
Fruit drinks can have more sugar than soda.
Straight fruit juice might as well be soda,
the body reacts the same way
without the entire pulp and fiber.
There goes my healthy cherry juice
and green smoothies.
Flavored yogurt as much added sugar as ice cream.
Say what???
Giving it up wasn't easy,
but the difference
is a pleasant surprise.
My goal is to stay sugar free during the
week except for one portion from our weekly bake.
It might seem extreme
but the link between dementia, cancer,
heart, kidney disease
and sugar is frightening.
My father died from dementia.
My mother from cancer.
Diabetes, heart and kidney disease run in my family.
Ignorance is not bliss for me.
If I can remove one of the triggers,
then I need to try,
even if I don't want to.
Yes, it can seem like
diet recommendations constantly change
throughout the years.
The difference is
technology.
As technology advances,
so can science
and the medical profession's
understanding of cause and effect.
By all accounts,
I should be a walking cup of tea
(milk and two sugars, please)
with cookies for legs.
I'm not sharing this information to annoy you.
It's more for my benefit.
This is a benchmark week for me.
I don't have
kids at home
or it would be more difficult.
Rose has done all the work for me.
Add up the sugar grams in a recipe,
divide it by serving and voila!
I enjoy baking,
even if it vexes me at times.
I'm just going back to how it
used to be, when a homemade dessert
was for Sunday dinner.
A cupcake never tasted so good.
~
by
Rose Levy Beranbaum
