junk – Five Little Duckies

So…the white stuff. Oh how we all love it. I could write a novel on sugar, so I’m planning to break it into a few smaller posts. Who doesn’t love that feeling when you’ve been craving some chocolate and you finally get your hands on the dark, velvety stuff, and you pop it in your mouth and the world just feels nice for a second? (Then the kids pull at your jeans, the cupboard door hits you in the head, the doorbell rings, and the baby pees on the floor…but you had a nice second there when the sweet stuff hit your system!) Does this sound a bit like an addict talking??? That’s because it is. We can absolutely 100% be addicted to sugar–and most Americans are. Check out this article by Dr. Mark Hyman explaining why sugar addiction is a fact, not a myth. You can even take his little self evaluation to see if you may be heading to the next SEA (Sugar Eaters Anonymous) meeting (pretty sure this isn’t an actual group but if you Google that term, you can find some actual resources for support groups). You are probably sitting here reading this thinking, “Wow, that’s sad. Those poor saps are addicted to something like SUGAR?! So lame…” I have news for you, friend…you are probably one of “us”!

It is surprisingly easy to become addicted to sugar. And the food industry is not trying to stop it. In fact, the opposite is happening. They are fueling the fire as much as possible. They want each one of you to be a sugar addict..and they are your supplier. If you’ve never seen one of the many documentaries out there on this topic, may I suggest my absolute favorite, Fed Up, which features the lovely Katie Couric. Their website is a wonderful resource, so check it out. This is a truly eye-opening film. If you walk away from this film and your eating habits don’t change and you especially don’t change what you’re feeding your kids, you either have the sugar thing figured out already or you should have your pulse checked. 😉 The moment this film was over, I was raiding my cupboards, tossing all kinds of what I thought were “healthy” snacks into the trash. It totally changed how I shop, how I bake, and how I view my childrens’ bodies. And previous to viewing the film, we were definitely already a healthier household than most. We eat only organic, we don’t do many processed foods, and we are admitted food snobs when out and about. Before viewing this film, I knew sugar was bad for us and I definitely limited it with sweets and treats, but the biggest takeaway for me is how grams and grams of sugar are literally hiding in just about every food you eat. Three of the most shocking items for me were yogurt, marinara sauce, and whole milk. And that brings me back to the food industry and their agenda…

The food industry has a vested interest in you becoming a sugar addict. Because they are your supplier. Pick up something from your pantry and come back to this page…go ahead. I’ll wait.

Welcome back…now look at the sugar content. It tells you how much sugar is in the product in grams, correct? Now, do you see the percentage of daily recommended value next to the sugar content like you do for all the other nutritional values? Right. It’s ok…I’ll give you a second to pick your jaw up off the floor…it is not required for the daily percentage of sugar intake to be listed…on anything. Let me repeat that. The FDA does not require the “percentage of daily value” for sugar to be listed on nutritional labels in the US.

I felt like such a jerk when this fact was exposed in the film Fed Up. I felt stupid for never having noticed. I felt taken advantage of for this not being an FDA requirement. And I felt angry for never having been educated on this. Here’s why the sugar industry has finagled the FDA into allowing them to refrain from listing the recommended daily value percentage on food labels: because the actual recommended daily values are so low that almost every single item in the store would be far above 30 or 40 or 50 percent of the recommended daily value, and that would look bad for the sugar industry. If you try to find an answer about why the daily percentage values aren’t listed, you will find some rigamarole about how it’s too difficult to measure the sugar content of many products because there is no way to separate naturally occurring sugars from added sugars, blah, blah, blah. In my mind, it is clear to me that this argument is complete drivel. They have the means to measure the sugar content. Clearly. Because it’s already been measured and added to the label. Whether or not it’s added sugar or naturally occurring sugar or a combination of both, it still comprises the percentage present in the product. No? Seems like common sense to me. Here are some facts that will knock your socks off:

Recommended daily sugar allowance according to the American Heart Association and WHO:

Adult Male: 37.5 grams (approx. 9 teaspoons)
Adult Female: 25 grams (approx. 6 teaspoons)
Children 8 and under: 3-4 teaspoons (approx. 12-17 grams), depending on body weight
Children ages 9-18: 5-8 teaspoons (approx, 21-35 grams), depending on body weight

Seems reasonable, right? If you’re a label reader and you already have a sense of the number of grams of sugars in your food products, you may already be breathing into a paper bag. But if you’re not really a label reader: #1, these numbers may mean nothing to you and #2, I hope you will be a label reader after you’re through with this blog!

The grams seem high, but they’re not. Take a look at the teaspoons. Do you drink coffee? Do you add sugar to it? If so, how many teaspoons? Two, you say? Boom! You just used up one third of your daily allotted sugar on your FIRST cup of coffee. Does that put it into perspective? Do you ever pick up one of those yummy Starbuck’s concoctions as your first cup of coffee of the day? If so, I’d be taking a serious look at the sugar content next time you’re in line for your sugar fix. Let’s say you don’t add sugar to your coffee and you’re not a fan of “dessert coffees” as I now like to call them. What did you have for breakfast this morning? Cereal? Yogurt? Instant oatmeal? If you’re heating up Quaker Old fashioned Oats and putting nothing on them, more power to you! But chances are that’s not the case. Just as an example, Nature’s Path Blueberry Cinnamon Flax instant oatmeal has 8 grams of sugar per serving. Kashi Heart-to-Heart Apple Cinnamon has 11 grams per serving. You want to talk about yogurt for a minute? Most plain (unflavored), greek yogurts have 5 grams or less. So if you’re eating that plain and not mixing it with a sugar-coma inducing granola or cereal, it’s not so bad alongside other low or no-sugar options. If, however, you’re reaching for Danon Activia, you’re looking at anywhere between 11 and 25 grams in that tiny little cup. You read that correctly. Most flavored yogurts–greek or not–are in the 20-32 gram range for ONE TINY CUP. It is outrageous! That exceeds your entire daily recommended intake if you’re an adult female!!!! Dry cereals and granolas are maddening, too. Raisin Bran: 18 grams in one serving. Golden Grahams: 13 “golden grams” of sugar! Lucky Charms: 13 grams. Kellogg’s low fat granola with raisins: 25.5 grams. What!? And you know I have to go through pasta sauces because this one was a shocker to me. Ragu tomato, garlic and onion: 12 grams. Barilla marinara sauce: 9 grams. Prego Heart Smart (laughable!): 10 grams. Bertolli tomato and basil: 12 grams. Check your milk, too.

Now would be a good time to go take a thorough look in your fridge and cupboards…how much sugar are you consuming BY LUNCHTIME? How much sugar are you putting into your babies before they even leave the house in the morning??? How much sugar are they getting in their school lunches? How about at their friends house? Or out of your own cupboards when you’re not there to monitor them after school? I was appalled to see that in my “healthy” household, we were reaching our sugar limit by lunchtime on most days and definitely by dinner time on all the other days. I guarantee you that most Americans hit their sugar limit before breakfast is over.

I’m not one to take the drastic approach and totally 100% ban sugar from my house–that will just make the kids want it more and develop a very bad relationship with sugar. Plus, let’s be honest…I want some sugar sometimes, too! What I can and will do is make sure my kiddos are eating as many whole foods as possible instead of processed foods. I can monitor the added sugar they are getting for meals and snacks that I provide. I can keep extremely unhealthy options out of my house. And, perhaps most importantly, I can educate them on this matter and teach them that a cookie or a cupcake once in a while or a mildly sweet snack once a day is not the problem. When it’s time for a sweet, have a sweet. I mean, I want to know when I’m eating a sweet! But when it’s time for a balanced meal or a healthy snack, I shouldn’t be getting duped into thinking I’m having something healthy when in reality it’s full of added sugars, which are throwing my body into a tailspin…more on that next time 😉 For now, I hope I’ve been able to shed some light on lurking sugars and what a healthy amount of sugar looks like for you and your family. In closing, have fun raiding your pantry!!!

Now that title is an eye-catcher, right? Who doesn’t want to clean up their life and get rid of their literal and figurative junk!? It is therapeutic to purge things. In fact, there is a whole…dare I say underground revolution…surrounding this right now. If you do a quick Google, you will find COUNTLESS books about purging–purging grief, plastic, bad habits, toxic people…THINGS. That’s where this particular post comes in 😉 Many of my friends are reading the Marie Kondo book now and going to town with the purging of THINGS (I’m a born purger so I’m admittedly not reading the book…yet!).

I’m not sure what it is, but I grew up surrounded by yard sales. Here in NY, they call them tag sales and I’ve also heard garage sale. Whatever you want to call it, I think there’s a reason my family was drawn to them–for both hosting and shopping. There’s something about putting your unwanted items out and being able to make a little cash. It makes you feel a bit like an entrepreneur, a bit like the manager of a store for the day, and a lot like you’re cleaning out–which you are! And shopping at yard sales…it’s all about the hunt for a great bargain! To this day, I get most of my kids’ clothing at yard sales. It just makes sense!

Because of my family’s obsession with garage sales over the years, I’ve learned a lot…A LOT…about hosting them. I’m going to share some tips with you today so you can have a stellar tag sale, get rid of a lot of your “junk” and put some money in your pocket!

The first step is promoting your sale. If no one knows about it, you will be left with all the stuff you started with. And a sad face 😦 Some people like to purchase ads in the Pennysaver or other publications. I am here to tell you that this strategy has gone the way of the cavemen! We have had the most success with a healthy mix of good old fashioned SIGNS (yes, that’s right) and social media blasts. Get on your local Facebook community pages and use your Twitter account…advertise your sale on all the group FB pages you can find that relate to your community. Here in my area, we have a “mommy page” for every single town. I blast all of those pages with my yard sale details! And it’s not spam because mommies LOVE tag sales! The signs…the way your signs look are of utmost importance. They need to be large, neatly printed, and easy to read when driving by quickly. Plus, they must contain pertinent information: date, time, location, and rain or shine, if that’s the case for you. They also need to be placed at major intersections and on highly traveled roadways. Arrows are very important. Make the arrows separately…they should be BIG! If you make them separately, you can place them whichever direction you need to when you hang the sign 😉 Easy! Here is a picture of my signs.

Next…organizing your sale. First of all…I recommend putting a price tag on every. single. item. Labor intensive? Yes. But, it will pay off HUGE when people know what to pay. If you don’t do this, you will spend 90% of your time on sale day answering the question “how much for this?” Also, when people haggle you (and they will!), you will know your starting point. If you don’t label things, you might end up giving things away for much less than you really intended and regret it later.

Next, I like to organize everything into sections so people have an easy and pleasant shopping experience. Also, it helps me out because when the sale gets crowded I can keep an eye on everything. I know where the more valuable items are and I can watch things better even when there’s a rush of people.

Round up tents (in case of rain!), tables, tarps, and clothing racks. You WILL sell more of everything if items are nicely hung and laid out and people do not have to dig through piles of things or bend to the ground for all items. If things are heaped in piles, people will miss A LOT but if things are organized, it’s easier for shoppers to see everything you have to offer! Another trick is to make tables out of saw horses and slabs of wood or old doors. We take a few doors off their hinges in order to make some really stellar tables each time we have a sale.

Also, it is good to have a variety of things. If you’ve only got clothing to sell, wait another year or two until you have more of a variety of items. Or, if you really want an epic sale, make it a multi-family sale. I have hosted four of these now and they are amazing. People flock to these sales because the variety of items is really great. If you’re doing a multi-family sale, I recommend that the head in charge of each family (usually the mom 😉 ) have her own money and her own money apron. When people buy items from multiple sellers, you do the math in your head and hand it over to your co-seller. For instance, a woman buys two items from you, one from Sheila and three from Ella. You take her entire transaction and split it up in your head (or on paper!), keep your earnings, and hand Sheila’s and Ella’s over to them. Done! Easy! It might sound like it can get complicated, but it really doesn’t. Another tip to help out with this is not to include items under $1 each. Having to make change with coins is annoying and does complicate splitting up multi-person sales. Honestly…if it’s not worth a whole dollar, throw it out or donate it!

These are my top tips. To recap:

Promote your sale using social media and neat, clear signage
Put a price on every item
Organize your sale into easy-to-distinguish sections (I label mine with signs!)
The head of each family should have her own money apron and change (include lots of $1 bills!)
If it’s not worth a dollar, chuck it or donate it. Don’t fuss with coins at your yard sale!
With that…happy yard-sale-ing! Whether you plan to host or shop…one man’s junk is another man’s treasure! ❤

Tag: junk

How Sweet It Is…