Pico de Orizaba

Pico de Orizaba
Taken from Huatusco, Veracruz, the closest town to Margarita's family's ranch.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Selling Wonderful Cold and Sweet Drinks that Probably No One Should Drink

I forgot to mention that before the fair started I was greatly concerned about how I would prepare and sell Frappuccinos I couldn't drink. But, when we began selling, I noticed within myself a general indifference towards the frappes. At the same time I stumbled across a recent report by the American Heart Association mentioning the general upper limit for sugar consumption for children, adult men and adult women. Actually, I was looking for the amount of grams of sugar in a teaspoon... What shocked me was that the AMA said that children shouldn't consume more than 3 grams of sugar per day, women; the maximum of 20 grams or 5 teaspoons and men; somewhere around 38grams or 9.5 teaspoons... So, I decided to ask people, "who should consume more sugar; a child, a woman or a man?" Would you believe that EVERYONE responded, "clearly the children; they need more sugar because they expend more energy." However, we all concluded that healthy children naturally generate energy from the food they ingest and don't need assistance. With this idea offered by the American Heart Association, I decided to calculate the sugar content of our Frappuccinos. What I named "The Supreme", which is 16ozs comprised of Coffee Frappe, Caramel, Chocolate Syrup, Ground Nuts, whipped cream and a Maraschino Cherry gives you 90 grams of sugar! If I am correct, the typical Moka Frappuccino offers somewhere between 60 and 70grams... Fortunately I didn't drink one cup during the 23 days. Imagine; 90 grams of sugar, how many plates of rice, how many slices of branola bread that have minimally 2.5 grams of sugar per slice... corn tortillas, flour tortillas, 1-2 regular coffees or cappuccinos with at least 3 tsps (12 grams) of sugar, an occasional celebratory pie or cake from Costco, an occasional pizza from Costco... Heinz Ketchup has 1 gram of sugar for every gram of ketchup in the bottle; 100 % sugar. Fortunately I wasn't a soda drinker two months ago. However, in the fairs how many grams of Sugar was I placing in my body per day? Mexicans drink minimally 3 times the amount of Coca Cola/Pepsi Co products than do "Americans"... So, how many grams of sugar is that person ingesting per day who regularly bought a 16 oz Frappuccino from us and who traditionally accompanies his/her lunch and dinner with a 20.3oz bottle of Soda and follows lunch or dinner with Hostess cakes or pies or traditional Mexican pastries?




I so badly wanted to talk about the Diabetes epidemic here in Mexico (to my customers) while observing the parade of obesity passing infront of our stand and while measuring the sugar contents of what we sell and don't eat. But, Margarita repeatedly told me to take my ideas and conversation to another side of our world, since the sale of what people want to put in their bodies is what pays our lifestyle and ability for me to do the research and for us to eat healthier and exercise freely as we do.

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