Yotam Ottolenghi: Eat Your Sugar.

[elleng]

'Admitting to a sweet tooth these days seems rather illicit, what with sugar cast in the role of Public Enemy No. 1. But here is my confession: I rarely go a day without a slice or bite or square of something sweet. If it’s not cake, then it’ll be a cookie, a slice of tart topped with fruit or a slab of dark chocolate, a little pop of joy to accompany a short black coffee or a tall cup of green tea.

But it’s not the sugar I’m addicted to. Rather, it’s the comfort, surprise and delight that dessert, or any food, can bring, that ideal match of the right dish and the right moment. The reason a colorful, vertiginously tall and booze-filled trifle brings so much joy at the end of a party is not because of the sugar in the list of ingredients. It’s because nothing says “sharing” and “celebration” and “ta-da!” quite like it.

And so I introduce my new column for The New York Times, which will appear occasionally and is to be filled with all things baked and sweet.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/dining/yotam-ottolenghi-baking-granita-kataifi.html?

[Warpy]

1. Yeah, me too

I really did try during my misspent youth to evict sucrose from my diet, using the few fruits I'm not allergic to for desserts and sweet snacks. I, too, found my diet rather joyless and didn't experience much compensation in the way of improved health or stronger teeth.

I'll leave the various forms of abstinence to the Puritans who are capable of feeling the flush of self righteousness whenever they forgo one of the pleasures of life. My brief foray into joining them in one small regard taught me that I'm not one of them.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. I have never understood why people are so eager to demonize

certain foods. Sugar, salt, fat, dairy, wheat. Yeah, some people are seriously allergic or can't properly digest those things, but if you don't have a life-threatening allergy, that food isn't poison.

Moderation is always a good idea.