Day 41

Hot in the City

Statistics show that around 371 million people around the globe have type 2 diabetes. It is estimated that half of those people aren’t aware that they have the disease. 

Onwards I rolled (literally) through another day of learning, sugar consuming and what is now, utter exhaustion. My body has really done me an incredible service so far but the signs are showing that I am going to have to wrap up this madness very soon. Apart from the first set of pimples I have acquired in 10 years, I now cant fit into my favourite new shorts and it is really hot here and the denim/skin/humidity combo is only adding to the shortened fuse. I also feel like my body needs more sugar now to get through the days and I am battling to stay under my 40 teaspoon threshold.

Breakfast was a desert cereal bowl of Frosted flakes and pear yoghurt with a pear, syrupy marmalade substance at the bottom of the cup (14 teaspoons). That was hunted down by a few gulps of pro biotic keffir lime drink (5 teaspoons).

I left town and headed north to meet an extraordinary individual.  He is a man famous for revolutionizing the food industry by working out that not everyone likes the same tastes so he developed huge ‘line extensions’ for products and has made the food companies millions and millions of dollars. He didn’t speak to me so much as danced across subjects using a form of poetry and rhyming couplets. It was fascinating as these ‘stanzas of truth’ were the only time he would really speak honestly and when talking normally he dried up and became very considered about what information to share. As I regaled him with tales of ‘Mountain Dew Mouth’ and effects our own indigenous population, he felt pained and struggled to comprehend the level to which these sugary items were now being consumed. “I had no time to be a moral creature”, he said “I was being paid to do the best science I could, the company’s sole purpose was to find a way to get people wanting more of their products.” Indeed it only confounded to me that these companies are so driven by reaching goals and targets that the consequences of what is happening on the ‘front line’ in the general public takes little precedent. He was adamant though that these companies are aware and have learnt lessons from the Big Tobacco stories. “They are smarter now, they know there is growing public concern. I believe they are starting to apply the science into ways to make their products healthier because that is what people want.” It was a little hard to digest this and only moments later he burst into rhyme about being ‘politically correct and nice, because the truth is revealing and may come at a price’.

It was easily in the top 10 ‘3 hour’ periods of my life and he told incredible stories in a home that Wes Anderson would salivate over. There are certain people that tower above life and he is at the head of the queue.

Lunch was back in the city and I had a sweet pasta sauce and iced tea (13 teaspoon combo) . Interestingly the tea here is served as a healthy alternative to coke or sprite. And although some are less sweet, it is not uncommon to find some teas that have twice the amount of sugar as Coke. The sucrose measurement in liquid is referred to as a BRAX. Some iced teas have a brax of 22, which is double that of Coke.

I just got home absolutely exhausted after getting stuck in the middle of Manhattan at peak hour, unable to get a cab and the denim stuck to my thighs in the searing heat. I stopped on the way home to catch the sunset over the city under the Brooklyn Bridge and it really is one of the most magical sights in the world. Ayn Rand and her worshipping of man made architecture would have stood and wept a capitalist tear.

I am now home and had another chug of my keffir lime bottle of liquid yoghurt wrongness (5 teaspoons), made a small veggie burrito with no cheese or sour cream and have just snacked on some very refreshing and hydrating pieces of pineapple (3 teaspoons worth).

Tonight I am off to try and little experiment to find out just how much Americans love candy.  I hope I avoid an arrest.

41 gone and an easy 40.