Thursday Three: Sweet Stuff

Terry is getting all sweet on us by posing the following questions proposed by Marc Velazquez.

With the recent announcement by the "fat" police that our children are eating/drinking themselves to death (1/5 of American's calories are liquid, i.e. from sugared soft drinks), it's time to 'fess up on our sugar/drinking habits. This will be a 3X Thursday 3, and to be even more unpredictable, the bonus comes first!

BONUS - Sweet tea: your first choice of beverage, lemon or not, Lipton or Luzianne?

FOR WORKING FOLKS:
1. What do you drink the most at work, and do you bring your own?
2. Nutrasweet (aspartame) or Splenda (sucralose)?
3. Do you keep candy at your desk/work area?

FOR AT-HOME FOLKS:
1. What do you drink the most at home, and do you change on the weekend?
2. Nutrasweet (aspartame) or Splenda (sucralose)?
3. Do you keep a candy stash? Change its location periodically?

FOR TRAVELING FOLKS:
1. What do you drink when traveling? (Marc had “by plane” for this one, but I’ve changed it to be any sort of travel)
2. Nutrasweet (aspartame) or Splenda (sucralose)?
3. Do you chew gum to help your ears pop on a flight? (Obviously, this is for airplanes, not cars or buses or trains, unless you happen to be on one that flies.)

SO, there you go, sweetie-pie!

Uh oh, this maybe the Thursday Three that gets my membership in the Axis of Weevil rescinded. The Bonus question will be my downfall.

I have a confession to make, I don’t like sweet tea and I’m not fond of iced tea in general. Part of this is my Yankee heritage, the rest is just my own idiosyncrasies. On those rare occasions I do drink tea it is hot, loose and strong (ooh, that sounds... interesting). The tea I like the most I got in USSR and was Georgian Tea. It is great stuff. I befuddled all the Russians who would push coffee on our little group of Americans; I would politely refuse and request the tea from the samovar instead. So I don’t like sweet tea and my favorite tea was communist. I’m doooooooomed.

Now for the rest of the questions, hopefully I’ll do better on those.

I’m going to do all three batches, because I’m a glutton for punishment.

At Work:
1)In the dim mists of time, before I had children, I used to have a paying job. At work I would drink Coke. The real stuff, none of that diet junk. Just one can a day at lunch. I would buy my soda from the guys in the mail room for 35 cents a can. The rest of the day I drank from the water fountain or had a nice cup of hot chocolate. When I was pregnant I switched to ginger ale.

2)Neither, both Nutrayuck and Splenda-ick are vile products of some evil little troll. It’s real sugar or nothing for me.

3)Snacks are a very important part of a sane diet. Instead of a stash of sweets we would all go out for ice cream.

At Home:
1)For the past nine and half years I have been among the ranks of those who stay at home. Generally I drink milk, tap water and orange juice. We also have some fancy fizzy water that I like to mix with fruit juice. If I go out for a picnic I grab a can of ginger ale. I have lost my taste for caffeine and I drink non-caffeinated drinks with the exception of hot chocolate.

2)See above.

3)We have a candy stash of left over candy from Halloween/Valentine’s and any other time the kids bring home a bunch of candy. My mom, on occasion, also sends me chocolates that I will share with my hubby and Meryl. Then there are all the baked goods I make.

On the Road:
1)Water and caffeine free drinks.

2)See above.

3)When we used to fly (with four kids those days are over) I was a big fan of holding my nose and popping my ears. Water consumption is very important when traveling by plane. I would feel much better if I drank lots of water.

So there you are. I’m a non-caffeinated person that views sugar substitutes as a horrible idea. It is a better to drink a little of the real thing, than gallons of the fake stuff.