A glut of sugar

The universe wants me dead. I put in a grocery order focused on healthy fiber and protein sources, and instead of beefsteak tomatoes I received a bag with twelve 16-ounce bottles of Dr. Pepper. Pure carbonated sugar water, not even a no-sugar variety.

A long, long time ago I gave up soda and now I drink coffee, tea, and water. I’m trying to get sugar in whole foods, or at least eat more fiber with any carbs. Whole foods form a matrix that lets glucose through in smaller packets over a longer time, and gets processed with systems that act like turnstiles, letting set amounts of glucose through into the bloodstream. They have limits. According to my research, foods like soda pop overwhelm these limits and this triggers back-up systems that act more like guards who swing open the gates and jump out of the way – aptly named GLUT2. Do this again and again and damage starts to spread.

I can drink a single soda over a day or two and feel fine. But if I kept doing that again and again over two weeks or even a month, I would probably hit a fork in the road, a bifurcation point, where the system would struggle to return to stability.

I’m going to see if my aunt wants the soda for her annual bean cookout. If not, the sugar water going into the garbage.