Barbara J. Hamby

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Creative Writing--Madison Avenue Style

This morning I read the label on the carton of soy milk that I use on my cereal. It’s a life-long habit (at least since I learned to read at about age five) to devour every printed word in sight when I’m bored. To my surprise, one of the first ingredients in the soy “milk” is “organic evaporated cane juice”. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like sugar to me. I know of nothing else that comes in cane form.

Since I developed digestive problems a few years back, I’ve studied nutrition informally. I read labels, research internet food sites, and try to identify all the disguises the marketers cleverly devise for sugar. Sugar, in one form or another, is contained in nearly every prepared food on grocery shelves

Anyway, the above description is probably the most ingenious I have encountered in years of sleuthing. As a poet of sorts, I admire the clever use of words and “organic evaporated cane juice,” certainly qualifies for some sort of award. “High fructose corn syrup” is old hat now and somewhat more obvious. Because that ingredient is in so many foods, it’s become familiar to those of us who are label readers.

This commentary may seem trivial and somewhat humorous, but in view of our status as a highly overweight population, we all need to pay attention to nutrition labels these days and try to identify their obfuscations.

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