Today I came to work iwth dinner and an apple in my bag to get me through the evening. My friend who works with me texted to ask if I wanted strawberries. YES! Of course I want strawberries! I'll take my apple home and have it tomorrow! She proceeded to ask if I wanted shortcake, which I politely declined.

She brought in a cup of strawberries, sliced up and looking yummy. I said thank you. She said, "they're really yummy because I put some sugar on them."

Now, she doesn't know about my PCOS and insulin resistance, and doesn't know that I'm cutting out all sugar and other refined carbs. I don't expect her to know this. That being said, I just don't get it. Why would you put sugar on such a wonderfully sweet food? It's like people who cook sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top or add cinnamon sugar to it. It's already sweet? Why mess with perfection??? Even when I ate unhealthily, I never added sugar to fruits, especially not berries!

So, I ate a slice while she was in visiting and then threw them down the disposal in the kitchen. It's so wasteful, but I'm not going to consume something so detrimental to my health and my weight loss efforts just to be polite. I'll take my apple instead.

Ah man. I'm with you!! Strawberries are perfect how they are!

I have always added sugar to strawberries because it draws the juice out and makes a sauce (aka "macerate" I believe). Even when I was cutting sugar out, I would add a half teaspoon of sugar to a very large bowl of berries to get the juice. It's just nice to have a sauce if you are serving them over some cake or ice cream or something like that, which is why people do it.

Granted, I don't do it anymore...

Also you could rinse off the sugar and the berries should be fine, they do not absorb sugar.

I'm guilty of sugar on strawberries .. i don't use much .. just enough to make them juicier .. strawberries always seem sour to me .. im also guilty of marshmallows in my sweet potatoes lol but i dont eat them much but when i eat them i like them just a tad sweeter

Your perception of flavor is not a static thing. It changes based on what you're eating. The more sugar you eat, the less you taste it, and the more you have to use.

It really is drug-like in that way. It takes more and more to reach the same flavor-point.

I never used huge amounts of sugar (or so I thought). I didn't even realize I had much of a sweet-tooth (except around TOM). I wasn't a big fan of candy or deserts most of the time, but I did like fruit and foods like barbecued chicken (barbecue sauce is very high in sugar).

I didn't notice a huge flavor-gap until after I'd been on low-carb for a while and had been avoiding even most fruits.

Now bananas I thought were ripe, now seem over-ripe and too-sweet, and vegetables that I never thought of as sweet (such as bell-pepper) are very sweet. Vegetables I thought of as bitter (such as broccoli and brussels sprouts) now taste great.

I didn't know that about the sauce. I've just always liked strawberries the way they were. We used to go strawberry picking once a year and my mom would bring water bottles for us to drink. I would pick a few berries, run water over them, and eat them right there. They were always the best berries I tasted all year long.


I didn't even think about rinsing them off. How silly of me!

Haleysmom--It doesn't help that marshmallows is on my top ten least favorite foods list. I used to get sweet potatoes with cinnamon sugar on them at restaurants because that's how they came, but I finally realized that it didn't make them better for me. So why add the sugar if I already like the taste? These days, when I do eat sweet potatoes, I don't put anything on them, not even butter.

Kaplods, until about a year ago, I never understood the whole eating sugar begets craving sugar thing because it never happened to me. I really could have one cookie and not crave more sweets. It was harder for me to eat salty carbs within reason than sweets. In the last year I have come to know firsthand the evils of sweets. If I had a vaguely sweet taste in my mouth I'd be hungry until I ate or drank something savory, and sometimes that didn't even work. This getting older thing stinks!

Thats how we do it too. Pour sugar over sliced strawberries to make their own juice for the shortcake... yumm another reason why i need to be here

Oh yea...and then smother it with heavy whipping cream, (whipped with more sugar and vanilla!) OMG!

I like strawberries in milk, sprinkled with splenda

I do like them plain too but with the weather we've had here they aren't as sweet as they should be.

You can put splenda on them instead of sugar and you still get the sauce
LOVE THE SAUCE!!!!!

I never have liked sweet potatoes, I have tried to make myself like them, but no. The only reason I used to put them on my plate was to eat the marshmellows!

another thing about putting sugar on strawberries it is seems to make them last a little longer too. I prefer them without, but my parents like them with. So when I get strawberries I always leave some plain for myself, and add a little sugar too theirs. If I'm finding I'm not eating them I'll put a little sugar on them on send them with my dad with his lunch for work.

Count me as another who adds sugar to strawberries to draw the juice out. And still prepare them that way even with my current way of eating.

I'm sorry you wasted strawberries, she should have asked and not done something like that before asking!!

I sometimes add sugar to strawberries. not much, but some and I am NOT going to feel guilty for that. Eating healthier for me doesn't include depriving myself of a few of my favorite treats in moderation. Where I can understand some needing and wanting to cut out sugar not all of us need to do that.

I love sweet potatoes with a little brown sugar. Yes sweet potatoes are sweet on their own but I like a little more.

You may not like it but it's not fair to poo-poo on other peoples tastes.

The only time I put sugar on strawberries is if it is also getting balsamic vinegar and pepper. The rest of the time I eat them plain.

But good for you -- do what you gotta to knock that PCOS back!

A.

Kudos on being able to throw them away!!! That's still probably my biggest problem... I can avoid all the food I want and eat healthy, but if the food is there in front of me I still have the hardest time saying no and/or throwing it away because it makes me feel so.darned.WASTEFUL!