Sweet Tea

I was thinking about Sweet Tea yesterday as My husband Mike and I had dinner with his Mom and Step-Father. The two people at the table who should not be drinking sweet tea it ordered it. As the token Midwesterner among the southern folks, I decided not to say anything. There was a diabetic and someone with many health issues sitting across the table from me. I wonder if they realize there are 774 Calories and 200 grams of Carbs in each cup of sugar according to the Joy of Cooking listing. If you divide that out by how many glasses of tea you get per cup of sugar, I am sure the calorie and carb. content would still be high per glass. For some reason - many people still drink it. I like sweet tea, but all the sugar makes me sick to my stomach to drink it. Although I have not been diagnosed with diabetes, I have some family members who have it and I keep that in mind when considering what to drink. Most beverages offer little nutritional value and the calories may just end up on your hips or other places that we do not want them showing. I even stopped drinking soda several years ago to cut out all the chemicals I was ingesting. I know it is hard to get anyone to change long ingrained habits, but when your health and your life is at risk - it is time to stop bad habits and start new healthy living habits. Our health care system is taxed for many reasons. One is due to the lack of connection between behavior and consequences of a poor and unhealthy lifestyle. I am not convinced that will change anytime soon in the near future. Hopefully I am wrong.