7 Feb 07: Coke is 40 percent sugar!!!

Ok, Coke is really only 39% sugar, according to its makers. I try to visualise how far up the can 39% is, and then imagine it to be full of white sugar, before I pour the lot down my throat. Not a thrilling prospect, coming as it does just one week after my heart scare (later downgraded to a pulled muscle).

That leaves me with a real dilemma. The same one, actually. Trying to not drink Coke at all two days in a row, I still have to drink Monsanto-produced aspartame to avoid falling victim to the sugar. Thinking I might be just a little paranoic about Monsanto, I was relieved - or shocked - to read about the company's role in illegally dumping quantities of highly toxic chemicals in a rubbish dump in Wales thirty or so years ago - see http://environment.guardian.co.uk/waste/story/0,,2011156,00.html .

On a somewhat more parochial note, I am remembering to use both sides of my printed-on scrap paper, and have in the past week refused at least one plastic bag at a grocery store. I am not yet ready for the Anita Roddick - recommended method of stripping my groceries of all their packaging while at the checkout. Call me old-fashioned, but somehow that seems a little - aggressive? - to me.