OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago this week — 2006
The Columbia River Bar Pilots have been authorized to replace the pilot
boat Columbia with a new boat called the Chinook II at a cost of roughly
$4.2 million. The cost will be covered by raising the surcharge to vessels
traveling on the Columbia River over the next 10 years. The bar pilots hope
to have the new boat up and running by next winter, but they don’t know yet
what will become of the Columbia pilot boat once the Chinook II is built.
More than a dozen concerned citizens – longshoremen and
liquefied natural gas opponents alike – took turns identifying
problems at the Port of Astoria during the Port Commission
meeting Tuesday night.
Some aimed pointed questions at commissioners and Execu-
tive Director Peter Gearin; others called for resignations during
a lengthy public comment session.
In response, Port leadership shared new information about
ongoing controversies and admitted the agency needs to do some
major repairs to its dredge. President Don McDaniel said he
would consider easing restrictions built into the Port’s recently
adopted public comment policy to ensure freedom of speech.
The storm that surprised the Portland area with a heavy blanket of snow
Tuesday mostly bypassed the North Coast, but did bring more below freez-
ing temperatures and some freezing rain Tuesday night that made for slip-
pery driving conditions locally this morning.
A forgotten Cold War-era defense siren set off by a prank-
ster at Oregon State University to herald the new year is coming
to Clatsop County to serve as a tsunami alert. Its likely destina-
tion is Hammond, Gene Strong, the county’s emergency services
coordinator, said today.
50 years ago — 1966
This architect’s sketch shows the new headquarters building for
Ilwaco’s wide-spreading collection telephone companies, to be
built in 1967.
Try going a month
without any sugar
By DAVID LEONHARDT
New York Times News Service
t is in chicken stock, sliced
cheese, bacon and smoked
salmon, in mustard and salad
dressing, in crackers and nearly
every single brand
of sandwich bread.
It is all around
us — in obvious
ways and hidden
ones — and it is
utterly delicious.
It’s sugar, in its many forms:
powdered sugar, honey, corn syrup,
you name it. The kind you eat mat-
ters less than people once thought,
scientific research suggests, and
the amount matters much more.
Our national sugar habit is the driv-
ing force behind the diabetes and
obesity epidemics and may be a
contributing factor to cancer and
Alzheimer’s.
Like me, you’ve probably just
finished a couple of weeks in which
you have eaten a lot of tasty sugar.
Don’t feel too guilty about it. But if
you feel a little guilty about it, I’d
like to make a suggestion.
Choose a month this year — a
full 30 days, starting now or later
— and commit to eating no added
sweeteners. Go cold turkey, for one
month.
I
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
The year 1966 was a great one for this lower Columbia area, economi-
cally and otherwise. It was in fact one of the best years in our history.
One major event that made 1966 a landmark year was completion of the
Astoria bridge and its opening to traffic. The social and economic impact
of this great event is yet to be measure, but a few months have already tied
us closer to the communities of southwest Washington, have developed
tourist travel greatly, and affected this area beneficially from the economic
standpoint.
The bridge’s completion undoubtedly is one of the major events in the
history of this area. The year in which it was finished has to be a signifi-
cant one.
Four persons were rescued from a sinking tri-maran pleasure
craft Saturday night near the tip of the south jetty. The Colum-
bia River Bar Pilots association pilot boat Peacock made the res-
cue at about 11 p.m. in “pretty rough” sea between buoys 4 and
6, Capt. E.A. Quinn of the bar pilots said.
Fifty years ago: From Evening Budget, Jan. 2, 1917
The 1916 automobile business here had set new records. Eight dealers
had sold a total 377 automobiles. Lovell Auto was the leader, selling 210
Fords, Overland, Reliances and Mack trucks.
Tongue Point Job Corps Center will be converted from a train-
ing school for boys and young men to a school for 800 girls and
young women, the change to be completed by the end of June.
75 years ago — 1941
America welcomes 1942 tonight with whoopee parties sobered by grim
reminders that the nation is at war.
In many cities the lid was off for a celebration that “may be the last big
New Year’s for some time.”
But air raid wardens will mingle with the throngs in new York’s Times
Square, where the New Year traditionally received its most uproarious greet-
ing at the stroke of midnight. And three hours later when 1942 reaches the
west coast, it will find lights dimmed and gaiety muffled lest the cities serve
as landmarks for enemy bombers.
Bringing home to everyone what dislocations to normal life
are involved in an all-out war effort is the government order prac-
tically suspending the automobile industry, one of the nation’s
largest, as it prepared to put all automobile factories into full-
time production of aircraft, tanks and other machinery of war.
The government emergency order banning sale, delivery or lease of all
new cars and light trucks until a rationing system is instituted January 15,
has come as a sharp blow to nine Astoria automobile dealers at it has to
40,000 dealers throughout the nation.
Today there are about 100 new cars owned by local dealers, all of which
are frozen by government proclamation. Thus far at least 13 persons have
been left unemployed by the curtailment, with more unemployment almost
certain in the immediate future.
Not easy
I have done so in each of the
past two years, and it has led to
permanent changes in my eating
habits. It wasn’t easy, but it was
worth it. It reset my sugar-addled
taste buds and opened my eyes to
the many products that needlessly
contain sugar. I now know which
brands of chicken stock, bacon,
smoked salmon, mustard and hot
sauce contain added sugar and
which do not.
I know that Triscuits and pita
bread are our friends. They have
only a few ingredients, and no
sugar. Wheat Thins and most pack-
aged sandwich breads, on the other
hand, have an ingredient list that
evokes high school chemistry class,
including added sugars.
If you give up sugar for a
month, you’ll become part of a
growing anti-sugar movement.
Research increasingly indicates
that an overabundance of simple
carbohydrates, and sugar in partic-
ular, is the No. 1 problem in mod-
ern diets. An aggressive, well-fi-
nanced campaign by the sugar
industry masked this reality for
years. Big Sugar instead placed the
blame on fats — which seem, after
all, as if they should cause obesity.
But fats tend to have more nutri-
tional value than sugar, and sugar
is far easier to overeat. Put it this
way: Would you find it easier to eat
two steaks or two pieces of cake?
Food taxes
Fortunately, the growing under-
standing of sugar’s dangers has led
to a backlash, both in politics and
in our diets. Taxes on sweetened
drinks — and soda is probably the
most efficient delivery system for
sugar — have recently passed in
Chicago, Philadelphia, Oakland,
San Francisco and Boulder, Colo-
rado. Mexico and France have one
as well, and Ireland and Britain
soon will.
Even before the taxes, Ameri-
cans were cutting back on sugar.
Since 1999, per capita consump-
A sampling of foods and the total grams of sugar in one serving.
Our national sugar habit is the driving force behind the diabetes and
obesity epidemics and may be a contributing factor to cancer and
Alzheimer’s, David Leonhardt writes.
tion of added sweeteners has fallen
about 14 percent, according to the
Agriculture Department.
Yet it needs to drop a lot more
— another 40 percent or so — to
return to a healthy level. “Most
public authorities think every-
body would be healthier eating
less sugar,” says Marion Nestle of
NYU. “There is tons of evidence.”
A good long-term limit for most
adults is no more than 50 grams
(or about 12 teaspoons) of added
sugars per day, and closer to 25 is
healthier. A single 16-ounce bottle
of Coke has 52 grams.
You don’t have to cut out sugar
for a month to eat less of it, of
course. But it can be difficult to
reduce your consumption in scat-
tered little ways. You can usually
find an excuse to say yes to the
plate of cookies at a friend’s house
or the candy jar during a meeting.
Eliminating added sugar gives you
a new baseline and forces you to
make changes. Once you do, you’ll
probably decide to keep some of
your new habits.
My breakfasts, for example,
have completely changed. Over the
past few decades, typical breakfasts
in this country have become “low-
er-fat versions of dessert,” as Gary
Taubes, author of a new book, “The
Case Against Sugar,” puts it.
Mine used to revolve around
cereal and granola, which are
almost always sweetened. Now I
eat a combination of eggs, nuts,
fruit, plain yogurt and some well-
spiced vegetables. It feels deca-
dent, yet it’s actually healthier than
a big bowl of granola.
Defining sugar
How should you define sugar
during your month? I recommend
the definition used by Whole 30, a
popular food regimen (which elim-
inates many things in addition to
sugar). The sugar that occurs natu-
rally in fruit, vegetables and dairy
is allowed. “Nobody eats too much
of those,” Nestle says, “not with
the fiber and vitamins and minerals
they have.”
But every single added sweet-
ener is verboten. No sugar, no corn
syrup, no maple syrup, no honey,
no fancy-pants agave. Read every
ingredient list, looking especially
for words that end in “-ose.” Don’t
trust the Nutrition Facts table next
to the ingredient list, because “0 g”
of sugar on that list really means
“less than 0.5 g.” Get comfortable
asking questions in restaurants.
And avoid the artificial sweeteners
in diet sodas, too.
Part of the goal, remember, is to
relearn how a diet that isn’t dom-
inated by sweeteners tastes. I’ve
always liked fruit, but I was still
pleasantly surprised by how deli-
cious it was during the month.
When I needed a midday treat, a
Honeycrisp apple, a few Trader
Joe’s apricots or a snack bar that
fit the no-sugar requirement saved
me.
Finally, be careful not to vio-
late the spirit of the month while
sticking to the formal rules: Have
only one small glass of juice a day,
and eat very little with added fruit
juices.
There were certainly times
when I didn’t enjoy the experi-
ence. I missed ice cream, chocolate
squares, Chinese restaurants and
cocktails. But I also knew that I’d
get to enjoy them all again.
The unpleasant parts of a month
without sugar are temporary, and
they’re tolerable. Some of the ben-
efits continue long after the month
is over. If you try it and your expe-
rience is anything like mine, I pre-
dict that your new normal will feel
healthier and no less enjoyable than
the old.