Ketchup?

I've felt very jittery the past couple of days. Full of restless energy. As I write this, it occurs to me for the first time that this might be lack of sugar related. I constantly feel the need to move around and perform activities or chores or anything. I always want to be in motion.

Confidentially, I haven't been sleeping super well either. Whether this is relevant or not I'm not sure. I simply want to document it to contrast against other things I am giving up later in the year.

So it was after a long walk Sunday night brought on by restlessness that my girlfriend and I decided to go for burgers at a local chain. No kings or golden arches, but one of the more upscale burger chains that have begun to litter Toronto in the past couple of years.

Ordering was very difficult. I had to ask at the order counter whether the burger patty or cheese had any sugar in it. They checked. The answer was no. But I still had a dilemma: what toppings were OK? Which weren't?

Was ketchup OK? Or relish? I wasn't sure. So I had to pass. In the end, I settled on cheese, tomato, pickle, mushrooms, and mustard ( I love mustard and checked out the brands at the grocery store. None of the major brands had any sugar in them, except for the honey mustard varieties).

We received our burgers and sat down to eat. Right away, I could sense something was amiss. I could taste something sweet, or so I thought. I might be imagining it, I reasoned. I continued to eat.

But I couldn't shake the though that something sugary was sneaking by undetected. I sampled all the ingredients individually to try and find the culprit. The pickles were fine. So were the tomatoes, mustard, and mushrooms. Can you guess what it was?

I sampled a bit of the bun on its own and found my smoking gun. After just a few days, I could taste the sugar permeating the bun! I had no idea a burger bun would even contain sugar, but I definitely tasted it. I promptly removed the rest of the bun and finished the burger.

When we got home, my girlfriend wanted to make egg nog in order to use up the last of the holiday ingredients in the fridge (she's good like that). I was forlorn, knowing I couldn't share in that lovely holiday treat. But I was in for a surprise: she prepared it without sugar, using extra cinnamon, nutmeg, and fresh ginger instead. It was a tasty treat, but in complete honesty I missed the sugary version. This was proving harder than I thought...