Kelly Ripa on Cranberry Sauce

Kelly Ripa made an important observation on cranberry sauce this morning on the Live with Regis and Kelly.

Her conversation with Regis went something like this:

Did you know that one tablespoon of canned cranberry sauce has as much sugar as eight doughnuts! You know, I make my own cranberry sauce and no one eats it. If it isn't shaped like a can, they won't eat it.

Okay, I doubt you can pack that much sugar into a tablespoon of cranberry sauce. I don't see how anyone can eat the canned stuff. But her point is well-taken.

Most cranberry sauce is a sugar-laden cranberry-flavored jelly concoction at that. It's a "strained jellied or semi-jellied product prepared from clean, sound, mature cranberries sweetened with high fructose corn syrup/corn sweetener and water," according to USDA.

I don't know what attracts people to canned cranberry sauce. Maybe it's the ridges. Or maybe it's the fact that any real cranberries have been strained out and the remaining sauce jellied.

I'm not a big fan of cranberry sauce. I'd rather top my turkey with braised red cabbage. But I appreciate the effort parents put into introducing children to "real" food. It's a tough battle, but I've found that children respond to old-fashion recipes, especially when you serve them often.