Sugar vs Salt (1)

Announcer: From the brains behind Brains On!, it's Smash Boom Best.

Kailynn: The show for people with big opinions.

Announcer: From the brains behind Brains On!, it's Smash Boom Best!

Kailynn: The show for people with big opinions!

Molly: Hi, I'm Molly Bloom and this is Smash Boom Best. The show where we take two things, smash them together and ask you to decide which one is best. Today, we're going to tickle your taste buds with two of the most mouth-watering flavors in the world. One is the savory mineral we like to lick off pretzels, the other is the sweet ingredient we like to sprinkle on our cereal. That's right. It's sugar versus salt. Which fabulous flavor will come out on top? Here to help us decide is Kailynn. Hi, Kailynn.

Kailynn: Hi, Molly. Thank you for having me.

Molly: Thank you for being here today. Kailynn, before we get started, I just want to know what kind of snack do you prefer? Salty or sweet?

Kailynn: It's a tough one but I think I'd have to lean closer toward salty because sweet can be a little too overpowering.

Molly: When it comes to salty snacks which is your favorite?

Kailynn: Cashews, maybe, or some type of nut. Cashews are definitely my favorite though.

Molly: Cashews are very delicious. Even though you prefer salty, what is your favorite sweet snack?

Kailynn: I'm not quite sure if this is a snack but we have bacon covered in sugar so that's like the evenness of a little bit of salty but mostly sweet. That's why I like that mix.

Molly: I am a huge fan of a salty sugary mix myself so that sounds amazing. As you know, this is a debate show where the art of persuasion is highly valued. Do you ever get into debates with friends or family maybe about food?

Kailynn: Recently, me and my brother, we had this debate because he was on a cooking contest, so he had to learn all these skills like how to julienne a pepper, and he tried to tell me that he was better at cooking. I don't know how to julienne a pepper, so he has more skills than I do but he never uses them. I cook a lot more often so we're going back and forth, trying to figure out who's the better cook and then my stepmom came, she's like, "I agree with Kailynn. Sure, she doesn't know how to julienne a pepper but, overall, I think she's a better cook."

Molly: Nice. You got that judge in there. What's your favorite thing to cook?

Kailynn: I like making mac and cheese and orange chicken because I really like to eat those.

Molly: Mac and cheese and orange chicken is a little sweet. It's another sweet, salty dish.

Kailynn: Yeah, it is.

Molly: Now, it's time to introduce our debaters. Here to defend salt, the mineral we always have handy at the dinner table, it's cookbook and children's book author, New York Times columnist and restaurateur, Kenji Lopez-Alt. Hi, Kenji.

Kenji: Hey, how are you doing?

Molly: I'm doing great. Kenji, you recently wrote a picture book called Every Night is Pizza Night. My daughter loves it. Can you sum it up in one sentence?

Kenji: It's about a girl named Pipo who believes that pizza is the best food in the world and then discovers that there are other foods that could also be best.

Molly: Pizza is delicious. I do agree with her. Kenji, in one more sentence, why is salt cooler than sugar?

Kenji: Well, (laughs) because there are lots of things that taste great with just salt and no sugar but there is nothing that taste good with just sugar and no salt. Everything needs salt. It's essential for many, many reasons.

Molly: Excellent. Here to defend sugar, that sweet stuff we sprinkle, mix and melt into all of our favorite treats, it's molecular biologist turned cookbook author, food photographer, and recipe developer, Nik Sharma. Hi, Nik.

Nik: Hi, Molly.

Molly: Nik, you just published a cookbook called The Flavor Equation. Can you describe that in one sentence?

Nik: Yeah. My cookbook is a science-based cookbook that talks about what makes flavor so special to all of us, from our emotions, our memories, and the sight, sounds, textures, aromas, and taste and even salty, I put it in the book.

Molly: That was very generous of you. (chuckles) Sounds like you were giving a lot of thought to sugary and salty flavors recently. In one more sentence, why is sugar far superior to salt?

Nik: I think this should sum it up. Why would you like to be known as salty? Wouldn't you just want to be called sweet?

Molly: (chuckles) This conversation is already making me hungry. How are you feeling after these flavorful intros, Kailynn?

Kailynn: I already know this is going to be a hard decision for me because they both brought some interesting points that I agree with both of them for so I don't know. It'll be hard for me.

Molly: It's going to be a tough debate for sure but before we dive in, let's review today's rounds of debate. First, we've got the Declaration of Greatness. In this round, Nik and Kenji will defend their sides using the most persuasive facts, opinions, and logic. They'll also each have 30 seconds to rebut the other's declaration. Then we've got the Micro Round, a creative challenge both sides have prepared for in advance. For round three, it's the Sneak Attack. We'll surprise Nik and Kenji with an exciting challenge they have to respond to on the spot, and last, for round four, we've got the Final Six. Both sides will have exactly six words to win over our judge. Kailynn will be awarding points to each side along the way but she'll keep her scoring a secret until the very end. Listeners, we want you to judge too. If you'd like to keep score on the official scorecard, you can download one on our website at smashboom.org, and if you have any comments to share with us about the debate or the judge's decision, head to smashboom.org and send us a message. All right, Nik and Kenji, are you ready to make some mouth-watering arguments?

Kenji: Yes.

Nik: Let's do this.

Molly: All right. Then it's time for the Declaration of Greatness. Kailynn, you have two points to award in this round. One is for the best declaration of greatness and the other is for the best rebuttal. They can go to the same person or not. It's up to you. You can use any judging criteria you want. Who is the funniest, who had the more persuasive facts, you decide. Got it?

Kailynn: Got it.

Molly: Excellent. We flipped a coin and Nik, you're up first. Let's hear your knockdown, drag-out defense of the sweet stuff we can't live without, sugar.

Nik: Sugar is magic.

Don't believe me? Just watch the ballet, The Nutcracker. It takes place in the fantastical Land of Sweets, where chocolates and candy canes dance, and snow sparkles like sugar. The ruler of this glittering kingdom is The Sugar Plum Fairy, a beautiful fairy queen, who gets her name from sugar plum candies, which are, oddly enough, NOT PLUMS. Sugar plums are actually balls of sugar made of layer upon layer of hard candy -- like the candy coating on M&Ms. They're pure sugar and delight.

Would you want to go hang out in the magical Land of Salt? Bleh.

NO. I'm imagining a desolate cave, where pickles swing dance and salted fish flop around on the ground, trying to breathe. NOT A GOOD SCENE. Take me back to CandyLand! Remember that board game? That is a MAGICAL game. While you play, you get to imagine licking the ice cream roof of Candy Castle. Is there a board game called SaltyLand where you take a bite out of a beef jerky fence? Bleh. NO! Because salt is not magical, and it is definitely not as amazing as sugar.

Sugar makes our eyes twinkle and our hearts skip a beat. It ignites our imagination with images of beauty and goodness. Almost every word associated with sugar is positive -- sweet, honey, candy, sugar pie, honeybunch -- (sings) Sugar pie, honey bunch / You know that I love you / I can't help myself…

I love sugar. Because it's magic, but also because it's SO MUCH MORE than that. Sugar isn't just that sweet white powder on your donut, or those soft brown crystals melting into your oatmeal. It is an essential building block of life; it's found in almost every cell in your body, and every bite of food you eat. Check it out:

Sugar is the D in DNA. DNA contains all the instructions that make you, you: what color hair you have, how tall you are.

The “D” in DNA stands for deoxyribose, which is a sugar. If sugar didn't exist, DNA wouldn't exist. And if DNA didn't exist… neither would you! Or any living things, really. No dogs. No birds. No bacteria.

And not just that kind of sugar. Sugars aren't even necessarily that sweet. Carbohydrates, the word for the sugars we eat, come in two forms: simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates give us a quick boost of energy and they're found in fruits, candy, milk. honey and ice cream.

Complex carbohydrates give us longer lasting energy and are found in foods like oatmeal, corn, beans, sweet potatoes, whole wheat bread, rice... the list goes on! All of these foods also contain some sodium -- a.k.a. salt -- but we only need a small amount of that stuff to survive. Dietary experts recommend making carbohydrates 45 - 65% of our daily diet! If 45 - 65% of our diet was made up of salt, we'd turn into those weird swing dancing pickles I told you about! NO THANKS.

Luckily for us, it feels great to eat carbohydrates because they're a wonderful source of energy. But it can be hard to STOP eating simple carbohydrates because sugar makes our brain release the chemical messenger dopamine, which tells our brain, “Hey! That was great! Do it again!” Which is why, when Cookie Monster eats one cookie, he usually wants another…

Cookie Monster: ME WANT COOKIE!

Because sugar is delicious, and also a magnificent creative medium! Just watch the Great British Baking Show, Zumbo's Just Desserts or Sugar Rush! They make Gingerbread castles with windows made of sugar glass, Black Forest cakes covered with little chocolate trees and bears, roses made of fondant icing, peaches and strawberries made out of marzipan... Are there any cooking shows called SALT RUSH!? Again, no. That just makes me thirsty for some sweet lemonade.

So yeah. Sugar is magic. It's a great source of energy, it's a brilliant artistic medium and it's an essential building block for life on earth…

Person: …and BEYOND!

That's right. Sugar's been found in outer space. The simple sugar molecule glycolaldehyde was discovered in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy in a cloud of gas and dust. So next time you look up at the night sky, imagine a dusting of magical sugar out there, making our little milky way the sweetest galaxy in the universe.

Molly: An out-of-this-world argument for sugar. Kailynn, what did you think of that declaration? What stood out to you?

Kailynn: My favorite parts were when he talked about a fantasy world, the candy world, I would love to live there with all the chocolate rivers and stuff, and when he used science in his argument, I learned a lot about DNA and dopamine and how sugar is important for us to be able to live. I didn't know that so that was cool.

Molly: That was very cool. Kenji, you've got a salty look on your face but don't worry, you've got 30 seconds to make a rebuttal, and your time starts now.