MORE SUGAR? No thanks, I’m sweet enough

On two evenings this week my dinner has consisted of..... not one, but two bars of chocolate, at 195 calories, and with 21.4g of sugar in each. That was my choice, a conscious one, as having left home at 7.30am, with little hope of returning until bedtime, I was on the run and needed a quick ‘fix’ between meetings. I confess to having second thoughts on finding that this is the equivalent of 5 teaspoons of sugar per bar, as I don’t have a particularly sweet tooth. As yet another survey reveals that now it is not fat or salt that is the arch enemy, but sugar, I am left wondering where all the fun in life has gone, as I sit at home polishing off the last of my Christmas goodies.

We’ve all got to die of something, and as with all things, a ‘little of what you fancy does you good’, but everything should be taken in moderation. It is the excesses we indulge in, often at a time of stress, that send us over the top.

I had always thought that after years of having sugar in my tea I would find it impossible to give up, but i found that it took a mere five days, and now several years on, I can’t bear even a sniff of sugar in my tea. Living alone, I doubt if I buy more than one bag of a sugar per year, unless I get into a rare baking frenzy, or am cooking puds for friends. The real problem, however, is the hidden sugar in many of the processed foods we are choosing to buy, largely as a result of our hectic lifestyles. In addition to this, thanks to the demise of domestic science classes in schools, there is a lack of skill when it comes to preparing a meal at home for all the family. Staples such as breakfast cereals are loaded with sugar, as are fizzy drinks, and also flavoured juice drinks. Not such a good start to the day then. Sugar is also present in everyday food stuffs, where you might not expect to find it, such as bread. It is this hidden element that is most worrying, where the big manufacturers heighten flavours by the addition of sugar, or worse still, chemical sugar substitutes.

The worst offenders though are the ‘low fat’ ready meals offered by supermarkets, where mistakenly, dieters, in a rush to kick start their weight loss campaigns and shake off the results of Christmas indulgence, think of such meals as the ideal solution to an expanding waistline. I’ve never been a fan of labelling or traffic lighting foods, but at least if I am going to decide to eat chocolate or a yummy iced bun, I know what I’m letting myself in for, and if I end up fatter and less healthy than I’d like, then at least I am doing it the full knowledge of the consequences of my actions.