A Spoonful of Sugar . . .

There is quite an insightful article on Twitter today so I thought it timely to both print it here for you to read, plus my blog on The Sugar Debate from earlier this year. I do feel that it is about time we all woke up to what is going on and totally rejecting the choices offered to us by politicians and the industry 'professionals' - members of the 'sugar' industry are frankly more powerful than any government.

We in the preserving world, still await the decision on the sugar content in jam and I think that if it is adjusted down it is just a smokescreen. It is the sugar in commercial jams you need to look at - and the rest of the processed food world. I believe that artisanal preserving should break away and be accounted for separately.

We may have more food available to us for more hours per day, every day of the week, more cooking programmes, more restaurants but in my opinion we are the most food poor than any other generation in history. We, in this country, at this point in history, know the least about where our food comes from, its nutritional value, its medicinal properties and how to prepare and cook it. We are amazed at the rise in childhood obesity, diabetes, ADHD, poor educational standards. Never has it been more true that We Are What We Eat.

Here's a little comparison for you, in preparation for the Jam Debate, when it reappears

My jam, which has 62% total sugar solids derived from beet sugar and the sugars from the fruit. Typical serving of 2 heaped teaspoons weighing 40g gives total sugar content of 24.8g. The sugar used in artisanal jam is sucrose - see my article below. In commercially made jam either HFCS or sucrose is used but both are routinely labelled as 'sugar'.

This amount would typically be eaten, at most, once a day, if that.

Adjusting the amount of sugar permitted, to a point where the fruit is no longer preserved, is not going to be the answer to our obesity and diabetes problems.

Trading Standards tell me that the law states that only sucrose may be listed in the ingredients as sugar.
HFCS must be called HFCS or Glucose-Fructose.
Most processed foods and drinks call HFCS, sugar, so it is impossible to tell from the label what it contains - it is also impossible for TS to police.

This can of typical carbonated refreshment has 35g of 'sugar' which is almost certainly HFCS, and it would be quite normal for more than one of these drinks to be consumed each day. So not only does it have significantly more sugar, more is consumed, and it is the wrong kind of sugar, which is also highly addictive.

I am not singling out this brand for particular attention - the picture is the same across all areas of the food and drink industry, across most major brands - even WeightWatchers. HFCS is also highly addictive and is included in some baby formula milks and children end up addicted from the very start of their lives - any pennies dropping yet?

This is the article on Twitter today entitled How the Sweetener Industry Sugar-Coats Science. (click on this link to read )

There is a lot of information on how much is paid to US Government by interested parties depicted in very helpful graphs. Do take a look and read the article, then read mine below.

Make it your business to be informed

This is the previous article I wrote on sugar - please enlarge to fullscreen and read

Please do your own research. Please read the labels on food or drinks - the only way to be sure of what you are eating is to make it yourself - but a lot of us can't do that anymore, whether through lack of time or lack of skill - or both.

We can't look to government to save us because they are implicated, we have to make these decisions for ourselves.