But please bear with me, you can have your say at the end.
I am not disputing the fact that we have a health crisis looming, if not already with us, created by a growing number of people who are overweight, with all its attendant problems. Sadly, I do not have a simple solution, but that I think is the essence of it; it's a complicated issue and the answers are not easy.
Yesterday I tried to buy a bottle of standard lemonade, it would have been easier to score a rock of crack! And possibly cheaper, I resorted to an "artisan" drink from the farm shop.
To me, the key problems with the sugar tax on drinks are that it is only addressing one source of calories - diet Coke and a Big mac anyone; the alternatives to sugar bring their own concerns (I would not willingly consume aspartame and I certainly wouldn't advocate giving it to children); "diet"/sugar free drinks do nothing to re-educate the palate, nor do they encourage moderation - quite the opposite in fact, - hey, no calories, I can drink as much of this fizzy pop as I like - the body doesn't cope well processing calorie free food and drink "Refined and processed sweeteners are unrelenting in their ability to entice you to overeat and yet, don’t provide satiation, satiety, or nourishment."
What's more, I think they taste nasty, but that's a purely personal preference.
In my (humble and non qualified) opinion, there is a huge educational hurdle to be tackled.
Here's the nostalgia bit; when I was young, many, many moons ago fizzy drinks were the exception, the treat, rather than the norm. Anyone else remember sitting in pub gardens with a bottle of pop and an packet of crisps? But for huge numbers of people, a Coke or energy drink is their drink of choice and they are consuming several a day. Cutting back on the sheer volume consumed would be a start.
The sugar free drinks are as sweet as their sugared alternatives, which means that palates are accustomed to these sweet tastes and this means that there is an expectation that sweets, chocolates, cakes, ice cream, yogurts and breakfast cereals will fulfil the same craving.
Don't get me wrong, whilst I am more or less immune to the appeal of chocolate, I love an ice cream as much as anyone. But my point is this, why tax sugary drinks, when so much else is laden with sugar? can we find a way to make so called "adult" cereal appeal to a wider audience?
As an experiment, I changed the cereals available at our annual Scout camp from Sugar Puffs and Frosties to Weetabix, Rice Krispies and Shreddies and hid the sugar bowl. The only request for sugar was from an adult and I made them eat their breakfast round the back and out of sight! The kids were excited to be camping, outdoors, hungry and didn't even notice the missing sugar bowl. The chocolate biscuits were replaced with big bowls of fruit to which they could help themselves, without having to ask, to as much as they wanted. No complaints, so it IS possible.
Somehow, and as I said, I don't know the answer, we need to encourage moderation, subtly adjust the nation's palate, educate by stealth rather than the use of blunt instruments. It's easy to go on about how things used to be, but that doesn't help us now. But honestly, is a tax on lemonade really the answer?
The next post will be a recipe for cake.
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www.netherton-foundry.co.uk
I couldn’t agree more. We used to get a bottle of pop from the Corona man once a fortnight and it had to last all that time. Once it was gone there was only corporation pop! My grandchildren have stayed all weekend and have drunk water, milk, fruit juice with breakfast and a couple of glasses of orange squash. Oh, and my grandson had a cup of tea for the first time to which he added a half spoonful of sugar even though we do not take it. He has played cricket, tennis and boules all weekend and run around all the time. He is always active and is slim verging on thin at the age of 7. My grand daughter preferred mostly water and the toddler had milk and water. They ate well all weekend with no requests for sweets at all. In fact the chocolate I bought is still in the cupboard. It is all about moderation. No faddy diets here and we all like cake too!
ReplyDeletePretty much my thoughts too. Well done on the cereals and biscuits at camp. I replaced squash with water at a camp I was involved in. Nobody died of thirst.
ReplyDeleteNor hunger, I imagine. People make too many assumptions about what children will and won't like, based ontheir own prejudices.
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