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This morning I was quietly making a cup of tea when Cath from Food24 cornered me. I had asked her a few minutes earlier if she had an idea for a newsletter topic.
And boy, did she.
After lecturing me for a solid 15 minutes about the health benefits of coconut water and the evils of sugar, I felt like I’d sat through a sermon. See, Cath had recently seen That Sugar Film and she was horrified by the amount of sugar in our diets and the negative effects it has on our health.
No one is saying a teaspoon of sugar in your coffee is going to kill you, but when you actually examine the sugar content in our food it adds up very quickly. No wonder sugar-related illnesses are skyrocketing. Especially since many sugar-laden foods are still considered “healthy”.
Muesli, low-fat yoghurt, granola bars, bread, pasta, cereal, sauces and condiments, tinned fruit and vegetables, canned soups – the list goes on. And drinks! Everyone knows by now that fizzy drinks are bad, but you still see people merrily swigging away at “healthy” alternatives such as iced teas and fruit juice. (Fruit juice is basically the devil.)
I’m not even going to talk about alcohol because I don’t want to depress you.
So even if you don’t really have a sweet tooth (like me), you still get much more sugar than you need – often without realising it.
But what are you supposed to do?
You can start reading labels, for one. If something has more than 20g of sugar per 100g of content or something like that? You should try to avoid it. Satisfy your sweet tooth with fresh fruit and add more healthy fat to your diet to make up the calorie balance and curb cravings.
Drink more water or make your own cold drinks by adding a little fresh fruit puree to cold sparkling water. Always try to choose unprocessed, fresh foods that are as close to the state they were in when they came from the ground or the tree or the animal.
Okay, sermon over. I hope Cath is happy now, because I sure am not. Is it too early to open the wine?
Tell us, what is your Achilles heel when it comes to food? What do you crave, and what won’t you give up?
Love and bitter coffee,
P.S. I just want to say thank you for the overwhelming number of responses we got last week. Never in a million years would I have guessed that you feel so passionate about recycling. It warms the cockles of my heart.
In case you missed it, check out the published responses and some more recycling content here.
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