COOKING COMPANION
Sugar M
ost of us are all too aware of the damaging eff ects of added sugar. We’ve all seen the public health
posters and heard the horror stories about tooth decay and type 2 diabetes, and with so much insidious sugar working its way into supermarket food, I oſt en fi nd myself wondering what we can actually do to reduce our daily sugar intake. Introducing Sugar Smart... According to Sugar Smart – a joint initiative
between the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation and the food charity, Sustain, improving our diet doesn’t necessarily mean cutting out all of life’s little pleasures. Instead, Sugar Smart aims to help clue us up on which foods contain excess sugars and which treats can be enjoyed in moderation. What’s more, it calls for organisations such as hospitals, sports centres, schools and restaurants to take assertive action to make healthy food and drink more aff ordable and accessible.
Exploring the bittersweet realms of all things ‘added sugar’...
Words by Gaby Dyson For the past 25 years, Exeter Sugar Smart
Ambassador, Tamara Bennett, has watched the sharp rise of added sugar in our food and drink. In her role as a Public Health Nutritionist, Tamara has been off ering families advice on how to manage this. As I sat in her East Devon kitchen, cup of tea in hand, I fl icked through a dozen or so laminated charts outlining what actually ends up in our food and drink. It didn’t make for pretty reading and I was starting to feel a little concerned about my own eating habits… “Consuming too much sugar is having a
signifi cant deleterious impact on the health of the British public,” Tamara tells me, “tooth removal from too much sugar was the single biggest reason for under 18 year olds needing to have a general anaesthetic last year. We also know that excess sugar is converted to fat in the body. We are in the midst of an ever-
growing – forgive the pun – obesity epidemic. Unfortunately, frequent sugary snacks and drinks are a signifi cant contributing factor to this epidemic.” I’ll confess, it all sounded rather doom and
gloom from where I was sitting. But Tamara’s glowing enthusiasm for the world of nutrition leſt me with a glimmer of hope and I was keen to hear how she and Sugar Smart suggested we go about remedying our sugar intake without depriving ourselves of our favourite treats. “Well, for starters it’s a good idea to start
taking a closer look at product labels the next time you’re heading down the supermarket aisle,” Tamara explained, “It may come as a surprise, but we need to make sure we’re even checking savoury foods. A meal deal comprised of a ready-made sandwich, crisps and a drink can take us way past the adult recommendation of 30g of sugar per day”. For a better idea of just how much sugar that is, 30g is roughly seven sugar cubes; which is certainly not an image I want in my head as I’m tucking into a sarnie. As a rule, Sugar Smart recommends avoiding foods that contain more than 22.5g sugar
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