SWEET ENOUGH Richard J B Willis
BUC Health Ministries Director
October saw the launch of America's latest 'gift' to the UK - Krispy Kremes - a range of variously coated doughnuts and marketed at Harrods. One man queued for 12 hours to be the first customer. His bonus for his effort is still coming and coming, 24 doughnuts each week for a year. Healthwatchers estimate that the man will have around 400,000 kcalories; 28 kgs of sugar; and 20 kgs of fat (a quarter of which will be saturated fat) whilst enjoying the doughnuts!
This prize comes at a time when the Food Standards Agency is trying to reduce sugar levels in food. The Food Commission is calling on all supermarkets to remove sweets from the checkout areas especially where these are within easy reach of children who are not only tempted by them but help themselves, to the embarrassment of parents who feel obliged to pay-up. It appears that the only supermarket to co-operate at present is Waitrose whose check-outs are snack-free.
Tesco and Sainsbury declared themselves check-out sweet-free in 1993 but, depending on the store, does not stick to policy. Not that it's only the supermarkets who sell at check-outs. We find the same at filling stations and even pharmacies. An Indian professor who now lives in London said he found it hard to understand when he came to the UK how the government could promote a health policy and yet see the policy undermined in the shops.
If we think that our purchases should be left to personal preference we may need to think again. Companies such as Hershey in the US have published a number of primary school books, Hershey's Kisses: Counting Board Book; The Hershey's Kisses Addition Book; and The Hershey's Kisses Subtraction Book in which all the material is depicted in terms of their own-brand chocolate bars. They have more advanced books on multiplication, weights and measures, and fractions of chocolate!
Nowhere does Hershey point out that a bar of their milk chocolate is approximately half sugar and a third fat (of which half is saturated fat). So children grow up with the idea that learning and chocolate go together!
There is a tendency on the part of sweet manufacturers to depict or 'subtly' suggest that their product is healthy or contains ingredients essential to health (through pictures of, say, milk or fruit). Cadbury's and Kinder have used this kind of imagery for years. Healthwatchers have pointed out that purchasing these chocolate products puts the milk content at 72-75p per 100 mgs, around four times the cost of a glass of whole milk and about three times its calorie content.
Nobody wants to be a kill-joy, but its time we recognised that our children are sweet enough. How can we lament the rise in childhood obesity without doing something about one of its causes? Help the children by encouraging healthy eating and exercise, and encourage shopping outlets to adopt a health-promoting policy. What could be sweeter in the long run?