Category Archives: Sugar

Spoiling

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Peaches 2When a child throws himself on the floor and wails because he cannot have what he wishes for, we wrinkle up our noses and mutter to ourselves disapprovingly, “spoilt brat”. This is no compliment; look up “to spoil” in the dictionary and you’ll find “to diminish or impair the quality or character by excessive indulgence.” But why the lesson in language?

Cast your eye over your Facebook feed until you find that frequently used post-birthday refrain, “Thanks everyone, I had a lovely day and feel well and truly spoilt”. In being spoilt, it seems, we feel loved and cherished. The act of spoiling is something to be celebrated – and it’s this new, positive use of the word, which I believe is so revealing about our relationship with food. Continue reading →

In the children’s play centre

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Orange junk food

Being away may make me neglect writing this blog, but not thinking about it. Its original intent guides me through most days and leaves me scribbling notes on napkins. One such stained and biro-covered beauty, which I shall recount here, happened to be from a children’s play centre we visited out of desperation on the very wettest day of our recent trip. Big bumpy slides, snot-smeared ball pools, luminous cushion-covered climbing frames – you know the scene.

On arrival, despite their mother’s preference for back gardens, my two four-year-olds went racing off with excited screeches to clamber over squashy purple triangles and throw themselves head first down the least terrifying slide they could find. I chose a seat and took out my book, only to be too distracted to read. Continue reading →

Pancakes (of course)

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Pancakes

I had resolved yesterday not to post about pancakes. Too predictable, I thought, every other health blogger and their vegetarian pet poodle will be writing about pancakes. But then reading all of the inevitable pancake posts, holding back became harder and harder (pancake competitiveness perhaps), until finally, the ladle overflowed into the frying pan, for want of a better analogy … But I’ll be brief, and promise not to lecture. Continue reading →

The Snickers cure – a lesson in temptation

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pieces of chocolate bars

A wise man once told me how he cured himself of a Snickers’ addiction in an afternoon. All sweet treat lovers, take heed: the story goes like this. Having always had a taste for chocolate, the man became increasingly fond of Snickers. This predilection evolved, until there came a point that every time the man yearned for something sweet, only a Snickers could satisfy this craving – cakes and other chocolate bars no longer interested him. And the craving had become self-feeding. Not only did he crave them at his usual sweet snack time – around 4pm – but at all sorts of other moments in the day and evening. A rational type, one day, Snickers in hand, he totted up just how many he was consuming in one week and how much this sweet vice cost him financially. He realised he had to act. Continue reading →

A word about sugar

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sugar in a wooden spoonI’m off sugar – white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, maple syrup, honey, the lot – and have been for quite a while. In doing so, I have become that awkward person at the dinner party, pitied by the other guests, who tuck in with relish and think why miss a delicious pud for the sake of a few calories, but I couldn’t feel better for it.

It hasn’t always been this way. A definite pudding instead of starter devotee until age 25, homemade brownies and pavlovas were two of my sweet party pieces and I was often seen replacing lunch with a bar of chocolate in the office. And though my desire for intensely sweet food lessened with age and increasing culinary sophistication (I stopped considering chocolate as a complete meal), I still enjoyed pudding and cake on occasion. Continue reading →