John_Yudkin_-_Pure_White_and_Deadly_revised_1986_OCR

-----------------------,----
~~~~~ ----- -------.....
--...... - ....
Pure, White and Deadly
more and more attractive foods. Because of competition, he keeps
making new products or new variations on his old products, each
time with the purpose of producing something that is even more
attractive than before. More and more, people find it difficult to
resist these delicious foods and drinks. In 1981, nearly £~oo million
was spent on advertising sugar-rich foods; £53 million of this was
spent on advertising chocolate and confectionery.
Secondly, sugar, as we have seen, offers many more properties
than just sweetness. Its use in different sorts of confectionery
depends also on its bulk, on its ability to exist either in crystallized
or non-crystallized form, on its solubility in water and on its change
of colour and flavour when heated. Its use in iams depends on its
ability to set in the presence of pectin, and on its high osmotic
pressure, which inhibits the growth of moulds and bacteria. In small
quantities, sugar seems to enhance the flavour of other foods without
necessarily adding specifically to sweetness. These and many other
properties of sugar amount to an extraordinary versatility, and
account for its use in such a vast range of foods and drinks.
The result is plain to see if you walk around the supermarkets
and make a list of foods with sugar among their ingredients. Leaving
aside obvious items like cakes, biscuits, desserts and soft drinks,
you will find sugar in almost every variety of canned soups, in cans
of baked beans and pastas, many kinds of canned meat, almost every
breakfast food, several frozen vegetables and made-up dishes, and
most canned vegetables. In some of these foods, especially in the
foods like meats or vegetarian meat substitutes, the amounts of sugar
are quite small. But in many others the amount is really surprisingly·
high. You can get some idea by seeing where sugar ranks in the list
of ingredients. If it is first in the list, the food contains more sugar
than any other ingredient. When I tried this exercise, this was true
of one or two canned soups, one or two breakfast foods and several
pickles and sauces.
A third reason why people increasingly buy manufactured foods
containing sugar is that they prefer to buy foods in 'convenience'
form - usually items that they would previously have made for themselves.
And it looks from my sampling as if these foods are likely to
contain more sugar than they would have done when made at home.
The manufacturer seems to have found, or at any rate convinced
himself, that people like sugar with everything, and more and more
of it. In the last two or three years I have found it difficult at a bar
to get tomato juice - my favourite tipple - that has not had sugar
48
Who eats sugar, and how much?
added to it. I am also rather fond of peanut butter, but the manufacturers
of the two most popular brands in England have now decided
that I ought to have it with sugar. Here let me give one good mark
to the health food people; at least some do not put sugar into the
peanut butter - anyway, not yet.
If you want to test what I am saying, try next time you are out to
get a drink of something or other that is non-alcoholic, does not
contain sugar and is not specially advertised as a 'diet drink'.
It does seem to be true that until they reach a certain limit most
people demand more and more sugar as they go on taking it. Certainly
the converse is true. Many people have been restricting sugar
for some time, either because they are concerned about their weight
or for even more serious reasons;. now, when for social reasons they
do have to take sugary foods and drinks, they often find them intolerably
sweet. On his third birthday, my well-brought -up grandson
Benjamin took one bite of his iced birthday cake and ate no more
because, he said, 'It's too sweet.'
What is surprising to me is the high proportion of sugar in many
$O-called health foods besides the peanut butter I have mentioned.
Sugar appears to figure prominently in foods that are supposed to
be 'good for you'. Eggs and bacon, or the old British favourite
kipper, would be better for you than several of the special breakfast
health foods such as many brands of muesli.
One more reason why Westerners eat so much sugar is that
increasing affluence gives people more leisure, creating the kind of
situation - sitting in front of the television, making a trip in the carthat
is conducive to the consumption of snacks and soft drinks, so
easily available nowadays, and considered to be inexpensive. And
snacks usually, and soft drinks almost always, are rich sources of
sugar.
Another point about soft drinks. When I was young, if I was
thirsty I had a glass of water. Nowadays when children are thirsty
it seems almost obligatory that they quench their thirst with some
sugar-laden cola or other drink. And this is often true for adults too,
although it is just as likely to be an alcoholic drink like beer. In this
way, sugar is consumed almost inadvertently. The modem trend of
using drinks like tonic water or bitter lemon as mixers is for many
people a further source of sugar of which they are hardly aware.
Two small bottles with your gin or vodka and you ha'Ve swallowed
an ounce or more of sugar.
Life is difficult for people who, like myself, want to avoid sugar,
49