John_Yudkin_-_Pure_White_and_Deadly_revised_1986_OCR

Pure, White and Deadw
in the occasional cola or fruit drink during the day, and you will
find that it is not a great hardship to get down to a quarter of your
usual intake, or even much less.
It is more than likely that the harmful effects of sugar are greater
when you take it with little else. Eaten in this way, its digestion and
absorption are not hampered by the digestion and absorption of
other foods, so that the blood stream is quickly flooded with sugar.
So it is more important to avoid sugar taken between meals, for
example in drinks and confectionery, than, say, a piece of apple pie
taken at the end of the meal, when the digestion and absorption of
the sugar will be very much slower, and its effects much less.
Perhaps the most difficult problem is how to bring up your children
without smothering them with sugar. Everything in our modern
way of living seems to conspire to thrust sugar down their poor
innocent and uncomplaining throats, almost from the moment they
are born. But with a little care you can at least see that your children
do not get into the 'two or three pounds of sugar a week' bracket.
You should begin by choosing one of the baby formulas that is
made up with added milk sugar (lactose) instead of with ordinary
sugar. Next, when you introduce cereals or more extensive mixed
feeding, choose instant or canned foods whose labels say, 'No added
sugar', or take the trouble to make your own sieved meats and
vegetables. Make sure the orange juice has had no sugar added to
it, or again make up your own.
Later, by all means give the occasional sweet or biscuit, but only
occasionally and as a treat. Never, of course, give it at bedtime after
your children have cleaned their teeth. A good plan is to get your
little ones to cl~ their teeth after every occasion when they have
eaten a sweet or biscuit. Ask them when they come home from
school or from a visit to grandma if they have had any sweets, and
if so get them to clean their teeth straight away. With luck, they
may get bored with so much tooth cleaning and be contented with
sweets only at mealtimes, after which you no doubt want them to
brush their teeth in any case.
In the end, the difficulties are not so much to do with how you
bring up your children but with how much your kind friends and
relatives press sweets into their little hands, often behind your back.
Although you may not be able to keep them away from sugar as
much as you wish, you will find it quite possible to keep the amount
down to far less than many children now have.
You will have noticed, by the way, that I prefer the low-calorie
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Should sugar be banned?
soft drinks to those that contain sugar. You will see from this that I
do not at all accept that you run any risk from taking the artificial
sw~eteners that they contain. My own view is that it is highly
unlikely that these do anybody any harm, whereas there is no doubt
whatever that sugar can do a very great deal of harm. You may of
course decide that it is better to wean yourself entirely from taking
swe~t. foods and drinks, and that you can do this more readily by
aVOIding the use of sugar substitutes altogether. This is a decision
you must make yourself; all that matters is that you should take as
little sugar as you can.
. Before you begin to reduce your sugar intake, and again at the
end of your first week, make a list of all the sugar you have taken
on an average day. Make a rough calculation on the basis of this
table, and see how much you have saved since you began. In particular,
see if you have got down to less than 50 grams a day (nearly two
ounces) during your first week, and then how long it takes you to
get down to 20 grams a day.
Sugar content in grams of some foods and drinks
I piece of sugar 4
I flat teaspoon of sugar 5
I bottle of cola 12
I glass of 'fruit drink' 20
I spoon jam or marmalade 5
I 2-0Z. piece of cake 10
I 4-oz. piece of apple pie 20
I 2-oz. piece of chocolate 30
I oz. sweets 20
I 2-0Z. ice cream 12
I oz. cornflakes 2
I oz. All-Bran 5
I oz. tomato ketchup 5
I oz. chutney 12
I oz. sweet pickle 5
I oz. salad cream 3
It is true that very many other manufactured foods have had sugar
added to them; some of them are mentioned on p. 46. But a look
at the label will tell you whether it is likely to be a large or a small
part of the product, and you can then work out whether the amount
that you will be taking of the pickle or the soup or the meat stew is
likely to add much to the total amount of sugar in your diet.
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