It’s not the use of sugar, it’s the abuse of sugar.

Add sugar to a cake you’re baking, a recipe for a main meal or as a sprinkle on your porridge and sugar is not a problem.

If you regularly eat numerous packaged foods with added sugar, regularly have sugar sweetened drinks and your diet is on the low side for fresh fruits, vegetables and whole-grains, then your health will probably benefit from reducing your intake of packaged food and drinks with added sugar and eating more fresh food.

But this doesn’t mean you need to eliminate ALL added sugar. If you replace store bought chocolate biscuits with home-made ones that contain rice malt syrup in place of regular sugar, the sugar content will still be the same. There is certainly an argument to say the home-made ones are a healthier product, but this has less to do with the type of sugar and much more to do with the fact you baked them yourself. You were involved in the process which gives you a greater appreciation of the food. Baking them yourself also means the biscuits will be free of food additives.

The abuse of sugar is a result of the food industry adding sugar to many packaged foods and drinks and from the high level of advertising of these foods. Rather than blaming sugar for the health issues of our time, how about we spend more time and resources actively promoting the food most people don’t eat enough of, such as fresh fruits and veggies. We also need to spend more time and resources addressing the issue faced by many people, of accessibility and affordability of fresh food.

Thanks for reading, Zoe 🙂