Fat or Sugar

Infographic borrowed from Mail Online/Food and Drink

Fat or sugar the debate rages on, which is bad for you, which does the most harm, which one should we avoid.  My view and that of a lot of well respected researchers is we should avoid sugar.  It does nothing for us other than give us insulin spikes, rot our teeth and cause us to become more and more addicted to it, there are NO vitamins, minerals or nutrients at all in sugar.  But the good thing is once you start it is surprisingly easy to cut down your consumption of it until your sweet tooth vanishes altogether.

I thought my sweet tooth had simply gone into hibernation until last Friday.  We were out and about running errands, picking up building supplies, paying for the last lot of building materials that had been delivered etc and I said to Lovely Hubby "I'll treat to to a cream tea", his eyes lit up like the eyes of a man that had not eaten a cream tea for a long time (he hadn't, he's been very good).

The reason for my offer, we were just about to drive past our favourite, and possible the cutest tea-rooms in Llanrwst .... Tu Hwnt Ir Bont, which means Beyond the Bridge.

Inside it looks like this, but with the glorious sunshine on the day we sat in the gardens and enjoyed the fresh air.  Why this ramble ... well I always order a plain buttered scone with my coffee while Lovely Hubby goes the whole hog with a pot of tea and a cream scone.  You get pretty impressive portions of jam and cream here so he offered me some, I spread the smallest quarter of one of my scones with jam and topped with some cream ..... and it was sickly sweet, I swallowed it down and had a quick swig of my strong black coffee to take the taste away.  

The thing is we know jam is full of sugar, but seeing the infographic shows just how much sugar is actually hidden in foods we think are good for us.  I used to eat Activia yoghurts, but I haven't for a long time, while they don't taste overly sweet because of the sour fruits in there I prefer to eat food in it's more natural state so just simple plain yoghurts for me and I add my own additional ingredients if I want any, usually a banana or some strawberries.

In the infographic I was shocked at the amount of sugar in the KFC coleslaw ... WHY!!  Coleslaw is a savoury thing why would it need sugar at all.  It's as though we are being driven purposefully into the clutches of the sugar producing companies, after all the more we get addicted to and come to expect the taste of sugar in everything we eat, the more we will spend on products that they make money out of.

Sorry for the rant, this infographic really got me going didn't it  :-)

My opinion on fat?  Well it's natural, it comes attached to various foodstuffs and it has nutrients we need, it also helps our bodies pull the vitamins and minerals that they need from the foodstuffs we eat, particularly vegetables,  So in my book fat has a place in our lives but sugar should be relegated to the bin.

I'll jump off my soap box now and go and sob quietly in the corner ...... the rabbits have eaten ALL my onions and shallots from the Veggie Patch.  I have to stop rescuing baby rabbits from Rosy and Ginger  they grow up to be veggie munching monsters, so from now on I will let them get on with pest control in their own way and just not watch while they do it.

Sue xx