Linda Hall: Sweet idea leaves sour taste

Sugar has a bad reputation.

I feel sorry for sugar. It's got such a bad reputation at the moment. It used to be associated with sweetness and all things yummy.

Now, according to some, it's poison.

It's the latest bad boy, replacing fat, oil, coffee, butter ... the list goes on.

Fads come and go, as do reports on what's good for us and what's not.

While I think it's a great idea to cut out fizzy drinks and reduce the amount of sugary sweets we eat, I wonder is it really necessary to cut sugar from our diets completely?

Things such as Fabulous February, which began yesterday, are a great idea - similar to Dry July, where people are asked to go without alcohol.

FabFeb is a healthy eating challenge and fundraising initiative, which involves going sugar-free for February. While eating healthily and going sugar-free, participants also raise money for children's charities, including GlowKids, which provides therapy for young children with neurological motor disorders such as cerebral palsy.

It's a perfect way to find out just how much sugar there is in your diet - I bet some people would be surprised - and it's only for a month.

However, giving up sugar forever - must we and why?

According to Wikipedia, people have been eating sugar since "the extraction of sugar cane juice from the sugar cane plant, and the subsequent domestication of the plant in tropical Southeast Asia many thousands of years ago (a firm date is unknown)".

Of course, the way we eat sugar these days has changed dramatically, but it seems to me it's "hidden sugars" added to thousands of products that we should be wary of. That's why it's a good idea to read labels.

However, I think there are far worse additives and preservatives we should be worrying about.

How about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), malt dextrin or corn syrup? I would much rather have plain old sugar or honey (if a food label says "no added sugar", none of the above should be on the label).

While we all know it's a good idea to read the labels on our food, I find it bloody hard to understand them - that's if I'm lucky enough to be able to read them. You need a magnifying glass to read the tiny print.

At last the Government is doing something to make it easier for consumers. New Zealand will be joining with Australia's (voluntary) Front of Pack Nutrition Labelling system and introducing the "health star food rating" system.

The system promises to make it quicker and easier for shoppers to make "better-informed, healthy choices".

The star rating scale of a half-to-5 stars can be used on all packaged food products for retail sale. The more stars a product has, the better the overall nutritional value.

There will be a workshop for food producers and manufacturers on how to implement this system, at the EIT campus on February 12, at 10am. Food companies wanting to attend should contact Food Hawke's Bay or check the website for details:

foodhawkesbay.co.nz.

Let's hope the majority of Hawke's Bay food industries take up this system.

Now back to sugar, I can't help but come back to sugar. I try my best not to eat too much of the sweet stuff but about once a fortnight I get this overwhelming urge to eat something sweet.

Sometimes I hang out all day, telling myself the urge will go away, other times I cave in straight away. The end result is the same: I eat chocolate or lollies and - guess what? - I love it and I'm not going to stop.

-Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.