I don't take sugar in my tea, why should I want it in my crisps?

I don't take sugar in my tea, why should I want it in my crisps?

Of course, it's nothing to do with what I want; it's all about what works for food manufacturers.

And the truth is that adding sugar makes the most unlikely foods taste better. If food tastes better people buy it and the food manufacturers sell more, which is why you find added sugar in bread (including wholemeal - healthy - bread), in yoghurt, in baked beans, even in a packet of crisps.

I was staggered to find there was over 11g of added sugar in a small pot of strawberry-flavoured Actimel pro-biotic yogurt, as much as a Twirl chocolate bar and the equivalent to two teaspoons of sugar.

No-one would think of adding two teaspoons of sugar to a shot of yoghurt, but you don't need to because Danone has done it for you. They tell you what they've done, of course, but you have to read the packet quite carefully to find out and you have to appreciate that 11g of sugar is about two teaspoons. I only know this because Sam and Lucy bought me some high-tech scales for Christmas.

You'll guess from this grumbling introduction that I'm on a diet and that it's making me a bit miserable. I'm compensating by creating a more and more detailed (some would say obsessive) spreadsheet, which started off as a food diary, so I could check my calorie intake, but which now has expanded to include dietary fibre and added sugar. I haven't started differentiating between soluble and insoluble fibre, but it's probably only a matter of time.

My diet began when I faced up to the obvious. My trousers and my shirt were starting to get a little too tight. A tight shirt can be sexy, of course, but not when it’s tight around the middle. I was expecting to lose weight, get fit, etc once I’ve retired, but a step onto the scales showed I’d reached 217lbs and my BMI was 29.5. A BMI of 30 is officially obese, also I’m off skiing next week and my poor thighs take enough of a hammering as it is.

My step onto the scales co-incided with reading some quite challenging pieces about food. The New York Times article: Is Sugar Toxic? by Gary Taubes is well worth reading. It led me on to the book: Fat Chance: The Bitter Truth About Sugar by Robert Lustig.

Lustig is a doctor in the US and specialises in treating children with dietary complaints (fat kids – very fat kids, in fact). For many years he has been studying the effects of modern diets and, in particular, the amount of sugar we consume and, in 2009, he gave a lecture called Sugar: The Bitter Truth which you can watch on YouTube. It’s had more than four million views and it’s really thought-provoking and challenging.

I mean it’s truly challenging because after watching that, or reading his book, you will rethink your views on fat people – maybe they’re not all greedy and lazy – and turn your anger at the food-processing industry. Then you’ll start reading labels, then you’ll realise that Walkers puts sugar in its cheese and onion crisps and you’ll wonder if the world has gone mad.

Lustig is convinced that excessive sugar consumption is the main reason (there are others) for the obesity epidemic, and he presents a scientific argument that is sometimes quite hard to follow – sometimes because of the science and sometimes because he’s American and all his stats and reports relate to US agencies with long, complicated acronyms and abbreviations. There’s a lot of jargon to cut through, but it’s worth the effort.

So I started counting calories, but Lustig convinced me that a calorie is not just a calorie, it matters what sort it is. I added a fibre count and target to my food diary and, this week, I’ve added a count of added sugar. It’s been enlightening and quite scary. I’m trying to get 25g of fibre per day and, if you were eating processed food that would be quite hard to achieve. I’m also trying to eat less than 30g of added sugar per day. If you eat any substantial amount of processed food, or fresh juice, that’s impossible.

When a slice of bread has 2g of sugar, when there’s 11g in a health yoghurt and even cheese and onion crisps are sweetened, you realise the only way is to make every meal yourself. At least then you can choose whether or not to add the sugar. Back in the 1980s, the average sugar consumption per person, per annum (in the US) was 30lbs – now it’s 130lbs. Eating 37g of sugar per day is 30lbs per annum and it’s bloody hard to stay below that level.

Anyway, I’m well on the way to Damascus and I have managed to lose 8lbs. Only another 25lbs to go to get a healthy BMI.

My resolution is somewhat lacking

In January 2012, like thousands of other people, I made a number of new year resolutions. Being a new blogger, I decided to share them with the wider world.

“The beginning of the year is a good time to set out what we want to achieve during the year. I have this daft idea that, if I write them down and share them with others, they will be easier to achieve,” I said.

Expect progress reports during the course of 2012 … I promised.

Of course, I didn’t give any progress reports at all and (like all people with new year resolve) I promptly forgot all promises. So what I'm doing now is a bit of a scary exercise - just how well have I managed to perform against the targets I set myself in January 2012?

Resolution No 1 - what I said: I will lose weight: I guess this is on the list of 75 per cent of people’s new year resolutions. I gained a stone (14 lbs) every seven years between the ages of 21 and 49 and I’ve been chugging along at 15 st (210 lbs/95.5 kg) since then. I don’t feel bad, but truth is that it’s a bit too heavy and I know that I eat far too many biscuits and far too much chocolate, crisps, nuts and alcohol.

I started 2012 hovering around 15st and I finished the year hovering around 15st. The government has now revised its BMI classifications, so I’m just overweight rather than obese. It’s hardly a great endorsement for my willpower - they moved the goalposts and I just scraped through. Not achieved.

Resolution No 2: Losing weight will entail cutting down on the chocolate (cutting it out altogether if the plan doesn’t work), eating no salted peanuts and only the odd biscuit. I will eat more fruit and eat only bread that I’ve made myself. I’ve been making bread from spelt flour to a recipe dating back to the Romans. It’s very tasty, gluten free and is a wholemeal product so it fills you up for longer and is better for your digestion.

Oh dear! I didn’t cut down on chocolate and I didn’t cut it out altogether when the diet fell behind target. In fact, I can’t believe I made that promise - what was I thinking? I have reduced salted peanuts to a rare treat, but probably filled the gap with extra biscuits. As the the spelt bread, I have half a dozen bags of spelt flour sitting in my cupboard, which is a sad testament to that promise. Most of the time just lately, I don’t even eat wholemeal bread. Not achieved.

Resolution No 3: I will have at least three drink-free days per week and I’ll aim to make it four most weeks. I’ve got into the habit of having a glass of wine, a gin and tonic (or two) every day and it is a habit. I will try to drink to socialise and not just for the sake of having a drink.

I think you’ll guess what happened here ... I have cut down, but it’s more like two free days on average rather than three. Lots of people have given up alcohol for January - not me. Not achieved

Resolution no 4: I will exercise more. Time is always against me, but walking is the key to improving fitness and I’ll try to walk from Victoria to King’s Cross at least three times per week. It’s hard in the morning because I’m often pushed for time. However, I’ll do my best and also strive to give the dogs a couple of good four milers at the weekend. I’ve been walking them across the fen to Old Knarr Fen Road and back the same way. That means Gravel has maximum time off lead and a really good run. It seems to have paid dividends – Margaret and I can see a difference with his doggy waistline even after just a few weeks.

We’ve had more success with Gravel than with me. Finding time to walk in the morning is an issue, so I decided to use the Boris Bikes. That was working well until half the roads in London were closed for the Olympics and I was forced to cycle through Parliament Square which is super scary. I’ve walked the dogs, but nesting lapwings spoiled the fen walk until late June and jobs in the garden meant weekends were time scarce. Part achieved.

Resolution No 5: I will buy a motorcycle – not sure which one or how much I will spend, but I will get another modern bike. I will also strive to get the two classics back on the road this year. I just need to make more time. I’ve really missed having a modern bike. The classics are a good idea, but they’re more for tinkering with than for riding. I wish I hadn’t sold the GS, but then I wish that I hadn’t sold every bike I’ve ever owned. You should never sell a motorcycle; stick it in the back of the garage if you’re not using it. They always come in sometime and the Lambretta SX200 I had when I was 16 would now be worth about four grand! I’d really like a BMW R1200ST, but we’ll have to see how the bonus pans out. I’m watching this month’s (and the year’s) figures very carefully.

Got maximum bonus and subsequently bought a BMW R1200ST in April. Achieved in full - this one was easy!

Resolution No 6: I will get on top of work. It has been a really hard year. There have been so many distractions and so many people leaving that we seem to have been doing more fire-fighting than properly planned campaigns. I think we’re now getting a really good team together and a few extra hands, so I really hope this year will be more structured and I’ll be able to do the role I am supposed to be doing. I’ve not got that many more years until I retire and I’d like to enjoy the last few and feel that I’ve really achieved some things.

It has been a better year, I’ve worked a bit smarter most of the time and we’ve had a more settled team. Achieved in full

Resolution No 7: I will be nicer to people in London. It isn’t easy because London really does bring out the worst in you. I will try not to push people on the Tube and I will try not to kick pull-along cases. I pushed a nun last year, not hard, just enough to get her out of the way. Mind you, she had just come out of the station entrance stopped dead and was talking on her mobile phone (probably lost and asking directions, poor soul).

I’ve worked really hard at this. London is so full of rude, awful people that it’s very difficult. I have stood my ground and I have not given way when people have pushed in front of me, but I have been admirably restrained and haven’t kicked one pull-along case all year, not even the gay little lap-top pull-alongs that wimpy blokes seem to have. Achieved pretty bloody well!

Resolution No 8: I will enjoy my garden. We have worked hard in the garden this year and we’ve spent a good £4-5K on summerhouse, decking, sets, bricks, pots, furniture! 2012 is the year we get payback – we can sit and enjoy it. Here’s hoping for a nice summer!

Well it started raining in early May and it didn’t really stop until the start of this week, when it started snowing! I have kept up with the garden and it’s been really nice most of the year (see http://ericsdailydiary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/my-garden-through-seasons.html for evidence). We’ve hardly had the chiminea lit or the barbecue sparked. We’ve not been in the summerhouse much and the patio furniture has grown a layer of green mould. Not achieved (but I did enjoy my garden even if it was wet).

Resolution No 9: I will see more of my family. Family history work has also taught me to appreciate my current family more. We will visit the children in London; I see them regularly and often stay over, but Margaret hasn’t been to Tom’s since he got the house straight and she’s never been to Max’s new flat. I also want to visit my surviving aunts – Aunt Pam, Aunt Margaret and Aunt Joyce – and talk to them about my mother and father. It would be good to record that conversation and perhaps get Tom in tow, so that he could video it. How amazing would it be to have had some video of my dad, let alone grandparents or great grandparents?

Margaret has been down to London every couple of months, she’s seen Max’s flat, visited Tom’s a couple of times and also been to Sam’s. I haven’t seen Aunt Pam or my Yorkshire aunts and we bailed out of a trip to France to see Graham and a trip to Northwich for a Katie homecoming party. Margaret hasn’t seen Lizzie for 18 months. We need to try harder. Part achieved.