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JUST AS WE are settling into school routines and lunch boxes, research from the University of Leeds grips the headlines; yoghurts are full of sugar, even the seemingly healthy ones.
Under the Associate Professor of Obesity, Dr Bernadette Moore, the team recorded the sugar content of almost 1,000 yoghurts. The news is not good.
The brands marketed directly at children are some of the worst offenders. By comparison, they have more sugar per 100g than the average cola drink. We’ve all heard the stats on obesity and the particularly dire future that Ireland is facing as we are set to become Europe’s fattest nation.
How is this happening when we know so much about food? One suggestion is that a huge amount of sugar is sneaking into our diet without our awareness. In all honesty, have you any idea how much sugar you put into your mouth per day?
The bliss point
The food industry spends quite a bit of money researching the palatably of its products, trying to get formulations just right to stimulate our feel-good hormones and trick our brains into wanting more and more. It’s called the “bliss point” and in fairness, it sounds delicious. This is what makes us crave sugar and fat-laden foods.
One reason why Irish people were not as heavy back in the 70s was because the food simply didn’t taste as good. There was also limited access to fried and take-away foods so we didn’t overindulge on high-fat foods as often. But now, oh my, the choice is endless and it all tastes so good.
Another study from the same group at the University of Leeds identified over 540 brands of biscuits on UK shelves in just one supermarket chain. That’s a whole lot of biscuits. Like yoghurts, many were marketed as healthy and the children’s biscuits contained the most amount of sugar. The old adage that “we all ate treats and we turned out okay” doesn’t really add up when you understand that the food industry is getting better and better at its job.
Children are prime candidates for sugar addiction
Children have a heightened perception for sweet foods. It’s an evolutionary thing. They needed to eat high-calorie foods to survive and grow. These days, we are giving our kids huge amounts of sugar, often unknowingly.
Children are getting a taste for sugar – who wants to eat broccoli when a chocolate bar tastes much better? We wouldn’t like our kids to become hooked on other stimulants like alcohol, so perhaps we need to look at sugar addiction in a similar way.
Unhealthy relationship
In Ireland, the number of young people who drink alcohol is declining which is fantastic news. We are finally starting to change attitudes to alcohol consumption. If we made the same progress about sugar, might we be able to avoid our seemingly inevitable march towards obesity?
We all experience sugar cravings but we are not alarmed by it. If you were sitting at your desk craving a glass of wine at 3pm, you might rightly be concerned about your relationship with alcohol. But what if you crave chocolate or a treat every day? And are we setting our kids up for a sugar addiction if we give them their stimulant of choice daily?
An occasional treat
Sugar should be an occasional treat, we don’t need to take away all the joy! But it shouldn’t be an everyday habit for our young kids.
When it’s already sneaking in our yoghurts, sauces, bread and cereals, adding biscuits, bars or sweets is fuelling an addictive cycle they may struggle to break in the future.
Ciara Wright PhD DipNT, Senior Nutritionist and Director of Glenville Nutrition and The Wellness Crew.
The current strategy isn’t working. It may seem like compassion, but the rest of us have rights too.
Its not fair to the rest of society that in Dublin the board walk along the Liffey and the O’Connell Street area are dangerous during the day and virtually no go areas at night.
@Fiasco99: If you think that part of town is dangerous, bring your Mommy next time.
@Fiasco99: no go areas? Slight overreaction there surely?
@Val Miggin: honestly, have you been in these areas? Particularly late on a week night when there are few pub goers and especially if it’s a dry night as many of the users choose not to go to a hostel.
It’s not a good place to be. I would not like a family member to be there.
The Gardai choose not to carry out policing here, I assume because it’s pointless bringing the drug users to court for yet another suspended sentence.
Methadone is just a park and containment strategy effectively giving addicts a free heroin substitute. It does nothing to address addiction. It’s obviously been adopted as policy as it is relatively inexpensive and somewhat effective in achieving its limited goals but it offers no real hope to those afflicted most of whom will be on it for the remainder of their shortened lives.
Methadone makes too much money for the health professionals and big pharma , it is the golden cow. It is ten times more addictive than heroin, they do not want to rock the boat.
@Mr Jerry Curtin: Twit.
methadone….I always feel it’s a bit like a cigarette smoker switching to just pipe / or cigar smoking-
@Frank Dubogovik: More like switching from Major to Silk Cut.
Far better to have mandatory residential centres to assist drug addicts get off their addiction
@Stephen Kearon: are you serious !?
@Cathal: sounds like a winner to me.
@Stephen Kearon:
I see your advertising your British poppy again Stephen, any chance Micheal Martin or any one in FF is going to be seen dead wearing one?
I think we need to work on the homeless situation and the issues with the health service . If people really wanted to get of drugs they would .
And trust me I know .
@Greg: really? Is there a magic pill or potion. Utter BS
I was employed as a counsellor for many years in a large methadone clinic in Dublin. Its not true that service users are excluded from a treatment plan . I personally know Doctors ,Counsellors , Nurses, Pharmacists and General assistants who put in many hours encouraging users to take part in treatment programmes. Doctors are very willing to reduce and end Methadone treatment. If the Service users are willing to take an active part in reduction programme’s ,which are available to all Service users. Lynn’s article is not correct in many respects . In order for Doctors or Pharmacists to dispense Methadone they have to carry out specialist intensive training . And the majority of community based Doctors do not have any inclination to do this training , as they do not want to work with those who are abusing drugs. Over the years that I worked in the clinic I saw Gran parents , Parents Daughters and Son’s all from the same family attending for Methadone treatment. For many , addiction passes down through the generations. There are very few programmes or interventions for Young Children to stop them going down the same road as their Parents and Gran Parents. I have also known many S.U who having come off all drugs including Methadone . Relapse because they have to go back and live on the streets or into Hostels that are nothing more than drug den’s with a bed for the night . I think Lynn Ruane would be better employed trying to do something about homelessness and lack of service’s for the Children I mention here. Rather than taking a cheap shot at the Staff in the clinics who are doing their best to provide a good service, under what are often very difficult circumstances.
“service users” watch out for that one.its what they’re calling prisoners now too.
It seems to me methadone sacrifices the individual drug user and their family. It is given to reduce offending and theft etc in cheapest way regardless of if it consigns the drug user into another dependency stupor. Individuals and their children etc deserve the chance to be drug free. Ultimately this will benefit society with functioning individuals and families who can contribute to society. Invest the money into counselling and residential services aimed at getting people drug free not invest in maintenance programmes that lock people into addiction substituting one drug for another
The central issue you highlight is the conceit of doctors, the so called ‘experts’ and how the political establishment is in thrall to their ‘expertise’. Methadone can be a life saver and is for many but many doctors believe that the best that can be achieved is to turn drug users into professional patients but above all also is their belief that they know best when in truth many have minimal understanding of drug users and addiction.
@Liam Hunter: Utter nonsense. You clearly dont know how this operates with individual clients. Maybe ask a GP in a practice that prescribes it.
@Margate: you have no idea how much I know about this..way back before even the protocols… As for ‘utter nonsense’…some of us have profound understanding of this issue going back as far as the eighties…where does yours emanate from ?
Short termism and quick fixes is what our political system and can kicking… the methadone programme is a case and point.
It’s a good time to raise the question Lynn, you may need to take this further in your position as Senator so that the policy is reviewed and recommendations dealt with before another 20 years passes. Good work but more steps are required other than an article in the Journal.
The major issues are policing of clinics , addict goes in to try come off hard drugs and are met on the way out by dealers peddling drugs/tablets . The fact that the clinical staff will not entertain addicts looking to reduce their dose isn’t a surprise when you see the monetary incentive to keep addicts on their books.
It’s a cash cow for doctors administering methadone to addicts.
I look forward to your night in Donore Youth Centrethis coming month. As someone who was involved in Treatment service development in the 90′s in Dublin. It sickening me to my stomach that successive govs pay millions for mrthadone. There’s no stomach by this gov or agencies to setup up a programme that take users of Heroin of methadone to a completely drug free lifestyle….just keep the merry go round spinning for big pharma.
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