Great... I’d just overdosed the kids on sugar

When I was a kid, I barely heard the word ‘obesity’. Back then, epidemics were for things like the flu. There was only one chubby kid in my school, and they had terrible asthma.

 

Everything has changed since then. We’ve gone all sedentary and we’re surrounded by cheap calorie-rich foods. We’re having an obesity epidemic, and we’re warned that we might be the first generation to outlive our kids.

 

This is scary and it’s something we’ve struggled with a little in my family.

 

I know all the arguments about personal and parental responsibility, but when it comes to food labels, I wouldn’t complain about a bit of extra clarity.

 

I have, not so long ago, spent twenty minutes reading the back of all the yoghurts in the dairy section, trying to find the one with the least sugar and most good stuff. I received many odd looks and felt barmy by the end of it when I realised that fruit corner yoghurts contain more sugar than a chocolate bar and sugar free yogurts are a rarity.

 

We’ve all seen those diagrams showing the little mountain of sugar that goes into fizzy drinks, so on a recent trip out, the youngest got a tiny carton of apple juice and the eldest got a mixed fruit and veg juice in a virtuous shade of blended spinach.

 

Turns out, when I studied the labels, that the juice carton had more sugar than a Twix and  the mixed juice packed  58% of an adult’s daily sugar quota.

 

Great. I’d just overdosed the children on sugar.

 

So yes, while I am all for parental and personal responsibility, couldn’t food labels be a little clearer?

 

The Irish Heart Foundation seems to agree, they have a free traffic light leaflet available from their website to help confused customers negotiate food labelling. Aldi and Lidl also have something similar on most of their products.

 

Manufacturers might not like their customers having access to a quick and easy way to see that the breakfast cereal they were about to buy is low in fibre and high in sugar, but personally, that’s just the kind of information I need.

 

Daisy Wilson is a freelance writer who lives and works in West Cork. Mum to an almost-teenager and a toddler who is striding through the terrible twos with a glint in her eye, life is noisy, fun and covered in fingerprint marks.

 

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