Jamie Oliver and his sugar tax

[IsThat]

Pub grub, school meals chef know it all!

Turns out he was wrong about replacement of sugar.

This.

Not watched it all yet but agree he does talk sense. Anyone who takes on the big corporations filling our kids with poison gets a thumbs up from me.

He doesn't get it right all the time but as pp his hearts clearly in the right place.

Yes, I really like those fizzy fruit waters too. M&S do some lovely ones. As you say, no sugar but no horrible aspartame related surprises either!

Thanks @BitchBrigade

Can you tell us the name of the Facebook group?

I've been caught out when buying pickled beatroot. I wasn't expecting a vegetable in vinegar to be "junk food" league. They can be in some very random foods that you don't expect to be sweet!

As someone who physically hates artificial sweetners (hours of after taste, headaches and errr "gastric distress") I hate the way food/ drink companies just stealth dieted products around it. That's not on Jamie Oliver though.

I do consume full sugar, full fat products, and I'm mindful about that and maintain a healthy weight by moderating consumption. If I want a low-calorie drink, I know where my tap is.

Exactly. Instead of substituting things packed with sugar for things packed with carcinogens, why wouldn't you just.... not?

I admit to the odd diet coke, but pretty much manage to avoid artificial sweeteners. I make cakes and desserts at the weekend (with real sugar!) for a sweet treat.
And to the PP who said no one would buy baked beans (in tomato sauce) that weren't sweetened somehow... I would!

Ok you enjoy unsweetened baked beans, good for you.

I enjoy the odd fry up or beans on toast a few times a year in the colder months and I like them with sugar.

In the drinks.

If you order a lemonade for example, you don't get any idea of the ingredients.

Also I believe it's fairly common in things like yogurts.

@IsThat apart from hating Jamie Oliver, what is your issue?

Most baked beans have a bit of sugar and no sweetener in Sainsbury , Heinz and probably many others.
JO has not taken away your baked beans.

If I could bring anything back it would be Sprite before they ruined it with sweeteners, that was the drink of the gods. I don’t see why we can’t have the original and then the one with sweeteners, at least give us choice.
I used to drink full sugar Coca Cola, probably about 3 - 4 cans a day. I swapped to Diet Coke and looking back there was literally no difference in my weight at all. It did make my teeth feel much nicer though….

I'm not sure this is JO's fault. Did he actually say remove sugar and replace it with artificial sweeteners?

It's been known for at least 25 years that artificial sweeteners are really bad for you. Long before I even met my husband let alone had children(oldest almost 20) I remember reading that artificial sweeteners were carcinogenic so I've always avoided them like the plague. In recent years there has been growing evidence that they are also endocrine disruptors and cause inflammation in the body. It is well documented they have a part to play in the development of ulcerative colitis.

One of our previously healthy DC insisted on lots of drinking energy drinks in late teens against my advice. I told him all of the above. He had months of an upset stomach, blood test revealed inflammation/poor liver enzymes. He developed type 1 diabetes gradually over the course of about 6 weeks. I think genetically he was at risk of T1D but I also think the artificial sweeteners 'triggered' it to an extent.

Sugary drinks contribute to obesity, which in turn increases your risk of cancer. Jamie's not wrong to think we should be consuming less sugar.

Nothing in the new reports about aspartame says we should all have more sugar instead does it? We need to reduce sugar AND artificial sweeteners surely.

Those looking for cordials, Bottle green still has sugar in it.

Generally anything expensive is still original, no chemical additives. Just use less!

This is such a pious response. Is it so difficult to understand that adults like different things including fizzy drinks. I'd chose a full sugar coke over a slice of apple pie any day

Well personally I never buy any BECAUSE of the insufferable sweetness but then I didn't grow up with them. You do realize it's quite possible to season food before eating even if it comes out of a tin? Maybe if it had less sugar for starters the next generation won't be socialized into expecting it.

Diabetics find a sugar snack or drink helpful.

Disabled people's find processed foods helpful, they can spill sugar, struggle to clean and it adds extra steps in cooking.

Do carry on though imagining everyone is like you and has the ability to make complex foods that are palatable.

Maybe eat less but keep it full sugar and eat more food without either sugar or sweeteners.

A utopia where people aren't addicted to high sugar, processed shit.

I don't eat any added sugar and barely any sweeteners. I'm ALIVE and feel better for it.

Maybe you should consider that people have varying palates.

Your particular sugar taste buds may be very different to someone elses.

I understand our taste buds change due to hormones, I recall that being the case in pregnancy and I understand it will happen in menopause.

Some are super tasters so enjoy what some call a bland diet. Some have hardly any activity in their taste buds and have to add what to some is excess flavour to taste anything.

You won't stop people enjoying some sugar in their diet, you can only control your own diet in life.

You won't stop people enjoying some sugar in their diet, you can only control your own diet in life

But nobody is stopping you enjoying sugar, except the soft drink companies I suppose if they've made the decision to stop making the drinks the way you like. That's not a conspiracy though it's just market forces.

So you can acknowledge. What is is exactly you are blaming on Jamie Oliver? Did he petition for sweeteners to be used? No. It was greedy food companies who pay in the billions to scientists who create the most addictive food combos that keep you coming back for more. They chose to spread the use of sweeteners.
No one needs sugar. It's extremely addictive and literally changes the wiring of your brain. It's more addictive than crack. It's not your palate, it's what sugar has caused in your body that makes you crave it. If you can control your intake, fine. Based on the obesity rates in this country, I don't think that's the case with a lot of people.

Jamie Oliver was remarkably short sighted.

He arrogantly thought a sugar tax would reduce sugar consumption and change behaviour.

He didn't stop to think what the sugar tax would do in reality. It was ALWAYS going to EITHER end up penalising the poorest who had the least cooking skills financially as they would continue to buy sugar products at an inflated price OR the food manufacturers would simply switch production methods to capitalise on the continued demand for ready meals.

You are NEVER going to force a change in behaviour if you don't also provide the means to train people to do this.

This isn't rocket science. But Jamie was too caught up in his own idea patting himself on the bad to see how it was fundamentally flawed.

He didn't listen to people who said this would happen and questioned the wisdom of encouraging synthetic sugar alternatives in food. He absolutely should be blamed for being tone deaf to a fair criticism which was levelled at the time.

I don't drink sweet drinks.

I have baked beans and ketchup with sugar, occasionally. I like chocolate when I am due a period, I have an actual hormonal need, if I don't have extra food and sweet food those few days I find that my mood is really bad and I cry.

No only this but his marketing of the idea of sugar = bad and therefore banned rather than reduce sugar content effectively promoted sugar alternatives.

The moderation message got lost in Jamie's PR ego trip.

So fill your boots with artificially sweetened drinks then, but don't grumble about how bad for you they are.

My point (badly put, obviously) was I do prefer and do use sugar.
I try not to overdo it though.