The Depths to which the Sugar Pushers Sink - Tesco

[LauraBridges]

We are exhorted to avoid sugar (I don't have any ever other than a bit of fruit). Yet day in day out it is peddled and pushed on to us and our children at home, in schools, by others.

This morning Tesco delivered our weekly shopping. There was an item I had not ordered. It is in front of me now. I asked the delivery man about it. It is a free gift. Guess what it is? Sugar.. or rather an organic rice cake think covered in Belgian chocolate. At Christmas Tesco gave us a large box of sugary biscuits in a tin.

Why don't they give customers carrots or cucumbers? Why just junk food that ruins your health?

I told the driver I did not eat any sugar but perhaps my family might eat it. He took a while to believe me, said he could never manage that and then disclosed that he is diabetic (he didn't look over weight particularly but is of Indian origin and middle aged).

I got a free mini bottle of Bailys when I bought some Pjamas at Christmas.

As a former alcoholic I feel terrible I have not risen to a hitherto unknown Mumsnet stereotype and that I failed to immediately start an outraged thread about it.

I'm sorry, I've let myself down, I've let Mumsnet down

Honey
When I was in Australia I tried a dessert I had never tried before

A double espresso with a shot of baileys and a scoop of ice cream.
It was just caffeine fat sugar and alcohol in a glass.

It was fab. I can't believe I had never had it before.

Now THAT is a legal high

My idea of a well spent evening is an alcohol free margarita accompanied by a Cadburys Creme Egg using Cadburys Fingers as soldiers.

I never got free biscuits from tesco at Xmas :(

Tesco once gave me several bottles of red wine and whiskey by mistake.
It was great.

You don't have to drink alcohol and eat chocolate to lead a happy healthy life.

But they do help

I ordered my shopping from waitrose monty not for the free bottle of fizz oh no but misread the t&cs and thought you got a bottle every time you shopped in waitrose during January.
Was vvvvvvv disappointed when the second bottle didn't materialise but thank god I read the t&cs before I rang waitrose to complain....

I got a Ferrero Rocher choc. in it's own little box with a hair-piece I received today. It was a nice surprise, even though I don't like FR ( but I know someone who does). I know sugar is poison, but lots of Baby Boomers like me got addicted to it through the rosehip syrup and highly sweetened orange concentrate handed out at post-war baby clinics thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it

can't see anyone saying the OP was a weirdo for a healthy diet.

a simple 'no thank you' usually suffices if offered food that you don't want.

If it's so important to you that the supermarkets are pushing sugar, why do you still shop there?

You are perpetuating the problem you see by keeping them in business.

Why not shop at a local, independent butchers, green grocers etc?

I reckon the OP has a point though. Sugar has become a stereotypic 'gift' and recent studies reported in the bbc this week did show staggering levels of obesity.
Don't get me wrong, I love a bit of chocolate and am guzzling a glass of wine at the moment, but I'm also at least a stone overweight...maybe we should love these foods a bit less!

I didn't get past the exhorted? WTF does that mean, to us thicko's please?

The idea that people over use sugary laden treats is hardly a revelation though. Most people know that and those of us managing that through moderation and by modelling a healthy diet for our children are capeable of doing so without being patronised

Yawn

If it were cocaine or free vodka that Tesco were handing out to drug addicts and recovering alcoholics people would be up in arms.
Well, yeah cause cocaine is slightly illegal and vodka is far too expensive for Tesco to give out as a freebie - the good stuff anyway.

Anarchy rules! I have some giant chocolate buttons right here on the desk in front of me - Nope, I am not fat, do not have a sugar addiction, am not diabetic, am not an Indian man (why? Just why? What does it matter?)
But I am middle aged....
It is Friday.
Its pouring down.
Have not stopped moving and working and doing all week.

And I am frigging gutted I did not get any freebies from my last Tesco delivery - the absolute unfairness of it all. Bastards.
Giant chocolate button anyone..?

Laura A little of what you fancy does you good my love - my Nan is 95 and every day she has (and has had for decades) a bar of chocolate....
I just took her a fish and chip supper - she's gearing up for the rugby tomorrow where she plans to have a glass of wine... Come on, have a chocolate button - live a little

You say you weren't berating the delivery driver, but when he said he could never manage to give up sugar altogether, you translated that as him "cramming himself full of sugar". He said no such thing, you just assumed that because he said he was diabetic. As I'm sure you know, many people who are diagnosed diabetic don't actually eat an excessively high sugar diet, so this was an unfair generalisation.

Everything in moderation... including patronising lectures from one's moral high horse please...

Great post, tethers

HipHop, itsu do chocolate mocha coated rice cakes. They are yum. Stupidly expensive, though.

Someone said it helps to lead a happy and healthy life if you have alcohol and chocolate. that is not actually medically correct. Alcohol is a known depressant and sugar just makes you hyper and then you crash. Those two products make for an unhappy, not a happy life. By all means poison yourself with them if you like but be in no doubt they lead to less not more happiness.

Sugar does not make you hyper , that is a myth. Sugar is not a poison either., where are you getting this nonsense

I said it- and believe it. However in moderation. I am perfectly healthy on it, being just about to run a half marathon aged 62 years. The last one I ran I discovered that I really did need sugar after 8 miles. I don't think that my one chocolate a day is going to make me hyper, let alone crash!!
I don't drink enough alcohol to find out if it is a depressant. Certainly a glass of wine and a chocolate at the end of the day cheer me up and I am perfectly healthy on it! If Tesco wanted to give me chocolate I would be perfectly happy to receive it, in preference to a cucumber!

I know I will get berated for using just one example but I look at my father - aged 84 - who eats cakes, puddings, biscuits & cream every day (plus protein/veg/fruit etc), drinks at least 3-4 glasses of beer/wine a day and he is the healthiest most active person I know - still plays tennis regularly with people 50 years younger than himself.

My FIL lived to over 100 yrs- he was playing 18 holes of golf until he was nearly 90yrs. He watched his diet, and weight, but he ate everything in moderation, drank in moderation and didn't make a fuss about a present of chocolates, or get neurotic about sugar.

My mother is over 90yrs, and a healthy weight, she doesn't obsess about sugar etc, she merely eats a balanced, healthy diet which includes alcohol and chocolate.

It is the oldest healthy people that I take particular notice of. I dont think that it is purely luck that they have lived to a ripe age healthily.