“A wise woman puts a grain of sugar into everything she says to a man, and takes a grain of salt with everything he says to her.”
Helen Rowland“All men are created Equal. Some just have more Splenda.”
Jarod Kintz”
Two politicians, Andy Burnham and Jeremy Hunt, today became embroiled in a discussion about the need to regulate the amount of sugar and salt in food. The former is of the opinion that government should regulate on the subject and the latter being of the opinion that if the food industry did not take action voluntarily then he would so regulate – although not without scoring a political point by asking his opponent why he had not so done when he was in power. This provoked a minor twitter-storm directed at both politicians, a summation of which can best be encapsulated in the two words: “Foxtrot Oscar”.
We are told that obesity has a cost to the NHS of approximately £5billion per annum and that drives the wish of some to decide what we can and cannot eat. Sugar and salt are no more than a seasoning put on food to, in the mind of the person consuming said food, enhance the taste. Were government to so regulate the quantity of salt and sugar in food products, just how would they then regulate the amount of both that people added in their own homes? How would they regulate those that ‘cook from scratch’? As with most legislation it would appear that little thought has been applied to the problem and that it has not been thought through. Of course, where children are concerned, if the political class had not sold off school playing fields, not banned certain forms of sport in schools for reasons of health and safety – but I digress.
In a recent article in The Times (£) Camilla Cavendish wrote:
“These are cheap industrial substances that prolong the shelf-life of products such as cereal, doughnuts, processed meat, ready meals and crisps, and give them more bulk or texture. Hydrogenation turns liquid vegetable oils into harder substances that clog our arteries and are associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes and the increased risk of heart attacks and stroke. They were named as a toxin by the World Health Organisation in 2009……..I have just looked to see how many trans fats lurk in my kitchen. A packet of crackers states reassuringly that it contains 0g of trans fat. But it lists ‘shortening (hydrogenated vegetable oil)’ as an ingredient. That is trans fat. If manufacturers are still misleading even conscientious consumers, the Government is being nowhere near tough enough with the food industry.”
When one considers that there is far too much interference in our lives by the political class, coupled with the fact that they lie to us left, right and centre on just about every subject under the sun and thus mislead us, methinks it is about time the electorate become a lot tougher with the political industry – but the electorate won’t, they’ll just, metaphorically, swallow their medicine and then have a spoonful of sugar to take the bitter taste away.
