Sugar

Guidelines for “healthy eating” come and go. At one time we were advised to avoid fat, now it is said that certain fats are extremely valuable. There are conflicting views about whether such foods as meat, dairy and legumes are good to eat. But one thing on which most of today’s experts do agree is that sugar is extremely bad for the health, and contributes to diverse forms of chronic disease.

Many authorities are now telling us to give up refined sugar completely, although a moderate intake of naturally occurring sugars such as fructose in fruit is okay. I don’t presume to question their advice, which is based on good evidence from large population studies. But there are always individual exceptions to general rules – consider for example the case of my friend Jenks.

Jenks is about to celebrate his 104th birthday. A widower, he lives alone and independently in his own house in England. Every year he flies, on his own, to New Zealand to visit his daughter. He cannot walk very well, but otherwise he is in good physical health and is not overweight. His mental faculties are intact and he uses the internet to keep in touch with the outside world. He has a calm and cheerful temperament.

Jenks has a hearty appetite and has loved sweet foods all his life. In England, besides the main meal of the “meat and two veg” variety which is delivered to his home each day, he eats plenty of processed cereals, biscuits and cakes, fruit juice, fruit tinned in syrup, milk chocolate, cakes and sweets. He takes sugar in coffee and tea. He also enjoys cheese and wine.

His daughter has been keeping a record of his diet while he is staying with her in New Zealand, and here is a typical day’s entry:

Breakfast: Apple juice, Muesli type cereal with milk, Toast and jam, Coffee with 1 sugar, Nectarine

 Mid-morning: Coffee with 1 sugar, 2 sweet biscuits

 Lunch: Bread, crackers & cheese

 Afternoon: Tea with 1 sugar, Cake, Biscuit

 Dinner: Fish & chips, Passion fruit, Chocolate, 2 glasses wine.

In between meals he will have eaten nibbles of sweets, dried fruits and nuts. He has a secret stash and tucks in on demand. 

Most people who ate like this every day without taking any exercise might be expected to become obese and diabetic and die from heart disease long before the age of 104. But not Jenks. Perhaps, as my late mother-in-law was fond of saying, “It’s all in the genes”.