Sugar quota is going down, but with consumers on it

The sugar industry and some of the beet growers are looking forward to the date: 1 October 2017. Then the sugar quota will be reduced. But what is briefly forgotten is the consumer who sets a sugar quota for himself. Sugar is said to be addictive, cause obesity and cancer and lower energy levels. And these are just a few of dozens of claims.

Bloggers, foodies and so-called 'fit girls' also spread the message that sugar is a fattener and silent killer. More and more people are cutting back or going completely sugar-free. Whole foods with no added sugars are gaining in popularity. More and more primary schools have also focused on the theme. Only healthy snacks are allowed. So as a snack, preferably no candy or a pack of soft drinks, but fruit or vegetables and 'healthy' drinks. For the rest, no chocolate sprinkles, but vegetarian spreadable sausage (it is really in the nutrition policy of schools with the 'Healthy school' vignette in collaboration with the Nutrition Center!).

Furthermore, the treats must be healthy, as well as the snacks on a school trip, during the evening four days, the national school breakfast, etc. and then there are the lessons about healthy nutrition. One of these is a large plate with packets of drinks with the number of sugar cubes that contain the drinks glued next to it (see photo). All very well intentioned. And it will certainly help in certain environments where unhealthy food and obesity are common, but this health madness also has a dark side.

My daughter has that unwanted side effect. Since group 2 she asks about everything we eat; Is this healthy? First I gave an honest answer. I can hardly say that cake is healthy. "Then I don't have to," was her response.

We are now almost a year later and I can now say that she has gone completely crazy, because she hardly wants to eat anything anymore. No candy, cookies, chips or chips. She is 6 now. SIX! She is growing, sports twice a week and cannot sit still. That is no longer healthy!

At home we like the old-fashioned Dutch pot, not focused on diets, but on common sense. No starvation, obesity or frailty here. So on to the teacher. She also finds daughters eating behavior worrying. She immediately treated her class to a piece of candy (against policy). She said: 'It is okay to eat sugar now and then, because you also need it to live.'
The extent of the teacher's influence is once again apparent, because since then daughter has been eating 1 biscuit or candy a day. If I offer 1 more, she won't need it anymore, because 'she's already had today', are her words. Those kinds of statements are made by 40-year-old girls, not 6-year-old girls! To get the much-needed bacon on her ribcage, she has to look for snacks that she wants to eat in addition to fruit; those have been sultanas for weeks now.

Food is already an issue for her, being so young, and I find that extremely unhealthy and worrying. Especially when you hear that anorexia nervosa is increasingly common in eight-year-old children. Because what's next? Now sugar is under fire, before that it was the gluten, lactose, meat and the carbohydrates and the next food hype is about to start; milk and dairy products. It's getting crazier.

Do the sugar products also see this madness or are they immune to it? After the abolition of the milk quota, golden mountains were promised, but if the past has taught us anything, it is that the abolition of production-limiting measures does NOT lead to increased consumption. Milk and sugar cannot be compared, but they are both agricultural commodities and therefore capricious in their lives. Don't sugar factories make beet growers addicted to sugar by expanding significantly and demanding the same from the grower?

Clarisse van der Woude

Arable farming experts boerenbusiness. Nl

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