If it weren’t a drug, the term “sugar rush” wouldn’t exist. It’s been known for years that sugar is addictive. It is, indeed, a pandemic. There are conspiracy theories that point it out as the reason for the apocalypse that took place in the National Health Care System in the USA during the 70s. No money was enough for so many cases of diabetes. Why is there nothing being done in a serious and credible way? Does the Coca-Cola company rule the world? Maybe. But “hidden sugar” does it even more. And it is everywhere.
If it weren’t a drug, the term “sugar rush” wouldn’t exist. It’s been known for years that sugar is addictive. It is, indeed, a pandemic. There are conspiracy theories that point it out as the reason for the apocalypse that took place in the National Health Care System in the USA during the 70s. No money was enough for so many cases of diabetes. Why is there nothing being done in a serious and credible way? Does the Coca-Cola company rule the world? Maybe. But “hidden sugar” does it even more. And it is everywhere.
We’re walking into a replenished candy shop and behold the presumptuousness of a window display lined with multicolored macarons. We are aware that this is a place frequented by the crème de la crème, the upper levels of society (as a side note, so that the generation of the skim pasteurized milk can understand, this is an allusion to the time when we had to boil the milk and peel off that thin “layer” that sat on top), of exquisite tastes and some petulance, people that show up at children's birthday parties with a sumptuous wrapped present that the rest of the guests perceive as ostentatious, guessing by the whispers “look at that wannabe Mem Martins’ Elon Musk.” Now, by juxtaposition, let us penetrate, slightly famished, into a bakery in one of Portugal’s random neighborhoods, in the empty hope that we might find something that can trick our stomachs. We look at the display and there we find, already ripe and dull from the advanced hour, the pastries. Inevitably, there will be a pastel de nata that was left behind, perhaps a stuffed Bola de Berlim, one palmier covered and another one cream-filled, perhaps a couple of queijadinhas and, of course, a mille-feuilles cake. It all feels like an acceptable situation. However, if in this assortment we see, in the peak of its gastronomic nullity, the boring swirl pastry (caracol in Portuguese), it is certain we’re in an old people neighborhood. There is nothing that attests to the misery that hit Portugal during the years of Salazar’s regime, perhaps only to the exception of the persistence, in the 80s, of the dishes cod with cream and pork loin with Arab rice as the fish and meat courses, respectively, in the menus of all weddings and christenings, than the tedious and obsolete caracol.
Crystalized fruit can only score points with the elderly. It was a luxury few had access to. Party worthy. And that is why it goes into the traditional King Cake. And in the English cake, which the English never heard of and that might even be offended if they had, while the Scottish will laugh waving their clan’s flags, toasting with a shot of single malt whiskey in between each beer pint. However, like everything in life, there is something positive to retrieve from this deprivation of luxury that the Portuguese had to endure for decades. Except for the holidays and summer festivities, the good sugar (and of course, many times smuggled by Spanish streaks) is something to avoid. Diabetes was rare. But alcoholism was king. Fat people? All it takes to find them is an old postcard of a seaside resort, from Algarve to Torreira, and count by the fingers of one hand, those who had been skipping the then inexistent gym. But hunger, malnutrition and child mortality were the highest of Europe. It is only natural that the generations born after the 25th of April and, mostly, those who “had it tough” with the dictatorship, have abandoned yesteryear’s austerity and embraced the worst of evils of the occidental post-capitalist civilization. Forget tobacco or fats. Even COVID-19, which will be, undoubtedly, irradicated. Sugar is, undeniably, the pandemic of the XXI century.
After discovering Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands, whose beauty can only be surmounted by the warmth, hospitality and longingness for a good party of its McHabitants, Glasgow might seem a bit bland. It is, in its essence, a bit like Manchester. Meaning, not at all comparable, because nothing and no one can reach it, to London, which has been the symbol of centralized power for centuries. But it remains an entirely different England. It is something that one cannot dare to say aloud. Only here, where no one can listen. But it is, indeed, bittersweet. Nonetheless, the home of the Rangers is a passing point by those intending on making their way to the Kintyre Peninsula, one of the most beautiful pieces of Scottish land, where the coast alternates castles, beaches filled with seals, green pastures and conifer woods. And that grants access to the magical islands of Islay (where one can find the best single malts in the world) and Jura (a piece of land with 600 habitants and 6000 deer, where George Orwell wrote 1984 in complete isolation), a path that involves a ferry boat ride from which operators retrieve cages with huge lobsters and from where one can see Northern Ireland. It was with this goal in mind that I found myself walking pass the neighborhoods of Port Dundas, Gallowgate and Kelvinbridge in the biggest city in Scotland. Only to realize that, amid so many restaurants which dignify truly surprising gastronomy, the most popular Glaswegian snack is deep-fried pizza. Yes, a slice of pizza that, after been dipped in batter is put on a frying pan until the point it earns the denomination of Pizza Crunch, a local delicacy that is not found in any other place in the Lands of Her Majesty unless in these local establishments, called Chip Shops. Fish n’ Ships? That’s a child’s game. There are also Battered Sausages, Black Pudding, Supper, and Haggis Supper. But what I was most impressed by was the Mars chocolate bar that, after being dipped into a mix of flour, sugar, and yeast, is fried as if it was a French fry (or chips, because this is British English). What leads a people known worldwide for their English Breakfast (bacon, eggs, sausage, mushrooms, baked beans, toast, grilled tomatoes, and tea) to still be capable of consuming such gastronomic atrocities? It’s precisely due to the addiction to sugar. The one that hides where we never thought it would (though many have tried to shed light on the matter).
The devil we were convinced could be found in fats is, indeed, in carbohydrates. From which sugar is the most mischievous. 100gr of Mars has 60% of sugar. It can’t even be considered chocolate because the EU demands that for that, the product contains at least 30% of cocoa. Which is not the case. There go the defenders of any product with 70% of cocoa (dark chocolate) as healthy antioxidant food options. The rest is oil (sunflower, palm, and butter) and flowers (all dairy). There is also the urban myth that insects (tenebrious, to be exact). If proven, it would be a lesser evil. The pyramidal scheme of nutrition, which tried to educate us on the amount of food we ingest of each category, was substituted by the scheme of the Healthy Plate. Which is, basically, the very Portuguese Wheel of Foods we all learned about at school – or should have learned. There we can find, by order of importance, vegetables (fresh), fruits, healthy proteins (white meats, never red), and, lastly, legumes and integral seeds (containing either bran, germ, or endosperm). There is no reference to added sugar like sweeteners. Why? Because they are absolutely unnecessary. Our body does not require the carbs produced by these types of sugars. One thing is saccharose, which is the most common sugar, obtained from sugar canes or beetroots. Another thing entirely is glucose, isomaltose, mannitol, lactose, fructose, sativoside, flavonoids, and xylitol. And we are still only on those that are components existing in nature. Because if we move on to synthetic or artificial sugars, we have aspartame, cyclamate, lactitol, neotame, polydextrose, saccharin, sorbitol, and many others which, because they are much easier (and cheaper) to obtain, are widely used. Especially in processed foods, that scourge of the modern world. Processed foods are those consisting of at least two or three ingredients to which fat, salt, and sugars have been added. Examples of these are canned foods (including fruits and vegetables, not only fish), cheese, and bread. They can be consumed without further preparation. But as there is no evil that can't be worse, we still have the great devil of ultra-processed foods. We take the previous example and add coloring, flavoring, and preservatives to them to allow for prolonged storage, texture preservation, and flavor enhancement. Sugar-sweetened beverages, cookies, chips, milk cereals, and pre-prepared and/or deep-frozen foods undermine our days. The urban myth says that these kinds of products are designed to create addition so that we consume them in greater quantities and more assiduously. In fact, what happens is that sugar, highly addictive, is present in every McMeal or microwave lasagna, and in such large quantities that... Yes, we are getting addicted.
In 2015, the World Health Organization published the Information Note on Recommended Sugar Intake. It stated: "Here are recommendations for reducing the intake of simple sugars and doing so throughout the life course based on the analysis of the latest scientific evidence. This evidence shows, firstly, that adults who consume fewer sugars have less body weight, and second, that increased sugars in the diet are associated with weight gain. In addition, these studies show that children who consume more sugar-sweetened beverages are more likely to become obese than children with low intake of sugary drinks." This was the cause for the increase that soft drinks had their prices raised through specially designed taxes. It was not enough. Advertising campaigns and product placement on social networks produce, especially in the younger generation, perverse effects. The recommended limit of sugar per day is 25 grams (6 teaspoons). Provided that you are the right weight and physically active (because you will certainly burn the 100 calories that this amount corresponds to). A can of Coca-Cola (33cl) has 39gr of sugar, that is 9 teaspoons. Heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure, increased bad cholesterol and triglycerides, diabetes, and obesity are nowadays "collateral damages" that the medical community links more quickly with sugar consumption than with salt consumption. The evidence is irrefutable and worries the world. We have a worldwide addiction problem in our hands. Sugar is addictive to the brain because it stimulates the production of dopamine, the hormone responsible for the feeling of pleasure and well-being. And we are all too sad to deny ourselves a rush like that, right?
Denise Nickerson, who played Violet Beauregarde in Willie Wonka (the original 1971 film, not the one in which Johnny Depp was the owner of Tim Burton's Chocolate Factory, filmed long before Amber Heard left him a cocoa-scented snack in his bed), died of pneumonia in 2019. But in 2011 she complained, during an interview in which she smoked almost an entire pack of cigarettes, that the filming of the movie caused her thirteen cavities. Not half a dozen, not a burr, but exactly thirteen cavities. It was part of her character to compulsively chew bubble gum. And Denise embodied it well. She chewed hundreds of Bazooka chewing gums and the result was there for all to see. We were at what could be considered the beginning of this pandemic. Many years before, sugar was a luxury that few had access to. In the 17th century, when the Dutch community settled in the Hudson River Valley, north of New York City in the direction of Albany, they brought with them the recipe for their very typical olykoek, a fried dough cake later filled with a mixture of almonds, raisins, apples, and cinnamon. The whole thing evolved to the point when, according to urban legends, a captain of a merchant ship stuck one of these cakes he would take on his trips in one of the stems of the rudder wheel. The doughnut (dough + nuts) was born, known worldwide as the donut, also called beignet, zeppole, puff puff, and oliebol, depending on where it is made, which may even be in Portugal, since the Bola de Berlim is its distant cousin. It is a fine example of what was once only consumed on celebratory occasions. Today, Dunkin' Donuts sells almost three million units a year. And speaking of special moments: could it be that, if it existed here and now, Snow White would be biting into an apple whose peel would have another kind of poison? That marvelous shine that makes the fruit so appetizing on the market stall is, in fact, a kind of wax that protects it from insects, made from corn glucose.
Translated from the original on The Fairytale Issue, from Vogue Portugal, published May/June 2022.Full stories and credits on the print issue.
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