Dear Editor,
Yesterday’s newspaper carried a letter from DDL stating that their Topco juices had no added sugars. This does DDL great credit. Too many foods these days are stuffed full of sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup. Many Guyanese have had to buy new pants to fit their expanding waistlines, and I was recently mistaken on the street for someone else. Added sugars are not just confined to the sweety I treat myself to after a meal and the chocolate pick-me-up I take on my morning break. At breakfast I have a sweet, white, fluffy loaf that can technically still be called bread. Ants swarm around my lunchbox desperate for the sweet sauce on my barbeque. I stopped sugaring my tea only after I found you can’t get 6 sugar cubes to dissolve.
My mother had a great belief that you should only eat natural sugars. To her dismay I largely avoided fruits, and one day my stomach decided it had enough of milk-sugar and I became lactose intolerant. If I had stuck to natural sugars would I have to suck in my stomach any time I’m in a photo? Would the fear of diabetes and heart disease still keep me up at night? Many of my relatives, even the fruit eaters, have fallen prey to these diseases, and this is true for everyone I know. Rumours has begun circulating online that DDL have reduced the added sugar content of the El Dorado 15-year old rum. If this is true then I may take up a new, very Guyanese diet – a Topco for breakfast, Tasso at lunch, and a glass of El Dorado for dinner. With no added sugars, this should ensure me a long, healthy life.
Sincerely,
Cecil Cox
