Editorial: All-year feasts so bad for our waists

Hot Cross Buns are already in the shops, three months from Easter

Nothing beats the smell of hot cross buns toasting in the oven.

I used to beg my mother to buy a packet as soon as they hit the supermarket shelves. It marked the start of autumn and meant school holidays and a visit from the Easter Bunny were right around the corner.

These days, school has barely started when hot cross buns start appearing on the shelves. Easter is still 66 days away.

A toasted treat is the last thing I feel like in the middle of our long, hot summer. And I'm still working off all the Christmas pudding I ate during the festive season.

Swinging from one holiday to the next is a bit much for this consumer.

It's not good for the waistline or the wallet.

It seems just another excuse to get me spending more at the supermarket.

So why are hot cross buns and Easter eggs on the shelves already?

Because we demand it - so the supermarkets claim. Hot cross buns are good sellers leading up to Easter, they say. If so, why don't supermarkets sell them year round?

And while they're at it, keep Easter eggs on the shelves and perhaps Christmas puddings too.

Some overseas supermarkets are already doing this with hot cross buns. Although I hope we don't follow suit, as it takes away the novelty and the specialness of these festive foods.

An Australian priest once said that if supermarkets wanted to sell the buns year round they should remove the crosses from them until Easter, so the religious significance was not lost.

But then would cross-less buns really sell?

Tracey Chatterton is the chief reporter of Hawke's Bay Today.