'Bad' sugar out as we eat like grandma

IT IS quite possible that I have lost the plot, or some might argue that my plot was never very well established to begin with, but that is another matter. What I am referring to is my cult-like transition into healthy living and healthy food.

The impetus behind my healthy food addiction is this new wave of thinking about what healthy food actually looks like. For instance, many nutritionists and health experts are now saying that fat (the good kind like you find in avocados, cheese, eggs, butter, full milk, nuts, salmon, etc) is exceptionally good for you. It does not make you fat as such, nor cause some health problems, as once thought. Rather, the culprit of many health problems is sugar. The bad kind of sugar in lollies and fizzy drinks, but also hidden sugar metabolised from bread, starchy vegetables and pasta.

Some health experts have argued that we need to significantly lower our carb intake and increase our fat intake to honour the way our bodies are designed to work. You can read more about this in the book WTF (What The Fat), written by Professor Grant Schofield, Dr Caryn Zinn and Craig Roger, released in May. The authors encourage eating "real food" and outline a number of golden rules when deciding what goes in your gob. I especially love these three: (1) eat food that your grandmother would recognise; (2) eat food that will go off in a few days; and (3) eat food that doesn't come with a label. All of these foods have what they call the low Human Interference factor.

Since learning about the SS (sinister sugar) we have changed quite a lot in our household. We were all sugar junkies! The family have sat down and spoken about what bad sugar does to our bodies and what good food does to our bodies. The 4-year-old likened bad sugar to Hulk, it goes around smashing your body, eventually damaging your bits and pieces. The 7-year-old old liked the idea of using good food to give him energy and strength to do somersaults and hit the cricket ball into outer space.

We also talk often about healthy choices and that the boys should think about the food that they put into their bodies. We are having lots of "wins" with this approach, a recent one was when the boys said "mummy, we've decided not to have milo anymore because it is bad sugar". Happy dance, high five, hugs and stars.

However, there is some rough sugary terrain out there, which I am yet to successfully navigate. For instance, my family recently attended a community picnic where cordial was available for the kids. From across the field I noticed that my 4-year-old had made his way over to the stand and was hooking into a big drink of super sweet cordial. I frantically ran over screaming as I went "it's bad sugar, Toby, don't drink the bad sugar" and I proceeded to reef the cup out of his hand. Obviously Toby protests and mothers around me turn away, obviously thinking "crazy oppressive mother, give the kid a break".

Later, my 4-year-old wins a race and gets a couple of chocolate fish. Yep, here I go again. "It's bad sugar, Hulk is in your blood smashing you". Poor kid just wants to enjoy his like all the other kids around him.

Then the voice of reason from my husband, as is so often the case, "Kristen they're running around, we're going to brush their teeth when we get home, I think they're allowed some bad sugar every now and then". So this is where I am up to. One of the other golden rules in the WTF book is to adopt the three-meal rule. That is, "there are three meals a day, 21 meals in a week. Let's get most of them right, knowing that three meals off the wagon a week is okay".

So my family has decided that there is good food, bad food, and every now and then food. I can sleep peacefully knowing that a little Hulk in our blood is okay "every now and then".

A registered psychologist with a masters in applied psychology, Wanganui mother-of-two Kristen Hamling is studying for a PhD in wellbeing at Auckland University of Technology.