Yesterday a neighbor in our garden told my wife that our children are slim. Probably the time has passed when 9 out of 10 children were slim and no one paid attention to it. And I think that sweet fizzy drinks play a significant role here.
I bought two small cans of Schweppes on a hot day, for myself and my son. For some reason we wanted Schweppes after 7 hours in the fresh air in the garden. We rarely buy soda, 2-3 times a month, the children are not used to it and do not ask to buy it every day.
Two cold jars from the refrigerator pleasantly quenched our thirst and we did not feel the strong sweetness of the drink due to the bitterness of quinine.
But my goodness, when my son asked me to count how much sugar was in one jar and I put on my glasses to read the ingredients of Schweppes, I was a little surprised. There are 12.1 grams of sugar in 100 grams of the drink. This is more than Coca-Cola and Fanta, which have 9 and 8 grams of sugar.
And I said, "Son, you just ate 7 teaspoons of sugar!" That's 4 cups of your morning sweet coffee, which you drink over 4 days.
Personally, I drink coffee without sugar, I don't add sugar anywhere and I started thinking about what products I get 40 grams of carbohydrates from. I looked at how many carbohydrates are in sweet ice cream and realized that I just ate 3 packs of ice cream :) I wasn't averse to drinking a second can of Schweppes. And I realized that I was close to swallowing 6 packages of ice cream in 2 minutes.
If a child drinks 2 small cans of Schweppes, he will get 80 grams of sugar. But how much sugar is in those large glasses that Burger King made unlimited?
I thought it would be better if Schweppes bottled only mineral water, as it did in 1783.
At that time people did not consume as much sugar as they do now. Food was simpler and healthier.
Do you see the fountain above the numbers 1783 in the picture? This is a mineral water fountain from which visitors to the first World Exhibition in London drank mineral water in 1851. At that time, Schweppes had not yet bottled such sweet sodas. Look at what this fountain looked like in 1851. People were walking around the Crystal Palace, looking at the achievements of science and technology. They had no idea that in 2 centuries their descendants would be able to buy a Schweppes can for 0.5 dollars, which contained as many as 40 grams of sugar.
A few years ago I was at Expo in Dubai and I didn't like the pavilions of different countries there at all. There was almost nothing to see from the achievements of science and technology and there were very long queues. A lot has changed in 2 centuries.
McNeven, J., The Foreign Department, viewed towards the transept, coloured lithograph, 1851, Ackermann (printer), V&A. The interior of the Crystal Palace in London during the Great Exhibition of 1851.