If you go to any craft market you'll find a lot of products of all kinds, among which sugarfree products made by local producers or from all over the country. I love these products because these are different from what you can buy at the grocery shops or/and supermarkets.
These products are not always present on the grocery shop or/and supermarket's shelves for a very good reason. These are mainly profit oriented and these products are not always fit the profile.
About The Products
These producers are trying to bring something new to the market but that's not their only goal. What you see here is not what you see in the grocery shops as I mentioned before. These products are diversified, offering something new to the buyers. Many are sugarfree and more healthier than what you can buy in the supermarket.
You can buy all kind of syrups made or different fruits and when I say all kind I mean what fruits can be found in the country. The offer is endless, you can't choose as you most likely want them all. The other category always present is the jams also made of all kinds of fruits available in the country and not only.
Honey is also made of a large variety of flowers, plus many products are combined with fruits, nuts, cocoa and other goodies.
The Impact On Buyers
I've been a regular at these markets and have seen a lot and I'm sure I haven't seen all. Wen I go to these markets I tend to come home with 300, 400 photos and a lot of memories. While taking photos I can't escape hearing what potential customers are conversing with the sellers.
These products are not exactly cheap because they are made using a different technology from the other products. Unfortunately most of the buyers can only see the price and fail to see the opportunity of having a healthy product. Money sometimes is tight, I can understand that but at some point we have to think about our health.
Reality Check
I've said this before and still think it's true. Ignorants and those very bad at math are the best customers.
THis is a random product I could find online, nothing special about it. It looks great and probably taste great as well. I can't rate the price as I'm not from the US but that's not relevant here. So basically all is good till you look at the label and understand what's on it.
source
At the ingredients section you can see it's made of strawberry juice, high fructose corn syrup (which is sugar), corn syrup (which is sugar), fruit pectin and citric acid.
First of all it is not made of fruit as it's made of juice. Why? I have no idea, can't figure it out or maybe it's better if I'm not guessing here. In my country on the label you can find how many % is fruit. Secondly, why is high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup needed? I understand strawberries are a bit sour and acid but still.
The bomb on this label is the sugar content. It says 1 serving is 1 tablespoon, 20g and the sugar content of that is 12g. In other words it's 60%.
Now comes my question. What are you eating here? 60% sugar and 40% fruit juice.
Surprisingly the product has a 4.5 star rating (132 ratings) and most of the complaints are regarding the packages, broken jars etc. The vast majority is super happy with the product, love the flavor, love even more the price and so on.
People Need To Wake Up
You can argue that it's cheap, has excellent flavor, whatever you want and I believe you, but cant convince me about this being a good choice. Imagine how many people are giving these kind of products to kids. I don't even want to know.
That's pretty much the case with syrups and soft drinks.
What you see in this photo is organic honey with different flavor. I had the chance to talk to one of the vendors last time and showed me all the products and explained why are these different. Honey is honey and for some is all the same. This is not true as every type is different. However there's so much honey on the market that they needed to come up with something new. This is why they started to make cocoa flavor honey, lavender flavor and so on.
Addicted To Sugar
The truth is anything that is sweet can be sold. It taste good and the more you have the more you want. However if you want to stay healthy, you should draw a line and start eating healthy. The problem is people are already so addicted to sugar many can't live without it. Tea with sugar, coffee with sugar, everything is consumed with sugar. If you don't put sugar in your tea or coffee, you can't drink it, right? Of course, it doesn't taste the same, but it's healthy.
I'm making my own jams for years now and use the minimum amount of sugar, the less possible. My family is used to it and I know at least they are not eating 60% sugar with 40% fruit juice, they are eating real fruit jam, organic from the garden.
My advice, if you can't afford to buy sugarfree products, at least look at the label and choose the healthiest option. And always check the label!
This is my contribution to #MarketFriday hosted by @dswigle.
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