Sugar has been a controversial subject from the early history of its production in slave-operated Caribbean cane fields.

Now it is notorious for its contribution to hyperactivity, diabetes and rotten teeth. Where does one draw the balance to have or not to have sugar? Sugar is a flavour enhancer. It is disguised in many forms on food labels: do sucrose, fructose and glucose plus corn syrup ring a bell? They are all forms of sugar. We also have the artificial forms such as saccharine and aspartame, to name a couple, plus sugar substitutes marketed under the brands of Sweet and Low, Splenda (sucralose) and Stevia.

Juices, sodas, candies, chocolate, cookies, and cakes tend to be high in sugar, so watch those labels. Recently, there have been many sugar-free juices on the market, so opt for those or make your own fruit juice. Sugar has no nutritional value, loads on calories, so we don’t really need it outside of the natural forms found in fruit which gives a little energy as well as those sugars found in complex carbohydrates.

Types of Sugars: Brown such as muscavado, demerara, turbinado, molasses; white such as granulated which is the common kind used daily; castor, which is great for baking; and icing, which is superfine and used for finishing desserts.

I won’t be hypocritical, as personally I like a bit of sweet, especially chocolate which I can’t resist. However, I do try to control my intake by not eating the entire bar at one sitting and not having sugar in my tea which was a process for me, being English and growing up on “builders tea” with lots of cream and sugar with biscuits throughout the day. All in all, exercise some discipline where sugar is concerned and use sparingly.