By Rose 9/1/09
Here’s a strange paradox. Sugar is seriously cheap to buy in its raw state. A bag of white sugar costs around 80c per kilo. Australia is a major producer of sugar, and is the world’s single largest exporter of raw sugar.
Which makes me wonder, if we produce so much sugar, and if a bag of table sugar is so cheap, why are foods with a high sugar content often so expensive? Chocolate bars, on average, cost around $2 for a 50 gram bar. That means your generic chocolate bar (eg. regular sized Mars bar, the number one ingredient of which is sugar) costs around $40 per kilo. That’s more than some kinds of blue cheese! And all for something that tends to make you, well, fat.
And then there’s the hidden cost of sugar: diabetes. In 2000, health system expenditure on Type 2 diabetes in Australia was around $686 million. That’s a cost of approximately $42 to every Australian. Every year.
The moral of the story is, sugary foods are far more expensive than you realise. Also, they tend to make you fat, because the fructose in them is converted straight to fatty acids in your liver, without even making you feel full.
On the other hand, eat a small amount of fatty food and you’ll feel full pretty quickly and therefore stop eating (theoretically).
A good excuse for me to continue eating lots of pizza.
So stop eating that chocolate bar at work every day - here I must acknowledge that it is my new year’s resolution to take my own advice – and you will not only save $10 a week but you will also give your pancreas (and maybe your belly) a break.
OK, end of lecture. I feel like a Caramello Koala…
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