NOSTALGIA Sarah Collinson explores the magical world of old fashioned sweets, from fruit pips and bootlaces, to sherbet dips and pear drops; and questions whether we’ll ever outgrow our childhood favourites
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e’ve all done it. I did it today. In fact, I’ve done it for the past three days and I’ll probably do it tomorrow. You head down to the corner shop at that terrible time of 4.30pm when lunch is a distant memory and supper is too far away to be of any comfort. You head purposefully for the ‘healthy’ section with those virtuous cereal bars, bags of trail mix and boxes of apples. You take one step; you take two. Suddenly, something shiny catches your eye and innocently turning to look, you’re confronted with an avenue of treasures – bags of Haribo, tubes of wine gums, twirls of liquorice, pink Starburst, yellow Jelly Tots and red Skittles. You stop. You look back at the granola bars. There’s a moment of indecision. Then you grab the fruit pastels, throw the money at the counter, trying not to catch the shop-keepers eye because you really shouldn’t be buying anything this childish while wearing a suit, and run for the hills. Everyone knows that children like sweets; they look pretty, taste sugary and are so brightly packaged that kids flock to them like magpies. A recent study from the University of
Washington even established a link between children’s sweet preference and their growth, claiming a biological need for sugar for the first time. This is a pretty convenient excuse for kids wanting to explain the fizzy cola bottles in their school bag but, unfortunately for adults, the study continued to say that this ‘need’ should reduce after the age of 16. It’s pretty much expected that, either by design or choice, adults should lose their childhood sweet tooth. We have no ‘biological need’ for sugar and it’s expected that our palates should have become more sophisticated, craving savoury delicacies and fine wines over a handful of dolly mixtures. More importantly, we know exactly just how bad sweets are for your health. The main ingredient of refined sugar has zero nutritional value (you may as well be eating the wrapper) and will build up as glucose until it is stored as fat. It plays havoc with your energy levels, causing fast boosts and big slumps which can leave you feeling tired, irritable, unable to sleep, and can even lead to serious disorders like diabetes. But the British adults still buy sweets by the ton. The UK is consistently the leading confectionary market
in Europe with each person buying an average of 26.5kg of sweets and chocolate each year. Although a lot is probably bought by children (they must meet that ‘biological need’ somehow) you cannot discount the persistence of the adult consumer. Some of us buy them to feel nostalgic or retro, and some to cheer up a dreary day. Some want a bit of harmless rebellion against the consistent expectation that we should always be ‘grown up’ and sophisticated, and others just love the taste. Despite the childorientated marketing and the