MIND OVER SUGAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 3 (Supplement)

MIND OVER SUGAR.

Satisfying the Sweet Tooth. (By M. J. SPARROW.) "The trouble with many a plump girl is her daily doesn't." However, as a convenient starting point in the cause of slininess, if anyone tells you it is absolutely no trouble to go without sugar in your tea, don't believe a word of it. If you are of the sugar persuasion, to break this habit of lon<j standing is an arduous affair. I say that feelingly. I have tried every method I have ever heard of and some invented myself and sugar won, hands down, in the end.

First of all, I took the hard way and cut it out altogether forcing the cup ot tea down with horriole grimaces. Kind friends told me they f«lt just like that at first but after a month "you quite lose the taste." I struggled along for three months and grew to hate the look of tea. I found that I gradually left more and more of the tea in the cup in unconscious revolt. That was getting me nowhere. Then I weakly compromised by gulping it down quickly like salts and popping in a sweet (just a very small one) afterwards. That couldn't last, of course. Several thoughtful friends tried to interest me in Russian tea, green tea, lemon tea, with and without milk, even coffee too, which is even more terrible unsweetened. Nothing was any good without my little bit of sweetness.

Then a new idea occurred. Perhaps this wholesale cut-out was too severe. Taste must be educated gradually. What about cutting it out for breakfast only, and have lots of marmalade to deaden the taste. This was good in theory but going back to sugar for other meals made breakfast a horror. I argued myself out of this by saying firmly, "Whatever else happens you are entitled to start the day with a decent breakfast at least. Everyone admits that, so I am quite justified in having a good cup of tea for that meal." Perhaps just half a teaspoonful to a cup would do the trick. This was a dismal failure too. Then I hit on the bright idea of drinking half the cup first, having my sugar full strength, in the last half. But this was a fearful nuisance because when out to tea it seemed so silly to explain, "No sugar, thank you. That is. not just yet, not till later, I mean."

About this time I thought it simply wasn't worth it. In disgust I gave it up entirely and drank milk and hot water, thinking I was keeping my personal integrity rather well. Not admitting defeat in any way, of course. But one day, after some weeks of this virtuous living, a kind friend told me I was getting plumper. To my horror I had gained two pounds. So I banished my traitorly milk and water and rushed back to sugar with a perfectly clear conscience. I have the best idea of the whole lot now. You put the "Ideal of Slimness" firmly in your subconscious mind and let it do the work for you and you don't have to go without anything. You take the idea out occasionally and dust it up and pet it a bit, but that is all. Isn't it too marvellous. Of course I always thought ideals were fascinating, haven't vou? So oasv, no bother at all. Perhaps after all ■is someone said. "There is a destiny that -hapes our ends, rough hew them as we may,"