Esther’s prompt this week. Sweet or Savory?

This is what I wrote :

I’m having trouble with  diabetes because of my love of that sweet stuff called sugar.
I was sad and upset because of a bereavement and found sweets and cakes became my comfort. Instead of the occasional cake I became obsessed with buying myself boxes of chocolates, or sweet pastries or cream cakes almost every day.
Meanwhile I stopped eating as many savory things. I’m not eating enough vegetables and this has impacted my blood chemistry. So the point I want to make is don’t eat sugary stuff to excess and try not to get addicted to it. I’m trying to be good now…

Chocolate Brazil nuts

What’s your favorite candy?

Couldn’t find a photo of chocolate brazils.

My favourite candy (we don’t call it that in England). Is whole Brazil nuts with their shells removed dipped in a thick layer of dark chocolate.

I don’t have them very often, but I really enjoyed them at Christmas when I was a child. I think they are still for sale. The taste combination between the two ingredients is sublime. If you don’t have a nut allergy maybe try them?

Fruits

Oranges, pears and plums. Tasty treats. I might get some set Greek style yoghurt and have a sliced orange with my cereal in the morning.

Fruit is healthier than fruit juice because instead of giving your body a quick hit of sugar (fructose), it takes longer to absorb if you have the fibres of the fruit to digest to release the sweetness. I learnt to my cost when I was younger. I was drinking a lot of fruit smoothies every day. Very nice, but it affected my health after a couple of years of drinking them. It really is a case of everything in moderation.

We are lucky to have fresh fruit here, but not everyone can afford it. It’s cheaper to buy sweets or food with too much sugar added. A poor diet really is bad for you, but if you are poor it’s not easy to be healthy.

Oh dear!

I just saw my friend eat a packet of sweets. Out of interest, because I don’t eat things like that, I wondered what amount of sugar he had eaten….

It’s hard to see but seven sweets have 16.4 grams of sugar, and the packet contains seven servings. One hundred grams of sweets contains 61.4 grams of sugar.

But that’s not all, the actual weight of the packet was 143 grams. So approximately 100 grams of that was sugar…. Like eating a tenth of a kilogram bag of sugar.

This sweet fruity treat has the main ingrelisted first, Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Starch, inverted sugar syrup, etc.

What got me the most was we have a fruit bowl full of oranges in the kitchen. Why is stuff like this sold?

Sweet

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was sweet.

I tried to draw smarties (the British version of m&m’s?) but my shaking arm made for wobbling lines, so they are more like jelly beans perhaps? Then I had the idea of adding reflected colours on opposite sweets, but the colours are too dark. I also wanted to add shadows from various directions, like there was different coloured light illuminating the sweets, so blue grey shadow on one side and turquoise blue on the other. This could have worked better but I used felt pens again. And the sweets are egg shaped! Oh well I tried!

Sweet Tuesday!

Indian sweets at Nafees in Shelton, they look so tempting but I got some Samosas instead because I’m not really allowed a lot of sugar. I asked permission to take a photo. I used new felt pens and a new sketchbook… The start of a new adventure. #bandofsketchers prompt for Tuesday ‘sweets’

Sweets

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I just chose a random photo from last year and I’m going to use it to base a very short story on.

Sandra was looking for a gift for her friend. Something simple to add to a birthday card and a bottle of wine.

Ornate wooden corkscrews, crocheted scarves, silver jewellery, pots of chutney. There was lots on offer. Then she saw a sign which simply said sweets. The woman standing behind the stall had clearly decided to dress in harmony with her confections. A multi coloured tee shirt with a rainbow silk scarf round her neck. The woman’s hair was striped green and red. On her head was a straw hat painted with stencils of flowers.

She looked at the stand of sweets.. Blue hornet gobstoppers, orange nectar jems, cherry and liquorice twists. Burnt toffee with walnuts, pear and apple drops. Marshmallow wrapped in rice paper. They looked delicious.

Try one? Asked the stall holder.. She chose a caramel fizz bomb. Just hold onto the handle, said the woman and Sandra saw one attached to the top of the stall. She grasped the metal handle.

Suddenly a tingle went from her mouth to her brain, her arm went rigid and a heavy weight seemed to descend on her shoulders. Then her head cleared, she could smell lilac scent. Her ears started to foam! After that the fizz bomb gradually eased to a sweet caramel gently tickling her tongue.

I’ll have some of that she said, thinking of how her friend would react!