A while back I had a conversation with Panda (he is originally from London) about British food that we missed.  It was mostly a nostalgic reminiscence of biscuits and sweets because I used to have an awfully sweet tooth.  We talked about McVities Chocolate Digestives, chocolate eclairs, Turkish delight, Jaffa Cakes, After Eight Mints and a whole host of sweet treats.  It just so happened that his Mum was visiting soon and so he asked her to bring some of these sweets.  When she did come, I was given a lovely gift of Turkish Delight and After Eight Mints.

One of the main reasons why I am talking about this is because I have noticed that this farm lifestyle in Belize has changed my eating habits and palate.  With the After Eight Mints, I didn’t scoff them all down in one go…I am sure most people would never admit to this behaviour in their own blog!  I found the sugar content overwhelming so I ate one or two with a cup of tea now and then.  If I ate too much, I would feel thirsty and even nauseated.

I have reduced my sugar intake drastically over the last decade so my body is no longer used to large quantities of sugar.

Just to give you an idea of my sugar intake now: it is usually a teaspoon with each cup of tea and I usually have 2 cups per day.  As a general rule, I don’t often buy products, unless as a treat, and so I hardly eat any hidden sugars.  I don’t bake cakes and I don’t bake biscuits.  In fact, most of the sugars that we consume are in the natural form of fruit.  I am a not “health conscious freak” by any stretch of the imagination.  I like food and I like eating!!  Rather, my change in lifestyle has changed my eating habits.

As an interesting aside, we do get the feeling that sugar content of products are based on cultural wants and tastes.  For instance, we have had the ubiquitous Kit-Kat from many areas of the world.  The Asian Kit-Kats have considerably less sugar than the ones bought here in Central America.  Similarly, if we do buy biscuits (cookies), we will opt to buy British imported ones instead of the Guatemalan/ Mexican (Central America) stuff as, in our opinion, these biscuits are just loaded with sugar and have no flavour; we do not feel that ingesting this biscuit to get high on the sugar, whizz around for ten minutes followed by a major “down” is worth it at all!

As Doctors, we are skilled in the observation of other people doing this and we see it time and time again.  It’s amazing how many people don’t seem to recognise the physiological impact of eating such foods.  Instead, they just keep on doing it…if it goes on for too long…this is when you get diabetes.

Gnome always says, “…beware of the white  powder…”

He means sugar.

Anyway having said all of this, I am not actually trying to get anyone to stop eating what they enjoy.  Rather, food should be enjoyed…as life is enjoyed…but balance is required to achieve this.

Okay…now to the Turkish Delight which is what this post is about.  As soon as I bit into my first piece of Turkish Delight, I felt the sugar run into my blood and knew that my pancreas had kicked in to squirt insulin out quick smart.  It was a real sugar high; I felt my head spinning and my whole body going wobbly like jelly.  It was like doing some “extreme velocity sport” but my body wasn’t going anywhere!  These were my thoughts during ingestion,

“Arrrghhh!!!  Way too much sugar!  I used to eat this by the box??!!  Arrrghhh!!!”

Anyway, I did however appreciate the aromatic rose and lemon flavours and also felt that it was a waste not to eat a gift.  I thought that the intense flavour was lovely but surely there was a way to eat with fewer side effects?.  This is when I thought of cutting up the Turkish Delight into small pieces and baking a bread with it.  And I did:

The rose and lemon permeated through the dough to make a uniquely flavour-some bread.  In other words, it was good to eat!

If you want to make this at home, just add about two cups of Turkish Delight, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes (1cm), to your favourite bread recipe.

In conclusion, I think that this farming lifestyle allows a natural progression to healthier eating.  You become more sensitive to the things that you eat and in turn, you naturally stop eating crap!