Fake San-Pellegrinos, the good and the mid [@NLi10]

 I do like having a San Pellegrino while out at the Italian restaurant - it feels more authentic even though it's just Orangeade (or lemonade).  So when the opportunity for discount versions at home arose I was happy.

Aldi sells both varieties in their Ridge Valley range - and while I can tell that they aren't the 'real deal' they are both nice enough that I shall continue to have them as long as they exist.

The pub yesterday had very few decent soft drinks - everything they had was just not that sugary. So I opted for a safe, but low cal, Fever Tree.  They are great at tonic, but somehow this just didn't hit the spot.

I had a much nicer grapefruit beer instead as my second - it was only 2.5% but because it's alcohol they can make it as sweet as they like without the Police getting involved.

I wish they'd stop ruining social drinks, otherwise I'll have to go back on the bottled water.

Putting Jam in things - Krispy Kremes & Mochi (@NLi10)

 Japanese sweets can be scary as the flavours are not what westerners expect.

This cheerful person is wearing a strawberry which is good news!

The back hints at a gooey centre.  This could be good.  

I think this is a mochi, and it's so soft and light and fluffy.

And look at that! I didn't dare bite further in to try for a picture as it was already trying to bust out.  Strawberry rice cake with very sweet strawberry filling! result.  Apparently this came from WingYip so I'll be acquiring more soon.

And what's this - some filled doughnuts?  At train station prices?!

These are the ones I got to eat.  The one on the right is the normal strawberry filled one.

But the left...

Also filled - but with raspberry! granted you don't get as much, but this is probably a more acceptable portion.  I wouldn't know as I ate both while waiting for the train.

Lovely flavours all-round, but I do miss the days where these were a little more affordable and less of a super special treat.

Unicorn Rainbow Hoops and other sweetness (@NLi10)

Whats the best thing to get kids sent out of class before break-time?  SUGAR!

How can we get them to eat more sugar in the morning? UNICORNS!

I mean, these are a lot better for you than the good old days - they don't have anything artificial in them so they have the colours of those rainbow rock sweets, but they still have a red sugar warning.

Note that I've mixed them with lovely bite-size shredded wheat so that I can have a semi normal attention span at work.  But how do I survive the afternoon sugar crash?

Here we have a good exmple of the things I keep in the work freezer. Skittles Ice Lollies.  Well - actually its a hybrid. Ice on the outside, ice-cream on the inside, and little crispy bits of skittle shells throughout to add some texture.  It's actually the best thing in this review - but I didn't try these til the end of the summer so it's not that seasonal.

How about we wash this down with some import orange vanilla coke?

The corn syrup lobby is at it again, making American stuff taste odd.  This is essentially just Mezzo-Mix which is very confusing as that itself is just Coke and Fanta together.

All in all a very hyperactive day!

FizzFreeFeb - is it a good idea? What about cider? (@NLi10)

There is a new initiative int he UK to help with the epidemic of childhood obesity called FizzFreeFeb.  Essentially they are encouraging children to cut out all fizzy drinks for 28 days and see what happens.  It's an interesting idea, and if the parents have just finished the alcohol free January thing then it's probably fairly easy to enforce.

But should we be joining in?

I tend to join in with the Public Health initiatives whenever I can.  Late on the 31st I had my last fizzy drink - a 'rare' blue Fanta (it's grapefruit so looks like lemon Fanta if it's not in the bottle).  I dislike real grapefruit but this is zingy enough to be fun.

First weekend of Feb I find myself at a show (Fight Club Pro for people who like the wrestling) and usually I'd have three cans of Pepsi (total 108g of sugar & 405 calories).  Instead - for the health and sugar reasons I switched to two cans of Dark Fruits.  Do you think I cut down by doing this?

Despite drinking 880ml of the stuff over 2 cans - and it being sweeter than the regular Strongbow - there is actually 35.2g of Carbs here - most of which is probably sugars.  That's basically a third!  Granted the total calories is 352 because of the alcohol content which is still a touch lower, but due to oxidative priority until the alcohol has gone from your system your body isn't going to even begin to burn that sugar off. Oddly though this was the lower-sugar and calorie choice.

The following day we were out on an RSPB reserve watching the birds skate around on the frozen lake.  Afterwards I decided that I really felt dehydrated so cheated and picked up a sparkling drink to go with my tea and two little (very good) snack bars.

As this is almost a Fentimans quality drink I assumed that it was closer to the low end of the sugar range with all the flavour coming from the other bits.

Here, if we factor up to 330 ml like a can of Pepsi we have 132 calories vs 135 and 32.67g of sugar vs 36g of sugar.  So all things considered they are basically what the Pepsi values are.

Fentimans itself has 7.8g of carbs per 100ml which is 25.74g per 'can' of 330ml, which is lower again, but still a hefty amount.  The sweeter Cherry cola seems to contain the same amount which is surprising (it was higher before the sugar tax).

I think that as an adult I won't be fully participating in the FizzFreeFeb, but for the sake of my teeth and waistline I may cut back a little and switch to just having more tea (without sugar of course!)

Unicorn Slices (feat. New Day) by @NLi10 and Mr Kipling

Here we have some Mr Kipling Unicorn Slices - and seeing as I was going to a Wrestlemania party i chose to eat them during the New Day match because they love unicorns too!

Here we can see the huge projector screen and the New Day entrance, featuring unicorns and pancakes.

There are even little people dressed as pancakes handing out pancakes - maybe I brought the wrong snack!

Turns out you can't really see food if you take it's picture in front of a projection screen.  This isn't ideal.

Luckily we had one left to take home for a decent shot.

Note the penguin themed scamper-pants.  These are your standard Mr Kipling slices - basically pure sugar.  At first I was upset they hadn't hid any kind of flavour in there, but then I realised that unicorns probably taste of pure sugar anyway.

If you want hyperactive children then get these, otherwise you can probably pick up other versions that have a taste too!

Rowntree’s 30% Less Sugar Randoms / Fruit Pastilles [By @SpectreUK]

After two years of painstaking research Nestle have brought out new 30% less sugar versions of Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles and also Rowntree's Randoms. Achieved by increasing the level of fibre with even more fruitiness to an amazing 100%, these new pastilles and jellies sweets have fewer calories, so decreasing the guilt and they still have no artificial flavours, colours, and sweeteners. The only thing bothering me was on the front of both packets it stated; "Love to share", and I'm far too greedy for that!

Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles

There are five flavours and shapes of sugar coated pastilles (see photograph). The rounded Orange pastille has quite a sharp orange flavour and made my mouth water. The slim dark yellow Lemon slice is a mild sweet lemony flavour without being sour. Whereas the triangular pink Strawberry flavour has a very fruity tang to it, and suddenly became my favourite on first try. The green oval Lime flavour had a mild sugary sourness and was slightly more tart than the Lemon pastille. The diamond shaped Blackcurrant flavour immediately trounced the Strawberry on flavour and restored order becoming my favourite fruit pastille, which has always been the case where Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles are concerned. Blackcurrant for the win!

Information on the packet;
The 110g packet recommends 12 sweets per serving, which has 117 calories, 1% trace of fat, 14g of sugar and 0.11g of salt. Please photograph for ingredients.

Rowntree's Randoms

There are loads of different shapes in the packet, from pink sundaes, to yellow Big Ben's, green palm trees and orange chess pieces. It's difficult to know where to start, so I attacked a purple foam snowman and was rewarded with a slightly raspberry fruity flavour. The orange multi-shaped jellies were a tart natural orange flavour, some having foam as well which enhanced the orange and with a little vanilla. The blackcurrant jellies and their foam sided friends all had a fruity natural blackcurrant, with that touch of sweet vanilla from the foam. The yellow foam rocket had a slightly sour fruity flavour. The green jellies were like biting into a sweet apple. And then came the strawberry and raspberry busting foam bottomed cakes which oozed fruity goodness from the initial bite. These Rowntree's Randoms delivered fun with there many shapes and assorted flavours, and natural fruitiness in shovels. Mmm… fantastic!

Information on the packet;
The 110g packet recommends 9 sweets per serving, which has 106 calories, 1% trace of fat, 12.9g of sugar and 0.02g of salt. Please photograph for ingredients.

Malt O Meal - Marshmallow Mateys - Asda (by @NLi10)

Ah America. Land of the big burger, and the home of the sugar. Occasionally we get USA products show up in our supermarkets so don't have to pay the ludicrous import prices.  Asda recently started stocking these Malt O Meal - Marshmallow Mateys.

In the UK we don't have cereals like this, with marshmallows in. We used to get Lucky Charms but the fun police (and poor sales) killed them so they became five pounds a box.

This looks similar enough to me.

Already though the lies and suspicious things are occurring.  Green and purple food, and making them huge on the box isn't a great start.

Let's see what's in them.

Look at all those vitamins - must be good for us right!  Why does nothing in the top section have an RDI? Never mind - look at the colours on the back...

And they are helping families - the box says so!

I thought MOM branded products were made up for Futurama - turns out it was a parody! Who knew!

At least they have a sense of humour about it - anchors and pirates are fun for all.

It's a delicious treat at any time of the day. Only don't have them right before bed like I did.  That was a mistake. Funny colours and lots of sugar don't make for a restful night.  The taste was fine if not a little sweet, and the texture was nicely familiar too.

But about that sugar...

This is normal Kellogs Cornflakes. Note - we don't put the RDI for the top half either - we are just as bad in the UK.

A surprisingly similar number of Kilo calories (113 vs 114), but how does the sugar content compare?

12g vs 2.4g (3% of daily) - so one 30g bowl is 15% of an ADULTs sugar allowance for the day? It also means that the cereal is 40% sugar.

And my portions - closer to 60g - which means that this is 30% of my sugar for the day.

I should note that I saw a lady at the bus stop with three boxes of these in a bag.  Maybe it's one of those products that sells out fast.  Maybe it's just a bit much for a supposedly healthy meal in the morning that they are providing free to poorer families!

Yes - it tastes great, and yes you can moderate portion size (or stick a handful in with a healthy cereal) but this really is a bit much considering the issues people are having with food.  The American packaging doesn't include a guide to how much sugar should be consumed, and the U.K. one is bad enough at suggesting what should and shouldn't be consumed (who knew plain cornflakes had 113 Kcalories in a tiny portion?).

Breakfast is marketed hard as being healthy, and starting the day with nutritious carbs isn't all bad, but this all needs to be a bit more transparent and sugar needs to be more obvious.  

Ed: KJ/KCal confusion fixed!!