24 MARCH 1973, Page 26

The Good Life

Sour sweet

Pamela Vandyke Price

" They asked for beef and he gave them a crisp," is one comment provoked by the Budget. I suppose that the improvidence and greed implied by public demands for beef regardless might have been more justly punished by a sliced loaf of non-bread — at least a crisp gives the teeth something to do. But for . how long will teeth be accepted as normal eating equipment of the British?

Mr Barber's " Let them eat sweets " attitude has already brought from the British Dental Association the comment that the £110 million lost to the revenue from confectionery would have been more than enough to remove all patients' charges on dental treatment. Toothbrushes and toothpastes now are subject to VAT. A British Medical Association spokesman commented "While parents must welcome any reduction in the cost of living, it would be a pity if the Chancellor's proposals lead to an increase in sweet consumption by children with the resulting hazards to health and dental care." When did one ' live ' on confectionery?

The adolescent, worried about overweight and acne, and the elderly, substituting ' sweeties ' for food that can act as a preventive medicine, are equally at risk. The implication in much of the advertising for confectionery that perpetual sucking, crunching, chewing and munching is associated with social success, steady nerves and endless energy should be easily dismissed by the intelligent reader or viewer. But people who are in a state when they need a ' comforter' in the form of something to suck can scarcely be considered intelligent or invulnerable. "Do men always play with their mouths?" asks Mowgli, having seen smoking for the first time. Endless preoccupation with and exploitation of the mouth should be regarded as senseless and, indeed, as unnatural as endless preoccupation with any other orifice — unless, of course, you really would prefer to be a ruminant.

Various sincere persons inveigh against the excessive use of drink, sex, tobacco, dope or anything which, through a distortion of an appetite, injures or perverts the human being. Very few raise their voices against sweets. Yet sugar, which is naturally available in fruit, is the additive which masks deficiencies in foods as well as in wines, and which, taken in excess — and leaving aside health risks — blunts and distorts the palate as regards the keen enjoyment of honest food and drink. Those who eat sweets constantly are making themselves incapable of tasting anything except sweetness — and eventually I wonder if they are even able to enjoy a piece of confectionery or chocolate?

The use and enjoyment of sugar is like the use and enjoyment of drink, sex, tobacco and, I suppose, dope, about which I don't know. There comes a point at which enjoyment deteriorates into indulgence — after which one wants more and more, with less and less enjoyment. There are more complicated pieces of confectionery, more implied social assets by perpetual sucking and munching, more parks and beaches and landscapes spoiled by litter. Significantly, people who eat and drink with knowledge and appreciation seldom consume much confectionery — even though they may occasionally enjoy it. Which indicates that the bar of chocolate, the boiled sweet and the toffee are to the poor and uninformed what gin, tea and bread and scrape' were to our ancestors — a palliative in easily attainable form.

As there seems no reason why, subjected to the pressures of advertising, the soggy emotionalism of "giving the kiddies what they want" and the sheer cheapness of the product, the great British public shouldn't suck itself into euphoria with lollipop living, I can only suggest that the grateful confectionery concerns should donate the average weekly consumption of sweeties to the Chancellor and his advisers — and stand over them while they suck, chew, munch and mouth same. If they survived to compound another Budget, confectionery might be put in its rightful and taxed place. Meanwhile, anyone with a sense of responsibility towards the young, the feckless and the silly, should try to get them to realise that, if you must eat between meals, a piece of fruit, a handful of nuts or a chunk of cheese will at least give you something of value as far as nutrition is concerned. A succession of sweeties gives you — a succession of sweeties.