Product Review: Haribo Candy, Shockingly Sour, Startlingly Sweet!

Isn't it funny how there's certain things you only eat at certain times of the year? I'm not talking about strictly seasonal food, either: not turkey at Christmas or Thanksgiving, not soft fruit during a brief season or Easter eggs at, well, Easter.

No, I mean the sort of personal ritual and habit where a particular food simply becomes indelibly associated with a particular holiday, time of year or event, and it would never occur to you to have it in the house otherwise. And yet when that particular time or event actually rolls around, you're always terribly glad, and say to yourself and each other, 'Oh nom nom nom, why do we not eat this more often?'

Think about it: there's going to be something! I think that, for me, one of the main things that applies in this category is candy, sweeties. Real pure no-nutritional value whatsoever sweets are something that, for most of the year, I try to avoid as far as is humanly possible. I mean, I think the clue is in the part where they have no nutritional value!

I try to think of my teeth and abstain: I mean, purely the highly refined product of the sugar cane or sugar beet, it's not going to do you teeth any favours, surely, right? (Although personal habits have to factor in somewhere, surely: xxxx et al have a an article in the xxx about 'rampant dental caries' caused by eating 'cariogenic' foods - and keeping them in your mouth. All night. Er, ick!)³

I make an exception for certain sections of the candy aisle: chocolate is okay on a fairly frequent basis, and not just for the obvious reason. (It's chocolate!) It has calcium from the milk, and monounsaturated fat, and other minerals and useful antioxidants.¹ That makes it pretty much a regular food, right, even if not a health food? (Oh please. Let me go on kidding myself: it's perfectly logical to me, at least.)

Liquorice is another food that I will make all kinds of excuses to myself about consuming. It's good for a sore throat! It's based on a natural product, not just sugar! I like it!²

That's pretty much it, really, though. But at Christmas, on birthdays, and any other high days and holidays, all bets are off. Bring on the no-vitamins, valueless, empty-calorie pure-sugar sweeties! Bring on the Haribo! Screw your face up eating the sours, gnaw on the foam bananas, feel the sugar fizz of the fizzy colas! And don't forget: save some for me!

1. SelfNutritionData, Candies, SYMPHONY Milk Chocolate Bar. http://nutritiondata.self.com. Published 2012. Available at http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/sweets/5404/2. Accessed on 24/08/2012.

2. Yakugaku Z : Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan 2000. 120(10): pp849-862

3. Namita, Rai R. Adolescent rampant caries. Contemp Clin Dent 2012. 3: pp122-4