The vice we don’t talk about…
“when you feel that light grab in your soul ... pause and take a deep breath - then ask yourself this, ‘who do I want in control?’”
There is a war nobody is neutral in, yet most are unaware - this is of course, the war for your trolley. It sounds whimsical, but really think, isn’t the most effective assault the one that slips right under your basket?
Every step you take in a store is painstakingly crafted to coax your eye, pull on your heart till you concede a ‘Oh go on then’, or sigh a subtle ‘Hmmm I should get more’. You’d be forgiven for fainting into decision fatigue as you weigh up this or that, or maybe just a bit of this or perhaps just a bit more… So, like with most things, it’s simply smart to come prepared.
Now, at first the battle may seem a bit lob-sided, brands have pumped millions into the advertising arena, prime-shelf placement, refined formulas (notice I didn’t say recipe), e.t.c, e.t.c - but the crux of their campaign is simple, they’re betting on you making an emotional decision. They understand that naturally, we purchase with our feelings not facts.
But to live at the mercy of your feelings would be selling yourself utterly short.
The mirage melts
You may be wondering why that is, how can one manipulate food with mere emotions? Well, it’s because food is pleasurable. God could have made every food taste bland and samey, a simple bodily process like breathing in, thus taking no hold in our heart. But He didn’t. We have apples, crunchy, crisp and sweet, then spices of cinnamon, sweet but not the same sort of sweet but combined even sweeter still; it can become quite thrilling and even artful, which is where your fine-dining establishments and your bake off shows thrive. Not to mention, the variety within variety, just google how many types of apples there are. What a mighty God we serve! But like God said to Cain, we must learn to not let it master us.
So, now we see why gluttony is a sin; because food, though pleasurable, was never meant to rule us, just as sex, wine and sleep, though pleasurable also make poor masters. I saw recently it was said that addiction is a sign that we were created for intense devotion, but if directed to the wrong thing it is devastating and food is no exception.
Back to the war in the supermarket- I recently had an epiphany and it wasn’t pretty but it was pretty profound, for me at least. Picture this, one cool Saturday evening I stroll in Sainsbury, merry and ready for a snack to motivate my long walk home. Like clockwork, I breeze past the irrelevant legumes and fruits and saunter to my target, just as colourful but more attuned to my taste. I arrive, aisle after aisle, a sea of plastic, playful packaging.
I scope out the drinks but suddenly I see them differently. An artisan array of beverages: rich, royal red, bright and popping yellow, dark cola and every other colour you can conceive; now all blurred into one basic product, liquid sugar. In that moment it was like the anagram was reshuffled before my eyes and looking up I could no longer see a hanging sign that said fizzy drinks but something much less marketable. Intrigued, I continued to the next aisle ice-creams.
There I scanned the expanse - including the peanut butter cup Ben and Jerry’s I banned myself from but admire (from a healthy distance)- similarly, there was quite an eye-twinkling exhibition. This was until I rubbed my eyes and re-opened them to a second sad sight, this time the aisle is frozen sugar plus milk. Now, I turn back to the biscuit aisle, anticipating another revelation, this time I saw sugar avec flour; then I spot the chocolate aisle, sugar with cocoa.
If I was to sum up the experience, I would say it like this: after twenty odd years it was like the routine foods I found so comforting became overrated; a feeling akin to the sobering morning a kid wakes up to their tooth still under their pillow. It was the sinking simplicity of it all, everything was just sugar and co.
I couldn’t help but ponder, if they didn’t dress it up would it still hit the same? Do they know that? Is there a reason fruit doesn’t get marketed, mascoted, jingled and jazzed up the same?
It sounds silly doesn’t it, who would think to use a Tony the Tiger or a sponsored athlete to sell Italian kiwis. It wouldn’t work, right? Well, when a lot of your target audience consists of impressionable kids maybe a little creativity can do a lot and maybe it will stick with them till they’re adults and have their own kids.
For further context, in that year I had done sugar fasts, for a few months I forwent confectionaries, your fantas, marylands and the usual suspects. My teeth thanked me, brain fog cleared and my tastebuds changed, fast forward a few months it appears they changed back.
The harrowing thought in the supermarket I was left with was this: if sugar was all I was after this whole time, why do I dote only on the artificial, processed apple of my eye? Am I like Adam ignoring the garden of good food to gravitate to the food that sentences slow, but sure, death.
So where do we go from here?
I’m convinced the change needs to start with the way we approach food. From time to time, we feel that kick of our groaning appetite craving for food/chemicals we can’t begin to pronounce — mhmmm, delicious Acesulfame-K. But when you feel that light grab in your soul, standing in aisle seventeen, walking down the high street, or on day four of your New Year’s resolution, pause and take a deep breath — then ask yourself this, “who do I want in control?”
There is no easy path to that; it takes discipline. Self-control is a crucial quality that pays dividends for your diet. Some sicknesses are avoidable — your immune system can only work with what you give it. That goes for your cardiovascular, digestive, respiratory, nervous systems and more. So why make the job of the only body God gave you harder than it needs to be?
Secondly, do we really know what will make it easier? To some degree, I don’t doubt we all subconsciously know. Our bodies are alive; they react. You can’t deny the signals — if not in the moment, then the day after — with symptoms and consequences that follow. But are we really listening?
There’s a cost to ignoring your body’s warnings. Allergic reactions are one of the more severe signs, but there are several other ways the body sends messages about what you should or shouldn’t eat. I can only conclude that there’s a need greater than just knowing. Knowing the right thing to do and not doing it is a story as old as Adam. There were several signs that my changing tastebuds were signalling, I ignored them. Still, it is good to know more: once you know, you’re at least closer than someone who doesn’t.
I don’t blame the store and I don’t blame the brands (to an extent). Or perhaps the blame is more debatable, is our demand signalling to suppliers, ‘Make more of this and we will buy it’, or is it a rigged game, where we pay more than what we are willing. The answer is a bit more subjective than I can answer in one blog post. We know there is a disparity in the quality of food quality across socio-economic areas, that’s been studied and published. However, this was not such an area that would fit that trend, so what’s the reasoning?
It dawned on me, like the old adage in the entertainment industry ‘sex sells’ I realised in the food industry there’s another: sugar sells. Hence, more of it is always good…
for business.
It should go without saying I’m not perfect! There’s more I want to say but for now feel free to get in touch with your thoughts whether you agree or disagree. May God lead us to the truth.
Ade Adisa
May 18, 2026, 18:00 PM
