We’ve all been there: you’re standing in the queue in a branch of a coffee shop chain, waiting to place your order. You’ve already decided that your belly doesn’t need a slice of the lemon drizzle cake or one of those cleverly designed giant custard creams, and you ask for what you do want: an earl grey tea, perhaps, or a small white americano. Plain and simple. No frippery.
PHOTOGRAPH: ISTOCK
But at this point, instead of a friendly acknowledgement and request for payment, there’s often an unwanted enquiry: “Would you like a doughnut/muffin/slice of cake with that?” Every time it happens I’m surprised – and cross. I have just walked past all these offerings. I have successfully battled with the inclination to purchase. And then comes the question, tempting me to change my mind, to give in to the voice in my head that seems to call eternally for a sugar fix.
This mindless pushing of sweet treats is more than a waistlinethreatening annoyance. I have to say I find it morally repugnant, too. I’ve spent much of my working life at the Fairtrade organisation and have seen first-hand the origins of much of the food we eat, and met the people who grow many of the ingredients we cook with. I’ve visited Malawi several times and I know that maize porridge is the staple diet for many smallholder farmers – and that sometimes there’s not enough of that to go round. These experiences have had a deep impact on me, so when I witness high-calorie food being thoughtlessly proffered here and there I find it offensive.