Oh Sweet Child of Mine

My 11-year-old returned from camp last night, suitably unwashed, exhausted, sunburnt, and an unnerving two inches taller.

She was gone for four nights.

If I was even a tiny bit mathematically inclined I could calculate what the growth span per day was. And perhaps I could work out just exactly how much of a wholesome diet of sweets, white bread and pudding an 11-year-old might need within that time span to achieve such a tremendous growth spurt?

I'm of course not really condoning an overdose of sugar to encourage a child's growth. Nor do I believe it aided her growth. Quite the opposite. But it's camp. We live in England. This is the deal. And I try very hard to accept it.

(But inside I'm quietly crying.)

Not because I don't think a bit of sugar is okay in moderation, but because moderate sugar consumption in the UK does not exist, and my daughter has a condition whereby it does her some harm.

I don't want to stop her from enjoying what her friends enjoy eating at camp, at parties, or at friends' houses. However, we are sugar-free at home and have been since before she was born. But it's a tricky balance, especially since her school practically throws cakes at her (in the misguided and outdated belief that a cake a day plus pudding, plus sugary snack etc. is okay). School is a veritable sugar minefield and could soften the resolve of even the most hardened sugar refusnik.

At the risk of sounding ancient, when I was a child, sweets were for Saturdays, and cake was for birthdays. We had one pudding a week. And sugar wasn't hidden in the pasta. In other words, sugary treats were exactly that: treats.

Sugar is now deeply embedded in our food supply and it takes a major effort to try and avoid it. The average Brit consumes 238 teaspoons of sugar a week - often without knowing it.

What we do know however is that we are a nation of sugar addicts and that sugar is considered to be the biggest threat to our health.

We need to control our sugar consumption so that it doesn't control us. Controlling my child's sugar intake takes monumental effort. And I certainly don't blame her. Sugar is addictive, and it's feeding her condition.

But after a 13-hour sleep she has awoken to a new dawn: four weeks of total sugar avoidance. She hasn't done this before. Even avoiding the Ketchup is going to be a challenge. But it's worth a try. For the sake of her health and general wellbeing.

Why four weeks? It can take up to four weeks for sugar to leave all the body's blood and cells.

This is unequivocally not a diet. Diets do not work. They are generally unhealthy. Plus dieting is another way of getting us all hooked - but just in a different way. This is quite simply an education. Whereby she gets to see exactly what happens to her body, to her energy levels, to her skin, to her ability to concentrate, to her mood, to her general wellbeing .. once sugar has left her cells.