YOGHURT

The other day I was performing another magnificent stroll through my local supermarket and found myself down the aisle which had a bank of refrigerated displays on either side. One side was completely stocked with various different types of yoghurt or similar deserts. The other side was completely stocked with various different types of butter or margarine. In that moment I was transported back to a much simpler time when I used to go shopping with my mother as a young lad every Friday evening. I was one of four children and we all really enjoyed our food, so this expedition was always greatly anticipated, as we had usually eaten the cupboards and fridge almost bare by about Tuesday.

I am pretty sure that in those simpler times, you could only get one kind of youghurt. It was called yoghurt. There were three flavours available: strawberry, peach melba and black cherry. There were two brands available: Ski or Prize. Ski was the best. Then there was the supermarket's own brand (which was just like Ski, only really horrible). On the other side of the aisle there was a much smaller choice too. There was butter or there was margarine.



This memory raises a few questions in my mind. 

First of all, in the time when there were so fewer choices, how did they fill the shop? I am pretty sure the Sainsbury's supermarket where I lived near Cambridge was the same size then as it is now. And it isn't just yoghurt and margarine either. Bread, shampoo, pasta, snacks, biscuits. In fact, this trend has taken place on pretty much every aisle. So just what was the supermarket filled with in those halcyon days? 

Secondly, is all the extra choice actually beneficial to us? The many and various new yoghurts and spreads are often sold to us with the promise that they will bring health benefits. Low fat, low in saturates, low in calories, probiotic, cholesterol lowering, organic etc etc. Yet a quick glance at the national health statistics reveals that back in the good old 1970s we were facing far fewer health problems as a nation as we do now.

Could it be that it is just an ever increasing spiral of brand hypnotism, presenting us with so much colour and choice that we lose the power of rational discernment? Could it be that most of the claims made by these brands are in actual fact a load of old bollocks?