If you find honey, eat just enough – too much of it, and you will vomit (Proverbs 25:16) This proverb was written around 3000 years ago but applies just as well today. The author knew honey was good: in Proverbs 24:13 he says, Eat honey… for it is good. But he also knew that we can get too much of a good thing.

Today most of us don’t eat enough honey to make ourselves sick but what if we swap the word honey for sugar? That makes it a pretty modern observation. Sugar is good but eat too much of it and you’ll get sick.

Why is honey or sugar good? It is the number one energy source for our brain. It’s quick energy and it tastes good. But notice the beginning of the proverb. It says ‘If you find honey…’ Those blokes 3000 years ago had to search for their sweet treat. They weren’t bombarded with supermarket aisle after aisle of sugar laden foods. They didn’t walk down the street past shop after shop selling sugar – think ice-cream, fizzy drinks, muffins, cakes, lollies, thickshakes. When they ate roast chicken, it didn’t come topped it with a ‘finger-lickin’ sugar sauce.

The whole sugar issue has a lot of people asking a lot of questions. Is natural sugar better than added? No. Is brown sugar better than white? No. If a banana has more sugar that a chocolate biscuit, is the biscuit healthier? What about a fruit smoothie that has more sugar than a can of soft drink? Is the soft drink healthier?

Perhaps more than Christmas food, it’s the drinks that conjure the best Christmas memories. There was the wild year where a bunch of us each had to concoct a, mostly lethal, drink from a motley assortment of spirits, juice and mixes, then give it an imaginative name. Please note: Nutritionchic does not endorse this sort of degenerative behaviour! Then there was the Christmas in Western Australia, complete with swarms of flies, where we blended pineapple juice with tropical fruit and a splash of Midori – yum.

“Don’t give me any dinner this week,” my husband said to me. “I’ll just have your fruit drink.” What delightful words for any busy mum to hear: No cooking real meals for a week! Well actually I did still cook a little something extra for myself and my son. But fruit drink every night was a great way to start off November – the month set aside in New Zealand to promote eating ‘Five-a-day’. Five-a-day means eating five serves of fruit and vegetables each day. It’s not that much. A serve is one average sized piece of fruit, half a cup of vegetables or a cup of salad. For children, a serve is the amount they can hold in one cupped hand.

I’ve worked out that my fruit drink has about 11 or 12 serves and 22-24 grams of fibre. Split between three of us, we just about hit our daily 5-a-day with one large glass! And no wonder my husband doesn’t feel like dinner:

The Auckland Food Show is on this weekend. I went with a friend today. Here’s my take on it.

[tweetmeme]Most unusual food: Halfords Earth Gems
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Earth Gems are multi-coloured, bite-sized vegetables that ‘are the jewel of the South American Incas’. They grow like a potato but are from the beetroot family and have an earthy taste. You sure know you are eating something straight from the ground. I think they are an acquired taste! With all those colours they are bound to have plenty of antioxidants.

Most native Kiwi drink: Kawakawa Fire Tea

A caffeine free tea made from kawakawa, lemongrass and ginger by T leaf T. It’s packaged beautifully with a simple Maori design. A lovely present and it tastes great.

Food I bought today and have already used: Australian semi-dried tomatoes and Monin vanilla syrup

I used the tomatoes on pizza but should have kept them for a salad. They were too delicious to waste on pizza. I mixed the vanilla syrup with low fat milk for a delicious instant vanilla milkshake. I also bought Monin’s Chai Green Tea Extract to make Chai Latte – a sweet, milky alternative to coffee.

What I’ll use tomorrow: New Zealand Breakfast Tea

A black tea blended with manuka. It smells like honey but tastes like tea. It should taste great with grainy toast and honey for breakfast.

Best buy: Dutch Maasdam cheese

It was half-price – about $20 per kilo. I bought a huge chunk!

Most interesting food: Cherry juice that helps you sleep

This tart cherry juice is made from Montmorency cherries from Canada. According to the promotional leaflet these cherries have significant levels of melatonin which promotes sleep. It’s 100% juice with no added sugar or preservatives which is good. It comes in a concentrate which must be kept in the fridge or freezer to maintain its nutritional value.

Food that brought back the best childhood memories: Fresh walnuts

There was always a tray of walnuts drying in the sun at my grandparents. We would spend ages helping my Nana to crack them open. My grand-dad liked them dipped in icing. Walnuts contain alpha-linolenic acid (a type of omega-3 fat) so make a healthy snack, preferably without the icing!

Biggest trend this year: Anything with omega-3 in it.

There was flax seed oil, biscuits, pills for kids that taste like jelly lollies, and even smoothies made with flax seed oil. Parents seemed most enthusiastic about these foods. I just hope they don’t mega-dose their kids. Omega-3 fats are good and most of us could do with a bit more but as with all nutrition too much of one nutrient is likely to upset the balance of others. Also flaxseed, like walnuts, contains alpha-linolenic acid which converts to EPA (the omega-3 fat in oily fish) in the body. The conversion rate is about 8% so you need to eat quite a bit of flaxseed to get the same effect as a from a meal of salmon.

Most organised person

The woman who had a suitcase on wheels filled with all her purchases. She had already made one trip back to the car to unload and was on her second round.

Most popular stand

Anything with chocolate!