When I crawl out of the library after seemingly endless reading, the main thing on my mind is a sweet treat. I make my pilgrimage to the Lidl, or if I’m feeling fancy, M&S for a delectable treat to reward myself for all my hard work (by hard work I mean scrolling through reels and getting zero reading done, but you get the gist).
Sweet treats are a cheap pick me up, they may not be healthy but I’m not breaking the bank (or my tastebuds) for some flavourless, £5 bar of high-fiber, high-protein, one of your five a day mush that will last three joyless seconds. In the current cost of living crisis, the reward of a £4 pack of M&S cookies seems miniscule compared to the expensive items usually linked to rewards. I don’t have enough money to buy tickets to Rome for a quick getaway, but I do have enough for M&S cookies.
My philosophy is one shared with many, choosing cheap indulgences in financially trying times is becoming so common it’s even earned a name: The Lipstick Effect. This is when people indulge in cheap but uplifting purchases during recessions. Lipstick sees an uptake in sales, as a quick fix that changes the way your whole face looks. However, recently there has been a rise in sales for another quick fix: a sweet treat.
45 per cent of consumers in the UK cite sweet treats as their go to indulgence — so why is it still seen as something cheeky? Too much of anything is bad for you, but an M&S cookie isn’t going to kill you, so why feel guilty?
I’m privy to the odd comment about how much I eat — the “how do you put it all away?” after eating a chocolate bar, the “are you gonna eat all that?” after a slice of cake and the exasperated sighs after asking for a pack of Marylands at the shop. I know I’m not the only one that feels this judged, as 51 per cent of Britons feel under pressure to have the “perfect” body — leading to an unhealthy relationship with food.
This idea that a sweet treat is a calorific once in a blue moon indulgence is simply not true, as long as you have a healthy diet there’s no issue in it. We are students after all! We need a break in this tumultuous time, so have dessert with dinner tonight, get a chocolate bar with your meal deal and eat a cinnamon roll with your mates at lunch, it’s not a treat, it’s a normal part of daily life.
Now, if you don’t mind me, I’m trekking to Princes street for a pack of the M&S cookies I’ve been raving about. Not to reward myself for anything in particular, simply because I want to… and flights to Rome are out of budget just now.
Image by Luis Aguila on Unsplash