Get everything you need for the next few days,
I say, readying the shopping cart. What follows resembles a ritual that I could now predict blindfolded.
First stop: Fruit.
A few bananas, maybe some berries. Sensible. Then a brief pause at the candy section, a guilty smile, and a determined push forward with the cart. Demonstrating discipline, I think to myself. But then, with the unerring precision of a migratory bird heading home, she steers toward the beverage aisle.
And here it happens — the moment when the disciplined professional model suddenly transforms into a child in a candy store. Her eyes glide over the colorful bottles and fixate. Not on the water varieties, not on the teas. No, it's the direct juices, the freshly squeezed options, the "Green Smoothies" and "Vitamin Boosters" that exert an almost magical attraction.
"This one is great," she says, reaching for a 2-liter bottle of pomegranate juice, "full of antioxidants." I nod politely, while imagining how her liver must be nervously twitching at this announcement. A liter of pomegranate juice contains about 140 grams of sugar — equivalent to 35 sugar cubes. If I were to offer her 70 sugar cubes, she'd probably think I was insane.
Fuit Sugar
As she continues drifting through the aisles, I observe this fascinating phenomenon: The same person who just reverently felt up organic avocados is now loading liquid sugar into the cart without hesitation. Fruit sugar, yes, but sugar remains sugar, no matter how pretty the label.
I have to smile, because it was barely ten years ago when I stood at hotel buffets myself, annoyed by the ridiculously small juice glasses. I regularly put three of them on my plate — after all, I grew up with Hohes C and Uncle Dittmeyer's Valensina, deeply convinced: Juice is healthy! With Capri Sun and Punica Oasis, I honestly sensed even as a child that they might not be the vitamin bombs they were advertised as.
But orange juice? That was considered liquid gold for health. Until one day a nutritionist on TV explained that juice contains unnaturally large portions of concentrated sugar. My nutritional revelation came late, but at least in time for me to knowingly smile today at the sight of fully loaded shopping carts.
But I remain silent. Not out of indifference, but out of respect for the strange human ability to deceive oneself. Who am I to destroy this little self-deception? After all, we were all socialized this way — orange juice with breakfast, a smoothie after working out.
Checkout
At the checkout, the final tally: Two different direct juices, a green smoothie, and a pomegranate miracle cure. Together, about 4 liters of liquid sugar for two days of shooting. She smiles contentedly, as if she's just made the healthiest decisions of her life.
Back in the car, I realize: This little supermarket tour is a reflection of our collective nutritional confusion. While we meticulously count calories and fear carbohydrates, we carelessly slurp drinks that send our blood sugar levels on a roller coaster ride.
As a photographer, it's not my job to play nutritional advisor. So we drive to the location, she with her precious juice cargo, I with the quiet realization that marketing is sometimes stronger than reason. Tomorrow I'll take pictures again that radiate vitality and health — featuring a model whose liver is currently working overtime.