It's a, It's a Syn!

If you are not familiar with the Slimming World diet then you might be wondering what Syns are. You can read Slimming World's own answer to this question here but basically they are a representation of how bad for the diet a food is; it works out at roughly 1 Syn per 20 calories but other things are taken into account such as omega-content, the benefits of which balance out the 'damage' done by the fat content. (This explains why smoked salmon is Free on a Red or Extra Easy day but smoked mackrel isn't, btw). We are encouraged to eat at least 5 Syns per day but can eat up to 15 a day, or 105 a week . Slimming World are trying to make not being able to eat things fun 'n' funky by coming up with a tenuous word ('synergy') that they can abbreviate to make our Nutella-topped Coco-Pops* sound a bit sexy and naughty rather than disgusting and pathetic. 

The system does work very well, you already have Healthy Extras which you are encouraged to eat to ensure that you get enough dairy and protein (e.g, a small amount of meat on a green/vegetarian day or a small amount of pasta on a red day when you cannot eat many pulses or much starch) and Syns let you add to this so you can have- oh, I don't know- a G&T (4 syns if using slimline tonic) of an evening or clotted cream on your strawberries (4.5 Syns per tbsp). 


It also allows you to harness the power of Neil Tennant to help you resist temptation. I find him rather effective:

*Where were you then, Neil?