SWEET SUGAR, BITTER LIES

SWEET SUGAR, BITTER LIES     

By: Balami Lazarus     

On one certain Friday afternoon, I was walking along the road on my way home totally broke looking dull but happy for being alive and in good health. Suddenly I overheard some young primary school pupils discussing, “my mother doesn’t allow me to take sugar but when she is not around I take as much as I need,” said one of them.

I looked at them and laughed and told myself that I was once like them.      I am not a sugar expert neither writing for National Sugar Development Council of Nigeria (NSDC ) but just  an attempt to dislodge some falsehoods on sugar and its consumption.   

Sugar has suffered on the tongues of so many Nigerians with scorn and negativity heaped with bundles of lies rendering the refined domestic sugar useless; a bad food product. But why?     Let me first take a stand regarding sugar intake before readers crucified me with their false knowledge and lack of understanding about these products. I totally agreed hands up that two much of everything is bad (very bad).     So many things have been said on sugar, especially the popular domestic sugar we know  and also use. Much said of are lies and linked to the cause of some ailments which are also not true and far from it.     

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Many out there have come to accept and equally believed what has wrongly been said on this product. The understanding of most people about sugar has long created a parallel line between them and the use of sugar.     Do you know that sugar is part of our food requirements which the body needs to function properly as a system because of the large amount of glucose in it? Glucose is a quick energy giving substance to revitalize and energize the body. I could remember when my siblings and I were given glucose powder to lick or diluted with water to drink for instant energy before the meal was ready.   

Nigeria is among the lowest sugar consuming nations in Africa and indeed the world. The question of ailments like diabetes and obesity need to be located elsewhere. “Sugar intake in Nigeria is relatively low compared to other countries of the world…unproven claims that normal sugar consumption could be responsible for health issues such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity are not true.”     

Our sugar per capita consumption rate has dropped since 2008 from 11.2kg to 8.6kg in 2013 and 2015. Looking at countries like India that have 19.8kg, the US 33.7kg while EU countries stand at 35.2kg. These figures of consumption are credited to the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) of Nigeria.     

The myths surrounding sugar and its falsehood have some space in the minds of medical experts (doctors).     There is the need to properly educate people on sugar and its positive impact on our body. Some illnesses are purely hereditary while others could be due to eating habits and lifestyle that probably goes with excesses in eating and drinking.     

Balami, a Publisher/ Columnist.    (08036779290)