Mindful Eating Begins Now: Why Sugar And Oil Are Under Scrutiny

Deep in our subconscious, we’ve always known that excess sugar and oil in our diets would eventually catch up with our health. But the real question has always been: How much is too much? And more importantly, how do we avoid crossing that line?

The alarm rang at the right time when the declining health standards of Indians has raised the brows of the Central and State Government. The Government has taken up the matter of rising Obesity and Metabolic lifestyle diseases like Type 2 Diabetes too seriously and is looking forward to adopting new measures to control it before it reaches the epidemic levels.

 Measures like putting up SUGAR BOARD by CBSE Schools has been made mandatory to raise awareness of WHO permissible sugar levels of not more than 25g /day for school going children. This has been done seeing the rising cases of Type2 Diabetes in young children. High levels of processed sugar provide empty calories, devoid of vitamins and minerals, without any nutritional benefits. Again, Sugar is considered inflammatory and can weaken our immune system.

Another objective is increasing awareness of reading food labels. This will help in controlling our mindless consumption of “hidden” or free sugar found in packaged, ultra-processed foods. The hidden sugar in such foods provides extra calories that are over and above the calories provided by the natural sugars (fructose, glucose, lactose) as fruits, milk and starchy vegetables. The natural sugars are beneficial as they do not cause sudden spikes in blood sugar levels. The sudden spiking blood sugar leads to insulin resistance in beta cells finally leading to inability to absorb sugar into our cells for energy. This causes Diabetes. Another cousin of diabetes, fatty liver (NAFLD) if left unattended for a long period of time can cause liver cirrhosis and liver failure.  

But sugar isn’t the only offender on our plates. Oil, too, has emerged as a major health hazard when consumed in excess or misused. Oil is an unsaturated fat and fats are most calorie dense macronutrient of food. There is another bane than boon. The extra fat stored increases our waistline and is a cause of central obesity. Moreover, the fat stored in between our organs (visceral fat) is more alarming and cause of diabetes and heart diseases Also, the quality of fats is often over-looked. Deep-fried and re-use of oils for frying foods as samosas, vada pav, jalebi increases the rancidity(oxidation) of oils increasing trans-fatty acids (free radicals) that causes sclerosis of arteries leading to heart failure.

Another such initiative of asking our local food brands to display the oil and sugar content, on common and most consumable street foods like Samosa and Jalebi is another essential step in this regard. This will make people aware and mindful of what and how much of these health bombs they are consuming.  

From a health professional’s perspective, it’s not just the quantity, but the quality of food that matters. These initiatives come at a critical time—not only for children, but equally for adults. We should see it as an opportunity to become more aware, more informed, and more intentional in how and what we eat.

news