A Sweet Habit with Bitter Consequences

A deep dive into the hidden dangers of daily sugar consumption and the need for more transparency.

At first I was confused, I didn't think alcohol was regulated at all, until I realized regulation doesn't necessarily mean placing a ban, it means controlling and warning. Alcohol labels often have age limits, warning labels, and public health campaigns that remind us of its dangers. Yet that sweet substance "sugar", which is present in almost everything we consume daily, is treated as harmless.

I remember years ago, my friend Lekan was a sugar boy. He had sweet tooth and would spend his allowance given to him by his parents just to have a taste of sugar. He often licks raw sugar directly which I found pretty weird. Some point in life, the effects started kicking in and he had to be put under insulin medication.

There was also a girl I used to know in high school. We were in boarding school and I noticed that she eats special food. Her food was always different from what we ate, I was confused at that time. it was later I realized she was battling diabetes so her diet was restricted. Years after, when she was in the university, we got news that she was dead. it was really painful knowing that diabetes took the life of such a young person.

🎯 The Sweet Deception of Marketing

Let's be honest.

As humans, we are often drawn to what we see. The aesthetically pleasing packaging of products tends to draw us to have a taste of its content. Sugar producing companies use this strategy to sell their products and would never want to put a disclaimer or adverse effect of consuming their products.

Recently, I looked at the nutritional information on a bottle of Fanta. The size of the bottle is 60cl, and the sugar content is given in "servings" and can be a bit confusing. The nutritional information on the bottle says that it has 8.9g of sugar in every 10cl serving and 22g of sugar in every 25cl serving. We can calculate that it has 2¼ teaspoons of sugar in every 10cl serving and 5½ teaspoons of sugar in every 25cl serving. Therefore, if someone consumes the entire bottle, they will have consumed approximately 13 teaspoons of sugar in one drink. Most people, like myself, do not drink only half of the bottle. We drink the whole thing. The nutritional information on the bottle makes it seem like it has much less sugar than it actually does. Therefore, it is important that more regulations and warnings are put in place so that people can really understand what they are consuming into their bodies.

💡 Note: Sugar does not have a warning like alcohol and cigarettes that says, “Excessive consumption will give you diabetes” or “Excessive consumption increases the risk of heart disease.” It is hidden in different names such as glucose syrup, fructose, and other weird names. Most people are consuming dangerous amounts of it on a daily basis without even realizing it.

It even hides in our cereals, diary and other packaged food we consume.

✅ The Path to Responsible Regulation

Regulating sugar the same way alcohol and cigarettes is regulated doesn't mean we should ban it completely. We can't because it's part of our diet and our body needs it to function properly. Regulating it should mean transparency and protection. Products with high level of sugar should be clearly stated in it's packaging and it's health risk.

Additionally, there should be a limit to the amount of sugar contained in drinks and snacks, especially those ones that the target audiences are children.

📌 The Power of Public Education

Education is also very crucial. People deserve to know what they stand to gain and what they stand to suffer from their choices. If alcohol requires warnings because of liver damage and addiction, sugar should require warnings because of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

In my opinion, sugar should be regulated in a similarly as alcohol because its impact on the publics health is too serious to ignore.

What happened to my two friends should not be common. With the right controls and awareness, many such stories can be prevented.

First Image Source

Second Image is mine

I Edited gif using Canva

✨ Hive Learners Prompt Week 203 Episode 01: SUGAR BAN

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