Sugar Consumption and Long-Term Metabolic Health

Today I took a look at my tummy and I wasn’t very happy. Why because I have barely had time to exercise recently. The stress from my everyday my activities, and my poor sleep schedule coupled with my high dose of sugar, thanks to the tens of cups of coffee or tea I subject myself to everyday has led to me having a little belly fat.

I could give a millions excuses as to why I’m developing some belly fat but what I can’t deny is that I need to cut down on my sugar intake. Sugar has been a part of human existence for as long as I can remember. We take sure everyday, directly and indirectly because the body needs glucose which is found in the various meals and snacks we consume on the daily basis. It’s really fair to say we can’t do away with sugar in our lives, but what we can do is limit our sugar intake as individuals.

The market today is saturated with so many sugary foods that we can’t even catch a break from all these foods. If I’m to be honest, sugar isn’t just food in todays world, it’s a business model on which so many businesses thrive. What do we see in our schools today? Every morning, or what take their kids to school with bags loaded with the best of sugary snacks they can lay their hands on. It’s more like some parents today have a sweet tooth more than their kids as they seem to even pump their kids with more sugar than any generation has ever seen. And guess who’s benefiting? Our snack companies and businesses.

I didn’t grow up consuming so many sweets if I can recall. My mom had a very huge provision shop with anything you can think of. But what I took to school for snack break everyday was either a biscuit, some fruit juice and some fruit. On my good days, I got a toffee or chocolate bar to compliment the healthy snacks I had. Being the kid that I was, I would always exchange my snacks with my friends who came in with cheese balls and all those spicy stuff. I mean, I didn’t know much about these stuff then and so I was just trying to satisfy my palate.

Excess sugar can cause us more harm than good as individuals. In a world where the rate of diabetes, obesity,cardiovascular disease diseases and liver diseases are at an all time high, sugar is the one thing we all should make a point to do away with. It’s okay to satisfy your cravings once in a while, but consuming excess of sugary stuff every blessed day isn’t the way to go. There would obviously be always be a new biscuit , drink or sweet to try out, but remember too much of everything is bad and while you are busy putting your life at risk, you’re also filling up someone’s pocket with your hard earned money.

These companies don’t tell us the amount of sugar in the products they introduce into the market. Some even go as far as hiding such details just so their products can move faster. Either way, everyone is responsible for him or herself. But then, if there’s should be measures to regulate sugar intake, it would do us a lot of good in this era. I don’t really think it would be realistic to regulate sugar like alcohol because sugar is a part of our daily lives. Regulating it to a healthy standard would be the ideal thing to do at this point. In addition to this, educating people on the effects of too much sugar and its risks would also help thsi regulation be effective.

We wouldn’t want to look back ten years later and realise that we didn’t do what needed to be done now concerning our health. A step in the right direction would go a long way into changing the narrative.

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all images belong to me.

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