Below is an article sent to me by my cousin, written by a Dubai based writer Neerja Singh, it is a must read. This is especially for the PRG’s “phoreen” resident Goans, whose kids literary live on junk food, juices and sweet drinks. Ye, all you Goans sitting in Toledo, in your cozy comforts, if you’ll cannot go down to Goa and do anything for Goa, at least do something for your own kids. Could the Doctors on this forum shed some light on the seriousness of this article below:
What is the one thing every dieter knows must be cut out completely if he/she is to make any progress losing weight? Sugar. Lack of sugar is the one reason Eastern nations like Japan and China had the healthiest people in the world till they too adopted the sugary fads of the West. Those who do give up sugar typically lose several kilos in eight to 10 weeks, have lower blood pressure, better lipid profiles and reduce their risk of Type 2 diabetes and coronary diseases by a good notch. Anybody who thinks these so-called ‘lifestyle diseases’ are not directly related to sugar should sit through Dr Robert Lustig’s 90-minute presentation on “Youtube”. Dr Lustig is a Professor of Paediatrics at the University of California and has been working with obese kids for several years now. He has collected extensive data from innumerable studies proving that sugar triggers a number of deadly diseases. Ever since the full horror of his findings dawned on him, he has set out to educate the public while campaigning for governments to regulate the sweet, white stuff just as they would regulate alcohol or drugs. Yet sadly, sugary foods are some of the cheapest on the supermarket shelf, regarded as ‘treats’ by most of us — and worst of all, easily given to those most susceptible: kids. With sugar prices now rising across the world and producers in the UAE looking at revising prices upwards, I wish prices increase drastically enough to deter us from stocking our homes with juice, chocolates, cookies and ice cream and dishing them out to children without thought. I am joining Dr Lustig in educating more people about the true effects of sugar consumption, and in appealing to the UAE government to heavily tax manufacturers of sugary foods because they will direct impact the cost of healthcare the nation will have to bear in 20 years’ time — or even sooner. If you’re rolling your eyes at what sounds like lurid exaggeration, try and get this: just a hundred years ago, human beings got all their sugar naturally from fruits and vegetables, honey and syrupy saps like maple. At the time, the average human ingested 100 grams of fibre per day and only 15 grams of sugar. Today, that number has reversed and we consume an average of 75 grams of sugar, with only 10 grams of fibre. It is this drastic fall in the fibre content of our diet that is causing much of our problem, along with lack of exercise and too much carbohydrate. Fibre is more than just a brush for our alimentary canal; it plays an important role in making us feel full, speeds the food down the intestine decreasing the uptake of carbohydrates, a natural antidote to sugary foods like bananas. One of the most important — but not widely known — effects of fibre in the diet is that it inhibits the absorption of free fatty acids, which are metabolised by colonic bacteria to short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) — which increase the production of leptin, also called the satiety hormone because it signals to the brain that we have eaten enough. Dr Lustig has proved that when we consume too much sugar and too little fibre, our system loses its capacity to trigger leptin, which means we eat more than we should — yet do not feel full. In innumerable studies conducted by him, children who were given a can of coke and then left loose in a fast food restaurant actually ate more than those who did not get a drink. Understanding how exactly sugar is responsible for triggering this deadly apathy needs a bit of a trudge through the biochemistry of how sucrose or fructose are metabolised by the liver, but the fact is that as a society we urgently need to stop poisoning our children with all artificial sources of sugar. Governments too need to recognize that sugar is more than just empty calories: it is highly addictive as any sugar-junkie knows and is single-handedly responsible for triggering many of the deadly diseases we are grappling with the world over. Lifestyle diseases are set to add billions in healthcare bills in the next 20 years — yet there are no controls on the deadly substance. The Isomil brand of formula milk made for infants, for example, contains 10.3 per cent sugar, where coca cola contains 10.5 per cent. No wonder for the first time in history we are seeing obese six-month olds! Paediatric Type 2 diabetes is on the rise, forty-year olds are keeling over from hypertension and coronary diseases and insulin resistance has become commonplace for the first time in human history. Unfortunately, the last 30 years of health information have only made matters worse, after we were told that we needed to cut dietary fat to have healthy hearts. We did cut dietary fat — but at a price far higher than we realise. Today our world is full of invisible sugars hiding in bread, pretzels, sauces, juices, even things we would not normally expect sugar in — because it increases palatability of a low-fat food, and prolongs its shelf life. Since the eighties the dieting industry has ballooned — as have individuals. And still coronary diseases keep rising, and on average we weigh 25 lbs more today than we did 50 years ago. The irony would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous: we have been trying to avoid fat to get healthier, while eating the very thing that is making us seriously sick. Dr Lustig’s approach when working with his young obese patients is simple: get rid of every sugary food in the house; eat carbs with fibre (ie fruit, not fruit juice); buy TV time with play time and wait 20 minutes before second helpings. It works each time. Regular exercise and even a few weeks without sugar can start to reverse the effects of sugar toxicity: skeletal muscles become sensitive to insulin again; exercise naturally releases stress which reduces hunger pangs and the addition of fibre to the diet gets their leptin signalling system functioning again. If we don’t immediately start implementing the same in our homes, imagine the double plight of the next generation: not only will their own health have been compromised because of lazy, apathetic parents too time-pressed to make an effort — but they will also not have the skill set to raise their own children to live healthy long lives. Neerja Singh is a Dubai-based writer Freddy Agnelo Fernandes -------------------------------------------------------- The content of this electronic communication is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed and any others who are specifically authorized to receive it. It may contain confidential or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or otherwise placing reliance on the contents of this information is prohibited and may be unlawful in certain legal jurisdictions. 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