By You may be having too much of this, compromising your health
Name someone who hasn’t become obsessed with sugar and products containing the white feel-good stuff at one time in their life. I am no angel when it comes to sugar consumption. Before my bodybuilding adventures, I would consume four sugars with every coffee during the day — and I had more than one coffee. That was just my liquid consumption for the day — I didn’t even mention how many other sugar-filled products I ate as snacks. 3 pm slumps would never leave my side without some kind of candy or sugar-filled chocolate (or biscuit, for that matter). My workplace contained so many snacks it left me spoilt for choice. Goodness knows why I was not the size of a house during that time. The actual cost of sugar consumption is quite staggering. The economic burden of excessive sugar consumption in Canada alone is about $5 Billion per year due to the direct or indirect costs related to 16 chronic diseases. Researchers are begging for government intervention to educate, instil taxation and even subsidies to encourage the general public to adopt healthy eating habits. Covid 19 did enough damage by bringing us closer to unhealthy nutrition and physical exercise lifestyles. “If this factor is ignored, we could face a lot more instances of type 2 diabetes in the future.” Paul Veugelers from the school of public health mentions. Canada’s food guide and the world health organisation recommend we all costume less than 10 per cent of our daily energy intake as “sugar-free” from foods made with added sugar and naturally sweet juices, honey and syrup. So less than 5 per cent is a better choice. The Canadian Community Health Survey found that two out of three Canadians eat more than the recommended sugar rating above. Next, researchers established risk estimates for 16 diet-related chronic conditions, which included; Diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, kidney disease and lower back pain. The next step was to calculate avoidable direct health care costs such as doctors, hospitals, drugs, and indirect costs like loss of work, productivity, disability and possibly the inability to work. Treatment and management of these diseases account for 67% of all health care costs in Canada, which roughly fall into the price tag of about $190 billion. Researcher’s estimated that limiting days without sugar consumption could lead to 10 per cent less energy intake, reducing the occurrence of diabetes by 27 per cent. I can only imagine how much of a change the “ambitious request” to lower sugar intake towards the 5 per cent mark. Diabetes is a costly condition to manage and treat. It can occur when you are young and can be treated for many years. But, there are some awful sides to the story here, such as kidney issues, dialysis and amputation of limbs. There is also a cancer risk.My mother, who contracted diabetes because of her less than ideal lifestyle habits, developed pancreatic cancer. Her kidneys and liver were too weak, and she could not treat cancer, which may have led to an operation to remove the tissue. I wonder what life would have been like had she changed her destiny by making a different choice for nutrition? We all have the power to make that decision right now.
Here are some lifestyle changes you can make to stop the development of diabetes and other chronic diet-based diseases.
One: Eliminate sugar for good
Eliminate all processed foods, no added sugars or refined carbs. Focus instead on seasonal fresh fruit (pick berries as they are low GI) and vegetables, and if you feel like something sweet — munch on some dark chocolate or even have an egg for added protein.
Two: Be active
Being active — even something so simple as walking- can profoundly impact your health and well-being.
Three: Try fasting (check with your doctor first)
Fasting will help regulate your blood sugar, stabilise your moods, and decrease your risk of developing the disease. All you have to do is skip a meal per day. This small change helped my mother lose 14kg when she was first diagnosed with diabetes. We consulted the doctor first before proceeding, and she was not on any medications at that time — so it was safe to use lifestyle changes and fasting to get results faster.
Four: Be more conscious of your health
It’s essential to think of this as a lifestyle plan and not a quick fix. You must be very aware of the foods you eat and the activity you undertake every single day. Watch your portions, don’t give into biscuit temptations and junk food. Fill your body with the good stuff, and you will be disease-free and lead a better quality of life. Please feel free to read about this in the Canadian Journal of Public Health, 2022
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