The Beginning of a New Life?

Today I attended a talk which was most informative.

The speaker is a well-known pharmacist and he told us that the majority of us are consuming too much sugar. Asians have rice as their staple food while Caucasians would consume potatoes as theirs.

It was horrifying to learn that a bowl of rice is equivalent to ten teaspoons of sugar! He pointed out that taking into account the bread we consume for breakfast, and the teh tarik ( pulled tea ) we drink at tea time plus snacks of noodles and pau ( Chinese pastries ) the total is as high as 50 teaspoons of sugar per day!

He said that sugar is poison to our system and is the cause of metabolic syndrome. Today’s Star ( a Malaysian national newspaper ) reported that many children as young as ten years old, have been diagnosed as type 2 diabetics. This type 2 diabetes or Diabetes Mellitus is actually a disease contracted by middle-aged people, usually those above 50 years old. Fast food such as burgers, French fries, fried food and carbonated drinks are contributory factors to acquiring this disease. Anything that contains carbohydrates contains sugar. However, fruits contain a different type of sugar called fructose.

If we cut out sugar totally, we will have a healthy body. However habits die hard. We are so used to taking sweet stuff, or for that matter, noodles ( which also contain sugar ) that it will be most challenging to change this diet.

I guess it will help if we visualize the consequences of developing diseases such as diabetes ( picture kidney failure, dialysis, blindness, amputation ),

heart disease and high blood pressure ( picture being incapacitated by stroke, semi-paralysed, unable to speak coherently )

against the sweet temptations of the palette such as our favorite food, i.e. fried food, fast food, cakes and confectionery,

carbonated drinks, syrups, etc etc. So when will be the beginning of a new life for you, sans sugar?????