Sugar Fear: Myths or Reality

SUGAR!! – ANOTHER FEARED WORD IN OUR DIET DICTIONARY

The rumor mills running around sugar are so high, that it is disheartening to see how a simple ingredient is now labelled a killer!

Sugar is not the killer. The way it is being consumed in, is what is really killing us! Biscuits, pastries, cakes, chocolates etc are the real culprits where, other than the fact that massive amounts of sugar is used, there is an excess of preservatives, trans fats, sodium, emulsifiers and lack of essential fibre and minerals

Do you know the History of Sugar?

There are records of knowledge of sugar among the ancient Greeks and Romans, but only as an imported medicine, and not as a food. For example Dioscorides in Greece in the 1st century (AD) wrote: “There is a kind of coalesced honey called sakcharon [i.e. sugar] found in reeds in India and Arabia Felix [i.e. Yemen] similar in consistency to salt and brittle enough to be broken between the teeth like salt. It is good dissolved in water for the intestines and stomach, and [can be] taken as a drink to help [relieve] a painful bladder and kidneys.” (Ref – Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sugar)

To help heal seriously infected wounds, some surgeons have revived a 4,000-year-old treatment, born on the battlefields of ancient Egypt: they pack the depths of treacherous wounds with sweet substances like sugar. Sugar tends to draw water into a wound’s gritty midst, through osmosis. This action both dries the bed of the wound to promote new tissue growth and dehydrates the bacteria that cause infection, leaving them weak and fragile and thus reducing the pain. The granulation tissue is much pinker and healthier

Coming to our Indian Tradition – sugar is a component of our panch-amrit along with milk, honey, ghee and curd. Today we fear most of these ingredients, labelling these dangerous and carefully keeping away from them. But has it really helped? Or are the obesity rates still going up?

Sugar is not the killer. The way it is being consumed in, is what is really killing us! We eat enormous amounts of biscuits, pastries, cakes, chocolates etc where, other than the fact that massive amounts of sugar is used, there is an excess of preservatives, trans fats, sodium, emulsifiers and lack of essential fiber and minerals. But – why should we see that – all we hold onto is the sugar and blame it!

So stop blaming sugar, and look at the food you are eating. Examine it! Question yourself, Am I eating right? Will this nourish and nurture me?