Commentary: Want to fight the sugar problem? Start counting calories
SINGAPORE: I oftentimes ask my friends, "Do yous know the value of pi?"
The reply is immediate, "iii.14" as everyone has memorised this mathematical figure in school.
Then I ask, "Do you know how many calories you should consume in a day that will proceed your weight constant?"
I get blank looks and shrugs.
How is it that we all know how to calculate the area of a circle using pi, but we do not know how much nutrient we should be consuming daily to maintain a good for you lifestyle?
This ignorance of bones food nutrition is widespread beyond the earth. It is the root problem that needs to be addressed first in Singapore'southward war on diabetes and more lately, on sugary beverages. We will waste too much time and money fighting the surface bug, and later, wonder why the tide against diabetes is non turning.
READ: Why are nosotros so afraid to talk well-nigh obesity? A commentary
I am fully supportive of proposed regulations being mooted by the Ministry of Health. These measures that include banning and taxing some pre-packaged sweetened drinks, tightening ad regulations, and implementing a mandatory nutrition label on such production, can increase public awareness about the dangers of excessive sugar intake.
They may as well encourage food and beverage manufacturers to create more than good for you options if they want continued revenue growth.
Merely will people be any less ignorant of their consumption habits?
READ: Love of food, lack of activity leave Singaporeans vulnerable to diabetes, a commentary
Nosotros NEED TO START COUNTING
Any food nutritionist will tell you that preventing weight proceeds is as uncomplicated as eating as many calories as you would burn down in a day. Public wellness institutions often recommend about 2,000 kcal daily. But what type of meals should you eat in a day to keep within the limit?
Many Singaporeans do not know. Most do non realise that their daily combination of sweet drinks, pastries and hawker food hands exceeds this daily recommendation.
Regular practice volition do trivial to stalk the weight gain as in that location are besides many calories consumed to fire off. No thing how fast you push yourself, a 2.4km run only burns about 150 kcal, or the same calories found in a can of soft drink.
Common sense will tell y'all it is far easier to eat beneath your recommended calorie limit than to run many kilometers, but this is not common knowledge. Yet when people are told that they can count their calories using free fitness apps similar MyFitnessPal, the reaction is often "It'southward too difficult" or "Calorie counting doesn't work".
Put aside the excuses and give calorie-counting a shot.
With calorie-counting, yous will soon learn that your daily dejeuner of fried noodles and iced frappe contain almost 1,000 kcal, and that you're meliorate off with healthier choices like soup noodles and plain water.
Not SO Sugariness, BUT BY HOW MUCH?
Now let united states apply this lack of "calorie cognition" to the sugar intake situation here.
Vague labels used in anti-diabetes campaigns are not very helpful when we should be educating people on bodily calorie values.
Have for case if a consumer sees a packaged drink with the label "Not So Sweet" or "Healthier Pick", will he know how much he tin drink today?
Answer: The truly health-conscious will tell you to swallow zero-calorie drinks, or just apparently water (definitely aught calories). Whatever sweet drink should be an occasional treat, non a daily habit.
There are many news articles or infographics that point out the unhealthy corporeality of sugar in different drinks - this is nice to know simply not applied in real-world use.
READ: Sweeter than soda? The hidden sugars in bubble tea
So, why not but stick to providing calorie data and teaching people how to add them up?
IMPOSSIBLE TO REGULATE
At a dialogue session organised by the Ministry building of Health last calendar week, some attendees pointed out that regulations to cut sugar intake in Singapore should be extended across the food and beverages industry, not just on pre-packaged sweetened drinks.
While reasonable, information technology is impossible to regulate the thousands of nutrient establishments across the island.
Freshly prepared drinks such as bubble tea and coffee for instance are hard to regulate. This is apropos as both bubble tea- and coffee-drinkers face greater risks than they realise.
Coffee is bully for perking you up, just a pocket-size cup of kopi (coffee with condensed milk and sugar) contains almost the aforementioned corporeality of unnecessary sugars every bit a total can of soft drink. It is yet near calorie-free if you remove the milk and sugar.
(Trivia: If it helps you to kicking the sweet coffee habit, y'all can actually become wealthier if you end buying coffee from cafes and restaurants. Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary told CNBC that he would never pay Us$two.50 for java when it costs him US$0.18 to make his own. He would invest the departure.)
Practise WHAT COUNTS
Equally you have read, we go along coming back to the aforementioned root problem – if yous practice not know how to read or count your calories, yous will not truly understand the severity of the sugar trouble.
Furthermore, calorie-counting has as well proven to exist constructive in managing Blazon 2 diabetes.
According to Harvard Medical School researchers, excess body fat is the number one risk gene and losing as petty as 10 per cent of your torso weight can reduce your risk or even reverse Type two diabetes.
The most effective way to drib excess weight is to count your calorie intake and and then reduce it by 250 to 500 kcal per day with healthier nutrient options.
Losing weight is that unproblematic. Do not pay listen to fad diets or miracle cures when all yous need is basic arithmetic.
The good news is that cut back on sugary drinks and food does non mean depriving yourself of them. It actually is almost moderation.
READ: To eat healthier, start pocket-size.
About 400 years ago, a Japanese doctor (and also a trained samurai) named Kaibara Ekiken wrote in his volume Yojokun (Lessons on Nurturing Life):
Eating and drinking small amounts (of rich food) and savouring them will requite you the same pleasure as eating and drinking to total satisfaction, just without any sick after-effects. In all things, if you do them to total satiety, they volition surely turn to misfortune.
His key observation was that many people died young because they neglected techniques on how to take care of themselves.
Funny how little human nature changes. In the 21st century, nosotros are surrounded by an incredible wealth of helpful information and tools: Nutritional labels, fettle apps, wellness trackers and countless literature on weight management, yet not many make proper use of them.
All you need is to understand the concept of calories considering it is the universal measure everyone can agree on.
If Singapore could legislate that every blazon of beverage sold to consumers has to come up with a calorie label - information technology can be on the drink package or on the menu – this would resolve the tension surrounding chimera tea and coffeeshop kopi sales.
And so there must exist the political willpower to brainwash anybody from immature children to adults on the basics of counting calories. This is easier than learning the multiplication table … or the value of pi!
Simply legislation takes time. To fend off diabetes and many other diseases, don't wait for authorities regulations.
Just outset counting your calories.
Ian Tan is a marketing professional person, former journalist and writer of the volume Anyone Tin Lose Weight. By counting his calories, Ian lost 10kg in 2013. His 63kg trunk weight and BMI of 21.v accept remained constant for the past half-dozen years.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/sugar-tax-diabetes-sweetened-drinks-start-counting-calories-222101
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