My Strategies For Combating Excess Sugar Intake
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Nowadays it's rare to see a person who is fifty and not diagnosed with the issue of diabetes or high blood pressure. It's almost like a norm.
The average Nigerian citizen's meal is 80 if not 90% carbohydrates which are composed of sugar. Imagine a person consuming these things for decades, even without diagnosis, one should expect a huge side effect.
I know that some of those ailments can be inherited but in most cases, we invite them upon ourselves through our carelessness.
Processed foods have become a problem for many people. Nothing is wrong with processed foods, don't get me wrong. They are good but we should control the rate at which we consume them because of the kind of sugar and preservatives they contain.
No one hates sweet things, sugar tastes good and I love it too but since I discovered that it has a very bad side effect if consumed wrongly, I began to take caution.
I will be honest, we can't escape sugar, most of our foods contain it. In fact, in this part of the world where majorly our food is carbohydrates, it's just like a must to consume sugar daily.
But the good news is there is a way to consume them without getting affected negatively. Below are my tricks.
Firstly, What I do often is ensure that my meal is well prepared by putting all the necessary things in order to make it balanced. You might say the economy is bad, yes but you don't need to spend so much to make your food balanced.
Vegetables are cheap in the market, we can even cultivate them if we want. If you don't have money for meat, crayfish is there. I can go on mentioning a few other cheap things that can make your food rich and you would be amazed.
My mom is surprised about how I stopped consuming sucrose (table sucrose) recently. How I did it was not magic, I made a deliberate decision to stop and I did. I have been making my tea with little or no sugar at all. Here is my reason, bread is already sugar, the milk too contains sugar, what in the world am I looking for again?
That extra sugar we add sometimes is not even needed by our bodies. It's just our cravings and desires for sweet things that are deceiving us.
I forced myself to reduce the rate at which I consume soft drinks. I take them once a week or even two weeks. I wrote at a certain time about how much I love Nutri milk. Well, I can't even tell you the last time I took it. I replaced it with fruit. Do you know that fruits are even cheaper? Nutri-milk costs five hundred and fifty Naira in my place but I can get a slice of watermelon for 300 Naira and enjoy my life without worrying about any side effects.
Regular exercise is also another way to control sugar, as we exercise, instead of sugar accumulating in our bodies and remaining dormant, it gets burnt off and used as energy. We can't deny the fact that we also have some measure of sugar in our bodies, leaving them there is not the best option.
I don't joke with little workouts at home. Every morning, when I wake up, I ensure I either push up or do my regular sit-up. Previously I used to go out for jogging but I have to stop because of security reasons. Our health is very important, it is high time we take a bold step to ensure we guard it. The same food we eat to survive can be the reason for our death if we don't consume it the right way. Sugar is sweet but trust me, it's your worst enemy.
