The other day a friend of mine was telling me about his Aunty that was once nicknamed "Sugar Queen" because of her too much love for sugar. This lady do not mind putting sugar in her jollof rice to make it even sweeter, lol.
When you enter Aunty Nkechi's Kitchen, you would always be welcomed with a bowl of sugar sitting on the counter. Her zobo was legendary in the neighborhood because people always requested for bottles of her red hibiscus drink.
What they didn't know was her secret ingredient, because after boiling the zobo leaves with pineapple and ginger, she would add two full cups of sugar per liter, then taste and add more.
Let's not even talk about the amount of sugar she puts in her tea and pap. She literally puts sugar in basically everything because she believes it brings sweetness. Funny enough children loved her meals and drinks but adults always frown in confusion.
Everything seemed okay until she started seeing little signs like constant urination, say 5-6 times a night, she began feeling fatigue more often than normal.
She initially thought it was because of the stress and so she would buy soft drinks and put more sugar into it and drink it believing that it would give her energy.
But the signs even became worse as she began feeling very hungry even after eating twice as much. Her weight lost became very visible but she didn't realize the sugar consumption had surpassed it's threshold until she fainted on a sunday morning.
She was rushed to the hospital and after various tests, the doctor confirmed that she has Type 2 diabetes and her Blood sugar was around 380 mg/dL. This means her pancreas which controls sugar in the body is tired afyer working overtime for years.
Just like Aunty Nkechi, I was once a sugar addict and I love putting alot of it in my tea and drinks because I loved how it tasted. I never thought it was dangerous because it came from a natural source like sugarcane, but what I didn't realize was that Alcohol and Tobacco are both natural.
The truth is that natural or no natural, too much of anything becomes poison. Funny enough, many people are not fully aware of the dangers that comes with too much sugar. I am a sports person and I thought I needed enough sugar in my body to function well, but I just realized the body has a way of turning carbohydrates into glucose which the body needs.
I would not outrightly say sugar should be regulated in the same way alcohol and tobacco are being regulated because sugar doesn't pose a risk to public safety like alcohol and tobacco does.
However, we need reduction to levels the human liver can actually handle. Everyone should be aware of the limits of their sugar intakes, and industries should also reduce the amount of their sugar usage, especially for products directed to children.
We should also learn to read labels for ingredients and their percentage level so that we do not end up harming ourselves. For instance, adding suger to a coke that already contains 39 grams of sugar.