Guwahati Bytes: Sugarcoated

Rituparna Goswami Pande

So I cowered to the anti sugar campaign on social media, yes every time I scanned the sites there lurked a hate article about sugar. Diabetes runs in my clan hence I won't say I am not weary of it. I am, in fact I am running scared.... Scared cat is my middle name! So when I read this piece about a 70 year old woman who looked like a nymph from Indra’s cluster of heavenly beauties, and not a day older than 25, who had allegedly eradicated sugar from her life since her 20s..... I oohed and aahed about her shapely figure....

I too wanted to be like her when i grew old and grey, like her I pictured myself as a grandma who would go swimming with her grandkids, I harboured a secret desire to be that super grandma who would run and jog and do back breaking asanas, take laps around the park.... those images of an elderly future me frolicking like a supermodel buoyed me to grow waxen wings for an impossible flight of fancy where I shunned the wily and monstrous sugar, the catalyst of all maladies....

But soon I crash landed with a thud as soon as hubby placed a perfectly rounded, besan ka laddoo, loaded with some thousands of calories.... which I immediately bent over caring two hoots about… what was that now? Oh yeah, sugar levels and lovingly picked up the heavenly sweetmeat and swiftly delivered it straight to my parched lips and finished it off within seconds....

My super grandma dream shattered into smithereens of fragments as my heart... sang, sugar, sugar.... honey, honey... as I followed the Pied piper of saccharine land... those images of myself in a slim and svelte grandma avatar disintegrated into bubbles and got replaced by the image of my garlanded photograph hanging in my future grandkids’ room...!!!

On a serious note, it is imperative that one banishes sugar from one’s diet to keep numerous illnesses at bay. Sugar is known to be the root cause of many unsavoury issues. Reducing sugar intake has a lot of health benefits and the number one is to prevent Diabetes. An excess of sugar leads to weight gain therefore those struggling with weight issues need to heed the call of shunning sugar. Apart from blood sugar problems, increased risk of heart diseases, Acne, depression and also increases the risk of cancer

etc. Scary isn’t it? All our life we have been hobnobbing with the enemy.... celebrating successes with sugar in the form of sweets, drowning our sorrows of heartbreaks with scoops of sugar in ice creams or just indulging in our sweet tooth whenever we felt like it. Little did we know that we were harbouring an enemy in the guise of a favourite friend!

Now is the time to kick the habit that threatens to take over our lives. Did you know that sugar tricks your brain into wanting more and more of it! It is recommended that one should not be having six teaspoons of sugar a day. In fact I think that love for sugar is directly proportional to the health benefits of avoiding it.

Avoiding sugar lessens the signs of aging.... need I add anything more? Don’t we all wish to look young? Less sugar means more energy, and you can bid adieu to your belly fat once you cut back on sugar... I am tilting towards a sugar free diet now that I have realised the power of the anti sugar campaign.

But it isn’t easy. Sugar is too powerful an enemy to give in without a fight. The strongest of wills have been powdered by the lure of this white devil. For it is the brave of heart who have the courage to pass by a dessert counter or a bakery without realising that their footsteps have automatically led them towards the goody counter. And the actions of choosing a sinful pie or a sugary pastry, licking away every morsel and happily exiting the crime scene becomes too hazy and blurred to tug at one’s conscience, sigh! That’s the power of sugar... the one that kills with love...

Whatever… Let’s dwell on the means and ways of moving away from our sugar crush. It has been found that dehydration increases our sugar cravings. Therefore, drinking water, eating a fruit, etc. can give a brave fight against sugar.

It’s easier said than done. Avoiding sugar, sacrificing the tingle of taste buds set afire by the sugary goodies is a tough decision. And then there is the constant enemy in the form of temptations in every corner that makes decision making even tougher.

I did dare to take up cudgels against this wily enemy and cut down the spoons of the white devil from my favourite cup of steaming Darjeeling tea, averted the gaze from the Banofie Pie in the menu that jumped up and seemed to nudge me gently to have some, I might not be a lost case after all.....

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