Of all the life-changing decisions that you can possibly want to experiment with, the arguably sweetest one is to cut out refined sugar from your diet. The Dubai Health Authority’s (DHA) #30DaysWithoutSugar challenge brought the perennial dangers of consuming refined sugar into focus once again and it couldn’t have come at a better time — a brand new year is here and it is begging us to reconsider our health priorities. Challenges such as these have the ability to open people’s eyes to the power of choice they hold over their health — the seemingly restrictive option of going for a sugarless lifestyle is in actuality a liberation from the tyranny from its pernicious influence.
In the UAE, though there are no firm statistics available on average sugar consumption, experts, nevertheless, consider it to be in the higher range. If the United States, United Kingdom and Portugal have an average consumption of 18, 17 and 25 teaspoons of sugar a day, respectively, the average UAE resident is also somewhere in that range, according to experts.
The health risks of consuming excessive refined sugar are so numerous that they bear an overemphasis. From commonly-known health problems such as cardiovascular diseases and obesity to lesser-known but equally damaging conditions like hormonal imbalances, liver and kidney disorders and intestinal and digestive problems, refined sugar plays havoc with our health in imaginable and unimaginable ways. The fact that it also lurks in thousands of seemingly non-sugary convenience, processed and packaged foods we consume everyday is further testimony to its treachery.
Given this embattled state of affairs, every effort to make people wake up to the bitter reality of consuming refined sugar makes a difference.
