When it comes to sugar, I’m a member of the guilty party. I try my best to take it in moderation, but then I also find that I let more than enough slip through from time to time. Having restraint when it comes to sugar is something I’ve come to learn I don’t have a lot of will power against. I love sweet things, and if I can get them all day, then you can bet it that I would.
There was a time when I used to pack lots of sugar in whatever I was taking, be it tea, pap, or even garri. When I drink it, it would be so sweet that it would almost slap you. And then, I was a fan of these chocolate cookies, ice cream, and what-not. As in, when it came to junk food and soda, I was a regular customer.
However, I didn’t get to take them regularly. I used to take normal sugar almost every day, it was in tea, pap and garri that I drank. However, this was only because my Mom used to buy it in packs and seeing how it was readily available, I could not control myself. But then, she decided to stop buying sugar in bulk, so whenever we needed sugar, we bought only a little and everyone got to share it.
I didn’t really start indulging in junk until I started making my own money, then I realized I could do whatever I wanted. And boy did I indulge myself! Many times I would go to the cinema only to see a movie, but on my way home I would branch to the supermarket and buy junk. From cookies to chocolate bars and of course, ice cream. It didn’t stop when I returned to school for my HND.
However, I started realizing that my sugar intake was just too much. Thankfully, I never got any adverse effect. I only took soda a few times a week and the junk was usually around once or twice a week, depending on the cost. Still, I felt that it was too much and I wanted to cut down on it. The first thing I decided to cut down on was buying of sugar, either cubed or granulated, I stayed away from them. I used milk and milo instead.
You see, both milk and milo have sugar in them, together, they’re just as sweet. So, adding sugar to the combo is just like saying you want to eat rice and stew and salt. Bro, the salt is already in the rice and stew!
This way, I was able to cut down on my sugar intake and also eradicate the buying of sugar. However, that wasn’t enough because I still had to stop buying soda. It’s a battle I’m still fighting to date. I can go for two weeks without them but suddenly, I would begin to hunger for it again. Just one drink, and then I’d be fine.
I still take ice cream, but this present administration has made it easier for me to quit such a sugary addiction. Junk addiction is now too expensive to maintain in this present economy. So, no more ice cream, cookies, cakes and even chin chin. They have way too much sugar and they’re bad for me. I’m not satisfied though, I still want to reduce it even further.
I want to be like my sister’s husband who rarely takes sugar. I was astounded the first time I met him and he wanted to drink tea. He took a cube of sugar, broke it into two, and then took one half and broke it further into two. He finally took one tiny piece and dropped it in his tea. For him, that was all he needed and he drank the tea as if it was the sweetest thing in the world. For me, I didn’t see that as taking sugar at all, I saw it as a case of “make e no sha be like say I no put sugar!”
Once in a while, I try to cleanse my body of this excess sugar. I could use bitter leaf, and some other medicinal herbs, just to purge myself and prepare my insides for another devastation. So far so good, it has been working out great for me.
There are some people who would never touch soda with a ten foot pole, because of the sugar content, so I’m always shocked when I see them go after beer. Like, beer also has sugar, as in, lots of sugar! I even suspect it has more sugar than soda because they need to add a lot of sugar to make it consumable. If the drinks were sold in their original taste, I don’t think anyone would buy it.
In one way or the other, we’re all guilty of taking sugar and we really need to start working towards reducing it’s amount in our body because if we’re not careful, things could get really bad for us. We need to do better!
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