Sugar, Sugar, Everywhere . . .

Hello dear Reader,     One of the reasons why Lana and I launched Azoki is because our world seems to have gone a bit crazy.  At times, it seems upside down, a bit too polluted and dirty, a bit too ‘corporate’ in its interests, and a tad fake.  Right now, I’m all over this ‘fake’ issue.  So, please excuse me while I rant a bit about the processing of our food.   In truth, alot of it is frankenfood.  It’s not really food:  it’s a food-like substance - something that’s been engineered to be cheap and addictive.  And, that’s not doing anything good for our health.  

Sure, a bit of processing can be helpful.  Already-made salsas, potato chips, frozen french fries, frozen pie crusts, and sometimes even slice ‘n bake cookies . . . all of these can be great.  They’re convenient, playful, and often quite yummy.  

But it seems a bit much.  Today, I discovered something that totally floored me.  Did you know that, at least in Canada, there are food manufacturers adding sugar to salt?  Let’s say that again.  In Canada, some food manufacturers are adding sugar to salt!  

What?!!!  Why?  How bizarre is this?

Perhaps we can find manufacturers doing the same elsewhere in the world.  We don’t know.  We haven’t investigated thoroughly but here’s our evidence for the truth in Canada.  We offer you unaltered photos of a box of iodized table salt provided conveniently by my Toronto Airbnb hosts.  

 Let’s remember that this is salt, a staple all of us have in our kitchens.  

But note the ingredients listed in the second photo.  Actually, I was shocked that there was more than one.   I thought the box would simply say ‘salt.’   Thankfully, my son, who believes deeply in the importance of life without added sugars, is savvier than me.  He has discovered hidden sugars in the most bizarre places.  Like salt.  In fact, he told me to check the box before I sprinkled any of this Airbnb salt on the eggs I was making.  So, I did and now I am flabbergasted. 

Is hidden sugar the  reason so many of us are sick, fat, and tired?  Maybe.   I’m sure it’s part of the explanation.  There is sugar in even the most unlikely of places . . .like salt.  Sadly, this means that  even if we are conscientiously working to avoid sugar,  we can still too easily fall prey to it.   We’re exposed to too much of it.  

I just searched for statistics on sugar consumption in the UAE.  Did you know that our tiny country of just 10 million souls consumes 250,000 tonnes of sugar each year?   That was the figure released this past March at the Dubai Sugar Conference 2023.  This 250,000 tonnes for the country translates into a per capita consumption of 25 kilograms, which is equivalent to 67 grams of sugar per day for each of us.  This 67 grams, in turn, can be translated into just over 16 teaspoons - which is alot.   The American Heart Association suggests that women have no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar and men have no more than 9 teaspoons per day.  But clearly, we’re having alot more than that.  That might explain why 16% of adults here have diabetes and almost 70% of us are overweight or obese.  

But you, dear reader, probably knew this already.  We all know that sugar is dangerous for us.  It’s the new smoking, after all.  So, what do we do about it?   

Well, I guess we do what Azoki is regularly telling everyone to do:  start being more conscientious about the food we put in our mouths.  And, let’s start cooking it ourselves. . . but let’s be careful with the salt. 

Yours in Health, 

Sarah