Thais Consuming Too Much Sugar

[george]

Thais consuming too much sugar

BANGKOK: -- A research on Thais' dietary habits has shown that they are taking excessive amount of sugar in their food, and not the other way round as was expected from the findings, said the Health Department yesterday. When the department studied the nutritional situation among people nationwide in 2003, it found that on average they had consumed just 7.5gm of sugar a day, which almost doubled to 13.7 grammes a day in 1995.

Currently each Thai consumes over 30 kilogrammes of sugar a year, or 82 grammes a day or 20.5 teaspoons a day, against the World Health Organisation's recommended amount of only 8-10 teaspoon a day.

Uraiporn Chitchang, an academic from the Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, said the rate of sugar consumption was high mainly because Thais had started indirectly taking a lot of sugar through products like sweetened milk, carbonated drinks, food seasoning and green tea.

''There is a figure clearly showing how Thais consume most of their sugar indirectly, increasing to 52.5 grammes a day in 2003 from only 6.8 grammes a day in 1995, an eight-fold increase, which was a very dangerous sign as this can badly affect people's health,'' Dr Uraiporn said. If all the people in the country have just one teaspoon of sugar less a day, there would be more than 240 tons of sugar left a day, which means the raw material used in producing sugar could be better utilised for other purposes, such as in biodiesel production.

Dentist Chantana Ungchusak, the manager of children's non-sweets eating network, said the packaging size of sugar was one factor that encouraged people to eat more sugar. The amount of sugar contained in a package served with coffee was eight grammes in Thailand against four in Malaysia and only three in Japan and England. She called for food manufacturers to pay more attention to people's health by reducing the amount of sugar in their products.

''During a sugar shortage, food manufacturers should cut production costs by reducing the amount of sugar in their products, instead of increasing the price. It would be a win-win situation for both the manufacturers and the consumers,'' the dentist said.

A large number of Thai children have been suffering from obesity, which leads to other more serious health problems. Sugar is a prime suspect.

The Public Health Ministry has prohibited powdered milk manufacturers from adding sugar to food products available for babies at birth to 12 months and other measures are in the pipeline to boost young children's health.

--Bangkok Post 2006-01-21

[Khun Ngo]

Well, the "looming sugar crisis" comes in handy!

[sierra01]

'A large number of Thai children have been suffering from obesity, which leads to other more serious health problems. Sugar is a prime suspect.'

Odd, you don't see a lot of fat Thai kids really, not compared to some western countries.

[paulnuek]

I am a "chocoholic" and have a sweet tooth.

Seems strange that I never eat chocalate/cakes etc when in Thailand........

Must be the heat or something...

Once a bought a Mars bar from a 7/11 put it in my pocket for later....you can probably guess what happened to the Mars bar (and my pants)......

[penzman]

'A large number of Thai children have been suffering from obesity, which leads to other more serious health problems. Sugar is a prime suspect.'

Odd, you don't see a lot of fat Thai kids really, not compared to some western countries.

I was told that there are more fat kids nowadays in elementary school.

My wife was wondering what I was talking about when I said " too much sugar" while looking at the usual kids in the park across the street trying to destroy all that is installed in there for them to have fun, lighting fires and all. And not a single parent there telling them not to break anything or light fires.

[suegha]

Does the childrens diet in Thailand have all the 'hidden' sugars that the western diet has? I think this is the problem, not the amount of sugar we consume 'naturally'.

[Abandon]

Mars bars have another good use Paulnuek - roll one around on the ground for a minute, and then throw it in a swimming pool. Looks just like the real thing!

(We won't go into Marrianne Faithfuls novel application)

[dukkha]

From what I am told by thai friends almost all thai dishes contain sugar and if not, it is always available as a side dish, also most of the food contains MSG...health authorities are already warning of the huge increase in the number of people with diabetes and heart disease, not that this should be surprising...any visit to a mini mart is a sugar heaven and there appears to be nothing on offer beyond junk foods...I visited my partners village in Roi Et last year, no was not on a poverty reality show, and three people in the village were dying of diabetes and related diseases, was distressful especially as I am now a border line diabetic myself..of course these people have no recourse to the advanced medical assistance that westerners enjoy such as insulin etc..so they just die as circulation no longer works and gangrene takes over, it was a pitiful sight and these people were all in their early 60's, freaky for me at 60..Am no Doctor Tom Dooley but I do point out as often as possible the perils of such sugar laden diets as it is a sadness to see my adopted family succumbing to so many health problems...maybe Toxin Sinatra was not too keen to see the health problems of his fellow countrypersons...and wont even attempt to go into the tobacco issue in rural villages...maybe as expats living here we can gently offer some advice on health issues within our own support groups...we are all here ultimately to help one another both live and die...trust this has not been too morbid but is fact and therefore reality unlike the surrealism of the recent travelling circus that has beset the Kingdom..

[paulnuek]

Mars bars have another good use Paulnuek - roll one around on the ground for a minute, and then throw it in a swimming pool. Looks just like the real thing!

(We won't go into Marrianne Faithfuls novel application)

Pattaya Park here I come

[Crushdepth]

A research on Thais' dietary habits has shown that they are taking excessive amount of sugar in their food, and not the other way round as was expected from the findings

Oh yeah what a shock

[awarrumbungle]

Thais consuming too much sugar

When the department studied the nutritional situation among people nationwide in 2003, it found that on average they had consumed just 7.5gm of sugar a day, which almost doubled to 13.7 grammes a day in 1995.

Is it just me or does that not make any sense?