What is it with sugar and Thais?

[Bcgardener]

Was just in Black Canyon and ordered an iced cappuccino, the ones where they use the express machine to make the coffee. Asked, in Thai for no sugar and the repeated in Thai not sweet. The waitress repeated this but out it comes with sugar. Called her over and explained it had sugar. She replied that the coffee maker had put a little bit of liquid sugar in it as he thought I would complain it was bitter. This happens to me a lot with both drinks and food. I also see a lot of parents giving their children sweetened milk and other sugar laced drinks all the time with the result you see 3 year olds with teeth rotting in their mouth. I just don't get it don't they understand how bad this stuff is. Lack of education maybe or just overwhelming advertising. Rant over... Thank you

[phetphet]

I know what you mean. Virtually all food I order now I have to add "mai aow nahm taan".

When it comes up still sickly sweet, and I complain, they look at me like I am odd. :-)

[Matej]

It has been a couple years since there's sugar almost in every meal and drink in Thailand.

I don't even remember when was the last time I was in restaurant and there was not sugar on the table.

Thais use it heavily nowdays, for cooking and as seasoning too.

Junk food and 'shortcuts' are invading Thai cuisine more and more, it's not only sugar ...

One day we wake up morning and Thai national food will be rice with red sauce, called ketchup.

If you want to drink real coffee you will have to prepare it by yourself.

[DogNo1]

Thai cooks have been putting sugar in things as long as I can remember. It's nothing new. The discovery that sugar is bad for you is very recent. Up until a year or two ago the enemy was fat.

[SoiBiker]

One day we wake up morning and Thai national food will be rice with red sauce, called ketchup.

What do you mean, 'one day'?

They've been eating that for years. It's called khao phat amerikan.

[oncearugge]

My wife says "sugar" is not an an essential part of Thai cooking.

She never uses stuff

[stoneyboy]

My wife says "sugar" is not an an essential part of Thai cooking.

She never uses stuff

Just because your better half never uses the stuff doesn't mean it's not used in every day cooking.

Go to any noodle shop,shack or road side stall,as well as Tesco,Big C and many other food halls and a bowl of sugar is available as a condiment to add to noodle soup and many other dishes,just like nam Pla ground chilli etc.

Dipping vegetables and fruits in chilli and sugar nationwide pastime.

Your answer is flawed,stick to what you profess to know,immigration and visa requirements.

Cheers.

Edited October 31, 2015 by stoneyboy

[AyG]

My wife says "sugar" is not an an essential part of Thai cooking.

She never uses stuff

In that case her cooking is going to be unbalanced. Crucial to every dish (and to every meal overall) is the balance of sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy. Take away one element in a dish and the food is not going to be "right".

[NickJ]

I was working here to bring turnkey dialysis offices to Thailand for rural areas.....The figures for diabetes here were mind blowing. This was twenty years ago......

[eeeya]

any thai iced coffee drink is....undrinkable

I dont know how they can do it.

For anyone who has never tried one its easy to replicate for scientific purposes, get a sugar bowl. add hot water until it forms a paste stir in a shot of coffee and milk and two more tablespoons of sugar for good measure

Edited November 1, 2015 by eeeya

[xen]

My wife says "sugar" is not an an essential part of Thai cooking.

She never uses stuff

In that case her cooking is going to be unbalanced. Crucial to every dish (and to every meal overall) is the balance of sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy. Take away one element in a dish and the food is not going to be "right".

At the same time too much of one of the elements and the food will not be right either . And often one element will be deliberately overdone to cover up the lack of the chef's/ cook's skill.

[dotpoom]

I just say "mai wan" when ordering my iced coffee....works 80 times out of a hundred ( can't find the per cent thingy on this darned Asus) 555

[faraday]

My wife says "sugar" is not an an essential part of Thai cooking.

She never uses stuff

In that case her cooking is going to be unbalanced. Crucial to every dish (and to every meal overall) is the balance of sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy. Take away one element in a dish and the food is not going to be "right".

Which can be achieved without the addition of sugar.

Your post implies that sugar must be added to everydish. This is incorrect.

[Incobart]

Ever drink sprite not cold ? or fanta green and red .. undrinkable, taste only sugar and color, crack nuts, even pizza lasagna sandwiich .. all have sugar ... terrible

[mcfish]

I rarely eat street food anymore. candied chicken I can live with out

Sent from my SC-01D using Tapatalk

[tonray]

Let's see.

I have a bank account at my country because I got my penssion there.

I have two bank accounts in thailand, one is the main and the second for foreign exchange.

And I have a bank account at the USA for working at the stock market there.

I have PayPal account too but I'm not use it. Don't like them.

Thanks for that info.....I now crave something sweet.

[DogNo1]

What I do is always carry my Fitne (sucralose) with me and ask them to substitute it for sugar. Some places have Equal (Nutrasweet) if you ask them for it. I like sweet things and the sugar substitutes allow me to have them. Some have downsides if eaten in big amounts but sucralose (Fitne or Splenda) seems pretty benign.

[dotpoom]

In today's world, all things considered, what with plane crashes and migrants....a luxury problem.

[Dario]

I was working here to bring turnkey dialysis offices to Thailand for rural areas.....The figures for diabetes here were mind blowing. This was twenty years ago......

Apparently, you haven't made an impact here. When I inquired a couple of months back at our local government hospital in Rattanaburi, Surin province for a friend of mine from Berlin if he could take daily dialysis I found out that they had closed teir dialysis unit. Why? I ask myself. Diabetes is now worldwide advancing at an unprecedented pace that every government hospital in Thailand should have a dialysis unit, also for for foreigners at an affordable price. The problem is: government hospitals are completely free which in MHO is wrong. Health care is free in Thailand and therefore mediocre. Here in the province people die at a much faster rate than probably anywhere else on this planet. When I look at the doctors here, they are all in their early twenties without any proper experience and probably schooling as well.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Dario

[Laza 45]

My wife and er sister both have food stalls in a high school cafeteria... they both go through amazing quantities of sugar! The students will put 2 or 3 heaping tablespoons full in a bowl of soup or noodles!

[Shiver]

If you give up sugar for maybe a week, then your palate becomes much more sensitive to it, and even the thought of adding it to anything becomes a very strange idea. If you take it all the time then you barely notice it.

[Jingthing]

I don't totally agree.

I've avoided added sugar for years and don't eat desserts but I do eat fresh fruit.

Black coffee for me, no milk, no sugar, that's how I've always preferred it.

A som tum stall I used to go to was often over sugaring it, so I started asking for a little bit of sugar.

You DO need a little bit ... that's the recipe. It's palm sugar actually, the traditional Thai sugar.

Well a few times they just didn't put ANY in it and it tasted HORRIBLE.

Seriously, people who claim they don't eat any sugar, try that out and order that dish with NO sugar, and tell me that it's palatable, because it's not.

The same is probably true with some other typical Thai dishes like pad Thai, you DO need at least a little bit of sugar or it's just wrong.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Jingthing

[DavoTheGun]

Why do you think Diabetes is is almost an epidemic in Thailand, sugar mixed with MSG is very bad news!

[AlphMichaels]

I always get a kick out of TV forum posts about sugar and consumption of it in Thailand. Guessing most of the OPs and follow up replies are from people and countries where the sugar consumption FAR exceeds that of Thailand. That includes all of EU, the USA, and AU. It's not even close.

Coffee shops like Black Canyon are direct copies of the sugar retailer Starbucks. If you want a coffee, order an Americano with nothing in it.

Check your facts and stop consuming farang beverages in Thailand.

[Jingthing]

I actually think it's very bad here with locals and sugar. I see locals pour the sugar on their noodle soup. Disgusting. Recently I stayed at a budget hotel with a very Thai food only breakfast. The noodle offering everyday was like CANDIED noodles. I didn't even bother mentioning it to the nice lady cooks. I just couldn't eat any of it. They thought this was normal. That's more extreme than the west even.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Jingthing

[PeCeDe]

I like sugar, don't drink pop because they are too sweet for me, but I do add a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar to my coffee, and put sugar on my cereal... Nutrasweet etc. leaves an aftertaste I don't like. I guess the old adage, "moderation in all things," holds true here. At least sugar is a natural product, unlike many substitutes, (Herbicides and pesticides aside).

[Jingthing]

It is very true that sugar in moderation is perfectly fine for most people. You can find the exact measurements where it become too much online. I don't bother with such things, just avoid it when I can, but yes a little IS needed for some dishes. I understand many people need some in coffee and tea. That is a matter of taste. I like bitter flavors.

Just because it is true that TOO MUCH sugar is associated with serious chronic health problems, and it is, it does not follow that means people need to eat NO SUGAR.

But this is complicated with processed foods like white rice which is basically quickly converted into sugar after eating it. So that's sugar too.

Fresh fruit is different ... it has sugars but the body processes it differently than more direct sugars, so it is much healthier.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Jingthing

[slipperylobster]

It is sad seeing asia turn to the western habits of sugar and processed foods. Already can just look at a crowd and see an obesity problem. A similar crowd 30 year ago (looking at photos on the web) would show them pretty lean.

Edited November 1, 2015 by slipperylobster

[PeCeDe]

It is very true that sugar in moderation is perfectly fine for most people. You can find the exact measurements where it become too much online. I don't bother with such things, just avoid it when I can, but yes a little IS needed for some dishes. I understand many people need some in coffee and tea. That is a matter of taste. I like bitter flavors.

Just because it is true that TOO MUCH sugar is associated with serious chronic health problems, and it is, it does not follow that means people need to eat NO SUGAR.

But this is complicated with processed foods like white rice which is basically quickly converted into sugar after eating it. So that's sugar too.

Fresh fruit is different ... it has sugars but the body processes it differently than more direct sugars, so it is much healthier.

There's an old phrase I heard many years ago, "You can't put it on, if you don't put it in!" (referring to eating) 555. Yes obesity is a problem, but many of us came here to get away from the "Nanny state." NYC said , you can't have big gulps anymore, as far as I'm concerned if people want to eat lbs of sugar, hydrogenated fats, smoke, drink etc. etc.... let them, they know the consequences. I'd far rather live in a State where I make my own choices than have them mandated with a bunch of, Thou shalt and Thou shalt not's

[Jingthing]

It's much more complicated than that if you're talking about highly processed modern mass market foods.

People often are not making conscious choices.

Those are the CHEAPEST foods so that's what most people can afford to eat, most of the time.

That creates obesity promoting food environments and that is quite real.

As far as NYC, I don't think that law is actually in effect now and it wasn't a big deal anyway. Just order another drink if you want it.

Yes, sugar sodas are a good target, they have a SHOCKING amount of sugar in them, and most people really aren't fully aware of the dangers.

It's so easy to be SMUG about these issues and take a purist "libertarian" approach but I think that's extremely irresponsible. Think of the children. Many in the world, and in Thailand, are becoming obese at an early age, and statistically we know an obese child has a very high probability of being an obese adult, with chronic health problems and shortened life spans.

No of course there is no perfect answer that will prevent all problems. But social policies including from government, from local school leaders, etc. CAN at least put a dent in these problems, and surely that is better than doing NOTHING.

Cheers.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Jingthing