The Dangers of Sugar Consumption – Part 1

It’s no secret that Bangkok loves sugar. Unlike the northern provinces, which often prefer a sour-spicy flavor palate, or the southern islands, which gravitate toward shrimp paste and other salty seasonings, the Thai capital is renowned for its sweet tooth.

Sugar appears in all kinds of local specialties. Street vendors sell bananas dunked in syrup or deep-fried in a salty-sweet coconut batter. Carts hawk pandan and coconut confections, or the ubiquitous mango sticky rice with its palm sugar-perfumed coconut cream. Sugar pops up less obvious ways as well. It’s ladled into seemingly healthy smoothies and pounded into som tam. It’s in your pad thai and your noodle soup. It glazes the roasted or duck pork on top of your rice.

Sometimes the sugar in these dishes is so well covered by acid, salt and chili that it is undetectable to the unsuspecting diner. Many of these dishes do not taste particularly sweet, despite the fact that they may contain several tablespoons of sugar. Watch a cook casually scooping it into a wok along with a generous lashing of salt and monosodium glutamate and you’ll begin to get the idea.

And Thai food is hardly the only culprit in town. The fluffy, pillowy pastries that fly off the shelves of 7-Eleven are just as packed with glucose and sucrose as they are with preservatives. Coca-Cola, Pepsi and their Thai competitor, Est, are cheap, widely consumed and loaded with sugars. Every mall in town has tempting cupcake shops, bakeries, candy and sweets as far as the eye can see. Every movie theater is chockablock with candies for snacking.

Unfortunately, kids are naturally predisposed to want to eat and drink all of it. Evolution has programed humans to seek out rich sources of calories. For our ancestors, this meant finding and eating the ripest fruits to get the maximum amount of nutrition. In the present, this often translates to kids begging incessantly for candy bars.

To make matters worse, children are born with highly sensitive palates and an innate aversion to bitter or spicy foods. Again, from an evolutionary standpoint, this makes sense. Many bitter plants or substances found in nature are poisonous. Regrettably though, broccoli and other nutrient-rich vegetables err on the bitter side… which is why your average five-year-old would much rather have a bar of chocolate than a salad.

The question is how much sugar should children be getting and how much damage can a little extra do? Nutritionists are still constantly debating the topic, but so far the conclusions don’t look good. In this series, we’ll examine some surprising sources of sugar, what effects its consumption may have on children, and how to wean kids off of the sweet stuff for good. Stay tuned for Part 2 examining what doctors are saying about the sugar problem.