It was a few months ago that my eight-year-old started resisting plain milk. After I started adding a malt-based product, she started drinking milk once again without throwing tantrums. I knew it was not a healthy option but I convinced myself that I will use it in small quantities.
With the latest controversy around Cadbury Bournvita, I confess that I’m feeling guilty and reconsidering my decision. A lot has already been written about the controversy and how the product is a “sugar bomb”, but the first thing we need to change in our homes is the consumption of sugar.
Traditionally, in Indian households, cheeni (sugar) is considered auspicious and mothers are not used to rationing it from their children’s diets. In fact, we believe that children and youngsters are the fittest and can eat anything and everything.
You may have noticed grandparents serving paranthas slathered with butter, hot chapatis dripping with desi ghee or bowls of greasy and sweet homemade dessert. This is often considered a sign of their love and care.
Socially and traditionally, we believe that it is not children who should ration sugar or oil but only the elderly or people with health issues, thanks to popular cliches such as – Ab nahin khaoge toh kab khaoge (roughly translated to ‘this is the time to eat as you wish’).
But with changing times, we have now realised that India is reeling from the burden of lifestyle and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and it is time to change the basics. These NCDs include cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases – contributing to around 3.8 crore (68 percent) of all deaths globally and to about 58.7 lakh (60 percent) of all deaths in India.
HOW MUCH SUGAR IS RIGHT?
A higher consumption of free sugar, often exceeding the recommended 5 percent intake, is linked to obesity in children, dental caries and NCDs in later stages of life. You can blame the increased air pollution and lifestyle diseases, changing environmental conditions, the post-pandemic world, but there is an urgent need to change our children’s diets.
Coming back to Bournvita, the label states: ‘Add 2 heaped teaspoons (20 grams) of Bournvita to a cup of hot or cold milk’.