With a busy schedule juggling personal and work life, planning a healthy recipe - by which I mean a balanced one - can be near impossible. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, daily calories intake should look like this:
Total Carbohydrate - 45% to 65% percent which is between 225 and 325 grams
Total protein - 10% to 35% which is about 46 grams of protein for women, and 56 grams of protein for men.
Total fat- 20% to 35% this amounts to about 44 to 78 grams of total fat a day.
I love food and healthy eating; I’m always on the hunt for good food recipes. In the past, I was very liberal with the sauces I picked off the supermarket shelves because I was trusting of food manufacturers, to sell food that is full of good stuff and less of the naughty ones…you know sugar and salt. To my horror, I found one day whilst reading through nutrition facts for a pasta sauce I used regularly for our family meal that sugar was the second ingredient. What!!! Sugar, in a savoury meal, I had to do a double take. Why do manufacturers choose to add sugar to foods, HELLO - savoury should be salty or spicy rather than sweet. When I say salty, take that to mean a pinch of salt and I mean literally. I can understand sugar in desserts but certainly not in what should constitute a main meal.
I have since become circumspect with my choice of sauces and have found it almost impossible to find any without sugar. Fortunately for my family, I absolutely love cooking and since my shock discovery as mentioned above, I make our meals from scratch as often as possible but this can be almost impossible on some nights. I ensure I read the nutritional composition on the back of the label now and I don’t hesitate ditching sugar ridden savoury sauces no matter how enticing the label looks.
I am not anti-sugar by any means neither am I pro-sugar. My philosophy for all things including sugar is moderation. Our body needs glucose which it converts to the much needed energy, without which we will be very lethargic and unable to carry out our daily activities. The daily recommended sugar intake according to the NHS is 70g for men and 50g for women. I don’t know about you but personally, I find trying to tally up what I have consumed in grams very boring, so I just limit my sugar consumption in meals to those derived from the natural ingredients. Although I rarely have dessert and drinks with sugars such as fruit and fizzes, I love my cuppa and have up to 3 a day with sugar and biscuits so the less sugar from meals the better.
Some Health experts are of the opinion that control measures and tax should be imposed on sugar. This is because the effect on the body when taken in excess is similar to that of Alcohol and tobacco . Diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes have been attributed to excessive consumption of sugar. With the incessant information on the dangers of high sugar consumption, it’s time for food sold to the public to have less sugar and by so doing serving the consumer’s best interest. According to a Malay proverb “Ants die in sugar”, it’s worth reflecting on.
