You cannot open a newspaper these days without reading about the dangers of diabetes – it is a moving disaster that is damaging innocent Sri Lankans in their prime of life! The dark side is that eventually, it can require amputation of the limbs in its final stages – so you’d think people would take it more seriously; but, it is like old age, death and destruction – they think it can’t happen to them!   But it does.

What are we doing wrong? In a word: civilization! Our ancestors have been on earth for around 200,000 years and sugar buns were definitely NOT on the menu! Nor was lashings of salt, oil and sugar there to make our mouths water for more!

I imagine it was the dreary opposite; it was likely to be a daily diet of roots, leaves, and luscious shoots of various plants not around now. Why? Well, the pundits say we have had some big climate changes already; our meals are not what they used to be!

But food experts tell us we can still get along very nicely on vegetables and fruits that are not too sweet or over ripe – because, sadly, the fructose form of sugar is a problem for our digestive system, too. 

But why is this slow-moving disaster occurring to us? It is easy: we are breaking the rules; we get too fat and we have eliminated the man-eating tigers that used to keep us on our toes or up trees! Success comes at a price!

Now, it is a cry for help against the widespread use of sugar, oil and salt!

In America, overweight people are there in large numbers. It is a stressful society between the hammer and anvil of some serious marketing techniques which covers the food area, too! Over eating is an epidemic including diabetes. Responsible researchers are concerned about this obesity and are studying the causes of it – and reporting about it – in English. The film clips are there on ‘You Tube’ for your learning experience – food experts warning us against  eating sugar, salt and oil, white bread, carbohydrates, hydrogenated oils, insidious fructose (& HFCS too!) all of which give us blood pressure and damage our pancreas. It is known among western scientists that sugar causes cancer. But we are too busy to look and learn from them.

So we continue to snack on what is available: samosas, waddies, patties, lampreis; all, you notice, are carbohydrate, deep fried, with salt; sausage hot dogs, fish buns; pizzas of white bread with cheese and sliced sausage meat; even the chicken in sandwiches is dosed and laced with miriss, oil and salt! Then comes the sugar: buns, kimbula, eclairs, fancy cakes, dodol, etc., all washed down with sugary machine-made tea! That is what the businessmen offer us! Businessmen in search of profit make us sick! Of course we are sick!

Not a baked stuffed potato in its jacket to be found! No steamed kurrakan, mung ata or cow pea marketed: and if you want to buy road-side chick peas for their fibre content, they too are dosed up with salt, oil and sugar.

The commuter is trapped in ‘a take it or leave it’ situation, in peril of losing his or her life the long term.    Over to you, Minister of Health.

ROS. 22/8/2019