High Sugar And Its Repercussions In The Bournvita Controversy!
The quantity of sugar, salt, and preservatives that enter our diet inadvertently through bread, biscuits, and health drinks like Bournvita is tremendous and not at all advised.
Come on, tell the truth. Have you done anything similar as a parent? You want your child to drink a glass of milk, but he or she refuses. So you add a couple of spoons of sugar or Bournvita to entice them to drink the nutritious milk with calcium for their bones.
This is certainly how we all grew up. Revant Himatsingka, a social media personality, recently called out Cadbury Bournvita, a “healthy drink” manufacturer, in a viral video that revealed how much sugar and preservatives were in the package.
The corporation responded by issuing a legal notification. The influencer apologised and removed his video. But his message remained and caused many to reconsider packaged beverages.
The quantity of sugar, salt, and preservatives that enter our diet inadvertently through bread, biscuits, and health drinks like Bournvita is tremendous and not at all advised. Even if you attempt to be rigorous and not put these junk items in your child’s lunch box, you will face much peer pressure because other kids may bring chips, cookies, and snacks to school. As a result, your child will return home and expect the same. The issue is that these packaged goods are also delectable. Do you think that your kid would go out and purchase fruit or a package of chips or crackers that are heavy in salt and sugar if you offered them some money?
According to Dr Gayathri Vasant, a paediatrician at Shishu Clinic in Bangalore, the lethal mix (literally) of easy availability, high calorific content, and delicious taste of Bournvita makes it difficult for parents and children to resist the temptation. To that aim, the Indian Academy of Paediatrics has released “JUNCS” recommendations to assist parents in determining what is best for their children. Foods that are not desired include the following.
- J: junk foods.
- U: ultra-processed foods.
- N: nutritionally unsuitable foods.
- C: carbonated soft drinks and beverages.
- S: sugar-sweetened meals and drinks.
According to the paper, factors favouring JUNCS consumption include online deliveries that allow kids to order what they want, double-income families that are both nuclear and busy, nudging us to take nutritional shortcuts, and seductive advertisements that entice both children and adults to buy a product.
According to health coach and mom Dr Sujata Kelkar Shetty, India has a young populace drawn to the sugar and salt high provided by packaged meals like Bournvita. So, on the one hand, we promote millet and gluten-free meals while disregarding the impending health disaster caused by our reliance on packaged foods.
Obesity is currently a worldwide crisis. Obesity and its associated disorders are being attacked front-on by the medical establishment, particularly in the United States. Popular physician-podcasters like the Huberman Lab and Peter Attia discuss how a high-carbohydrate diet causes insulin resistance.
Indians are among the most vulnerable to diabetes. Nutritional enterprises in India are now addressing diabetes and weight reduction through extreme calorie restriction, micronutrient supplements, weight-training workouts, intermittent fasting, and plant-based proteins. When it comes to children, however, most parents appear to be oblivious to the impacts of packaged meals like Bournvita, unknowingly starting their children on the path to obesity and its accompanying disorders, such as Type 2 diabetes. Part of it is because you expect that because children are so young, their bodies will self-regulate against the negative impacts of junk foods. “After all, they’re just kids. If they can’t eat potato chips now, when will they be able to enjoy these things? is an often repeated comment.
Bournvita published a statement following the video to reassure its customers. What’s interesting is that even the business admits that each serving of Bournvita has 1.5 teaspoons of sugar, which seems excessive to us.
So, what is the next step? Dr Krishna Seshadri, a Chennai-based endocrinologist and diabetologist, advises returning to our origins in terms of diet. Dr Seshadri discusses how we have “tampered with nature” in our meals and habits, “inviting” diabetes into our lives in multiple YouTube videos. According to Dr Seshadri, they include eating more, more frequently, at the wrong times, and the incorrect sort of food, mainly processed food. Moving to a more controlled schedule, less processed food that is culturally appropriate tends to be the least hazardous.
Disclosure.
It’s high time that parents get aware of these marketing gimmicks of making their child stronger and longer and bla, bla, and give their child the actual food which will help in the growth in the development of body and mind.
