SUGAR IS SWEET....BUT NOT AS SWEET AS...

 

Say what you will, one thing is for sure: Sugar is Sweet. And I love all things sweet.

Was I born with a sweet tooth or did I develop it in childhood? Growing up in grandpas’ house, no meal was complete without a laddoo, peda or barfi to round up with. On special occasions, it would be a Rasgulla or Kulfi in summer and Gajar Ka Halwa, Rewadi and Ghazak in winter. Festivals were marked by their own sweets; Ghevar with sugar coating on top on Gangaur, Gujia or ‘Prakiri’, as we call it at home, on Holi, Mataji’s signature ‘Maun Thaal’, a sweet made from ‘besan’ exquisitely flavoured with saffron and camphor, on Diwali, and so on. Pitaji would send someone to get hot Jalebis on holidays and on our Alwar trips, there was a Halwai just outside my granduncle’s house to readily provide Imartis and the famous Alwar Milk Cake. 

Over to NDA and the ‘sweet’ journey continued with puddings and desserts like Caramel Custard and Tipsy. Near our squadron, there was a barber shop which we had to visit at least once a week if not twice. Next to it, temptingly located, there was a bakery with cakes and pastries and the popular Cream Roll with dollops of the sweet gooeystuff inside. Haircut was invariably followed by overindulgence in the bakery.

Navy too provided sweets after meals and the practice continues at home. 

Till the ‘60s, I didn’t hear a bad word about sugar. It was in great demand and rationed in many places during and after WW II. People lovingly named their daughters ‘Cheeni’. As a kid, I recall a gathering of women of our caste in which someone complained, “Cheeni ‘raand’ to millay hi na hai”. The cuss word is hard to translate, so suffice it to say that what was said was, ‘Wicked sugar is just not available’. The throng included a woman named ‘Cheeni’ who created a ruckus before storming out in protest as she felt that she was being deliberately abused and insulted.

Numerous hit songs compared the sweetness of sugar with that of the singer’s loved one and vice versa. Sugar was a pure sweetheart, so what malformed it into a wicked vamp?  

The main accusation against it is that of diabetes. However, it is not sugar that causes the disease but the failure of pancreas to produce enough insulin because of a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Obesity that could lead to diabetes is also not directly due to sugar but excess of it combined with an inactive lifestyle and unhealthy diet. 

The sugar that we ingest includes natural sugar in fruits and vegetables and is full of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. It is not only harmless but an essential part of our diet. It is the ‘added’ sugar such as the ‘white’ refined table sugar and that in soft drinks, fruit juices, sauces, sweets and desserts, etc. This is only for taste and has no health benefits. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends limiting a person’s daily consumption of added sugar to 6 teaspoons. This much added sugar is unlikely to cause any harm and can be consumed safely by a normal, healthy and active person. Even for diabetics, upto two teaspoons a day is permissible.

The anti-sugar campaign was started by the Americans who are the world’s biggest per capita consumers of added sugar at over 25 teaspoons per day, more than four times the maximum recommended by WHO. After giving sugar a bad name but to satisfy their excessive craving, they started researching for artificial sweeteners which over time have proved to be more harmful than added sugar.

So what is the answer? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind- the answer is ‘moderation’. Enjoy the sweetness of sugar but exercise self-control.

And enjoy some songs I love of sugar and sweethearts. Who better to begin with than a living legend, Tony Bennett, now 96, who brought out his second album with Lady Gaga in 2021, breaking the Guinness World Record for the oldest person to release an album of new material at the age of 95 years and 60 days. In 1954, he sang “Shoo-gah (My Pretty Shoo-Gah)” which was a super hit and I love it no end. He even expressed his happiness at sugar making his loved one fat so that he had more of her! Listen to the wonderful lyrics-

“Shoo-Gah, my pretty sugar,

 Every pound that makes you round I idolize….

Shoo-Gah girl, Shoo-Gah girl, it’s a sin, it’s a sin,

My heart breaks when you take Saccharin, Saccharin,

Sugar lump, makes you plump, what of that, what of that,

There’s much more to adore when you’re fat….

Shoo-Gah, my pretty Shoo-Gah,

Put the sugar back and love back in my eyes.”

15 years later, a Rock Band took the name “Archies” from the still loved comic character and sang its best hit, “Sugar, Sugar.” Some sweet words-

“Honey, oh sugar, sugar,

You are my candy girl, and you got me wanting you….

Pour a little sugar on it, honey,

Pour a little sugar on it, baby,

I’m gonna make your life so sweet….”

Kitty Wells in 1959 and The McGuire Sisters thirty years later, expressed the desire to have their ‘sugar’ throughout the day-

“Sugar in the mornin’, sugar in the evenin’, sugar at suppertime,

Be my little sugar, and love me all the time….

Now sugartime (sugartime)

Is anytime that you’re near (that you’re near)….

Just be my honeycomb (honeycomb, honeycomb)

And live in a heaven of love….”

A nursery rhyme first published in 1784 has been used for a hit song by various artistes and I love the version by Jim Reeves. In this song, sugar is sweet, but not as much as ‘my love’-

“Roses are red, my love,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet, my love

But not as sweet as you.”

Finally, Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins found a unique use for sugar for little kids-

“A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, 

The medicine go down-wown, 

The medicine go down,

Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down,

In a most delightful way.”

A spoonful, yes, not 25.