Are Singaporeans taking lesser sugar?

The stats are out regarding sugar and salt intake by Singaporeans. One reason was that more people are now eating out, thus intake of salt is not falling like sugar. Is that the truth or just trying to push only the good news and avoid the bad.

I have my two cents worth looking at the issue. First, sugar is relatively more expensive than salt and when the word goes out about making drinks with less sugar, drink makers jumped with joy. Here was an opportunity to save on sugar, add more water, increase prices and nobody is the wiser. When everyone making drinks saw the benefit, it takes off like rocket. Now, it is not whether consumers still have a choice as most drinks have low sugar on its label. I wanted to buy packet drinks without the low sugar label as I always put ice cubes to keep it cool but could not find any. That was one big reason why sugar consumption has fallen over the years. One problem I personally encountered with low sugar content drinks was when putting ice cubes into drink containers diluting the drink that was to taste almost like plain water.

When the call went out about encouraging vendors to produce food with less salt, food outlets and hawkers are not listening. Customer's taste and profits are more important and all that talk about health issues goes out the ear. If one hawker uses less salt and another does not, who do you think is going to lose customers? Salt is cheap and taste matters more than just health talk. Consumers are not going to eat food finding them less savory, and that is likely to make them avoid such vendors. It is human nature. All the time we are bombarded by how tasty some places are, not how healthy the food they are selling. Money talks and bullshit walks.


Anonymous