Too Much Sugar

I've seen the grotesque effects of diabetes through those pictures posted on the walls of the school hall when there was a yearly health preservation campaign in my primary school during my tender age. Although it was just pictures on printed paper, the colors that illustrated realism was suffice to destroy my appetite for the next few days. I usually try to avoid exhibitions like these during my primary school days but with my class teacher obligating our visits to this kind of exhibition, I had to pray that I will forget those disgusting images immediately after the visit. Realizing the pain and suffering a critical diabetic patient has to go through, I try to cut down on my sugar if it is possible. However, with my diet patterns I recently developed, I fear that I might be another victim of a nightmarish disease as a result of high sugar consumption.

Ever since I returned from Canada, I've been constantly dining at McDonalds. Many will find it bizarre as my daily consumption of western food in Canada should have made me sick of McDonalds. Well I guess I prove them wrong. For some unknown reason, I have been very faithful to this fast food franchise ever since I was a little boy. Maybe it's because of those fun and joyful McDonalds advertisements which I have been exposed to when I was a toddler that caused my unquestionable loyalty. My dedication towards McDonalds was not only restricted to choosing McDonalds whenever my parents or my friends ask me where I would like to dine, but also my fight to defend the mega fast food company during the time when Mr Moaz held a debate in regard to the Super Size Me documentary he played in World Issues class. Geez, talk about effective marketing strategy. Anyway, I realized that I would pay a visit to McDonalds after my daily Muay Thai class for supper; and when I do, I will order a value meal set that consist of a burger, a fries and a cup of coke. I will definitely wipe out the burger and the fries but I'll consider about finishing the cup of coke. Knowing that it has been scientifically proven that coke contains a lot of sugar, I'll usually leave the cup half empty. On the other hand, when I'm really thirsty after training or when I remember about Peter's speech regarding starvation with the moral teaching of not wasting food, I tend to leave the cup of coke totally empty. If my calculations are not wrong, I have an average of 4 visits to McDonalds per week. This means that I'm having 4 regular size cups of coke every week. I tend to remind myself to cutdown on the sugary poison but it seems I'll only remember after my drink of coke.

A month ago, my mum bought a machine that produces yogurt. Yogurts are my favorite desserts or snack, especially the strawberry flavored ones as the sweet and sour creamy taste never fail to pamper my taste buds. Like my daily visit to McDonalds, my yogurt consumption is on a similar basis. I usually have it after my lunch or when I feel like having a snack in the middle of the night. As we all know, yogurt tastes sweet; so, that means it contains sugar. With my daily consumption on yogurt, it wouldn't be difficult to imagine the amount of sugar I'm taking in a week.

Last 4 or 5 days ago, I went to Pangkor for my Muay Thai camp; it was just a one night, two days camp. For those both days in a row, I hardly had water as part of my meal set. On the morning before I left for Pangkor, I had a McDonald's breakfast value meal (you see... McDonalds again). The value meal contain tea with sugar, so that was my first consumption of sugar for that day. When I arrived in Lumut, we had lunch and guess what was my beverage which accompanied my meal? It was Teh O Ais . So that was the second consumption of sugar that day. After my first training for the day in Pangkor, we went for dinner and I had the same beverage again to accompany my meal. On the following morning again, I had tea for breakfast and again tea for lunch and dinner. To sum it all up, I consumed sugar 6 times in a row during my trip to Pangkor; this is convincing me that I'm going to get diabetes.

Just two days ago, I went out with James to MidValley for a movie, we watched The Simpsons. Before we went into the cinema hall, James told me to get him a cup of Sprite while he pays an emergency visit to the bathroom. Realizing the amount of sugar I had recently, I told myself I won't be getting anything for myself. As it was my turn in the line to order the snacks, I told the cashier that I just wanted a large cup of Sprite for James. Conversely, when I witnessed the operated soft drink machine pouring the ice cold Sprite into the cup, I was greatly seduced and the next thing I knew, I had two large cups ( the super size ones) in my hands: one for James and another one for me. After the movie, James and I decided to have dinner together at Nandos. As you all know, the food in Nandos are extremely spicy and having one cup of ice cold beverage with your spicy meal isn't enough. Initially, I wanted to order mineral water as my beverage to accompany my meal but knowing that water are not refillable unlike ice lemon tea and other soft drink, I had no choice but to go for those sugary beverages or risk losing my tongue. Since the chicken was so spicy, I had to take more than a cup of ice lemon tea to take the heat off. At the end of that day, I plundered into fear knowing that I am one step closer in making the diabetic nightmare a reality after calculating the amount of sugar I had altogether for that day.

With my diet patterns I recently developed, I fear that I might be another victim of a nightmarish disease as a result of high sugar consumption. Nevertheless, immediate counter measures have been taken to prevent me from getting diabetes. I've been drinking lots of water ever since I heard a hearsay regarding high water consumption can reduce the sugar level in our body. Besides that, I've been working out on a regular basis and constantly reminding myself to avoid soft drinks if it is possible. I just hope my sugar level isn't at an alarming rate to qualify myself as a diabetic patient.