We all know how important it is to eat healthily. But have you ever given thought to how much sugar you and your family consumes daily?
These are trying times we are in, the current global pandemic has raised more awareness of health issues than ever before. People are now, for the first time, learning about comorbidities and how it affects their health especially when there is a serious virus doing the rounds.
We asked Owen Dunderdale, registered South African Dietitian and online coach to define comorbidities as more people become aware of the term however lack the understanding of it. “Conditions which exist simultaneously that may be related to a common medical illness. An example of this would be someone with Metabolic Syndrome. The person may be obese, have high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and have cardiovascular disease, concurrently. These are all preventable through maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly and eating according to healthy nutritional guidelines. If the person changed their lifestyle, their overall health will drastically improve.” explains Dunderdale. “People who have comorbidities will most likely suffer a more severe case of COVID-19 than someone who is healthy. The higher the severity of the illness, the higher the incidence of mortality.”, he says.
Changing one’s lifestyle and eating habits is no easy task, it takes determination, lots of understanding the reasons why you started the lifestyle change in the first place and then sticking to that new change.
Health should always be the forefront for many changes. Luckily, Delite Foods locally produces products that can counteract these lifestyle issues and make it easier for one to adapt without even realizing it. Dunderdale mentions, “In order to lead a healthy lifestyle, it’s important to use products that are calorie controlled and/or are sugar-free. The World Health Organization recommends that we don’t consume more than 5-10 teaspoons of sugar/day (25-50g sugar). Why would someone consume products that are high in sugar when there are healthy, sugar-free alternatives that taste the same? I highly recommend using sugar free products. According to statistics published in 2016, the obesity rates in South Africa are increasing rapidly, with almost 70% of women and 40% of men either overweight or obese. Using sugar-free products decreases your daily calorie intake, which has a role to play in maintaining a healthy weight. Therefore, switching to sugar-free products will inevitably lower the rate of obesity. Whether you’re healthy, overweight or obese, you should be controlling your daily sugar intake and using sugar-free alternatives.”.
Smart sips for the family
With such knowledge and insight, where does one even start?
We suggest starting with healthier drinks options. Let’s start with your daily intake of water and milk. We all know that we should be drinking about 8 glasses of water a day, yet for some of us – just the thought of a colourless and tasteless drink is quite unappealing to say the least. Kudos to those who have managed to enjoy drinking the recommended amount each day!
Here are 6 smart tips to encourage the intake of healthier drink options for yourself and your kids to enjoy as recommended by Dunderdale:
1. Flavoured water (Add a 5g sachet of Delite Foods Tantalize Powdered Soft Drink to a litre of water/sparkling water). Flavoured water is almost certainly going to increase a child’s fluid consumption.
2. Add Tantalize Flavoured Syrup to milk to create a delicious flavoured milk drink.
3. Make ice flavoured ice lollies using Delite Foods products. (more useful during the summer months).
4. Keep them happy by using the Tantalize Milky Mix to make a glass of chocolate milk or warm cup of hot chocolate.
5. Keep everyone hydrated with flavoured ice tea by simply brewing some rooibos tea bags and a sachet of Tantalize Powdered Soft Drink together for the ultimate thirst-quencher.
6. Kids enjoy flavoured drinks, so keep a jug of water and a colourful cup on the dining room table at all times.
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