Sugar and salt: Do we need them or not?

“All things nice are made of sugar and spice”. How true do you think this saying is? Well, it actually depends on our definition of nice actually. We are going to discuss how important (or not) are sugar and salt in a food plan. Now, first question is, do you lead a healthy lifestyle? If yes, what about healthy food habits? If no, when are you going to start? Sugar and salt play an important role in the healthy food habits bit. OK, no one is asking you to give up sugar and salt. We are just going to discuss how much we should limit ourselves to in a day. I haven’t come across one person who doesn’t like sweets. Eating sweets and indulging yourself once in a while is fine. It is not acceptable that you are trying to live a healthy life but continue eating all kinds of sweets day in and out. Sweets are mostly made of refined sugar. Refined sugar is not easily digested. So what it does is, it uses up the stores of enzymes in our body. Refined sugar, unfortunately for us, comes under the bad carbohydrates. This clearly indicates that we must stay away from it as much as possible. Eating a lot of fruits helps reduce the yearning for sweets. Try it and you’ll see it works! This not only keeps you away from what you are not supposed to eat but also gives you body sugar and nourishment. If this is not good enough, then the next best thing to do is, stick to home made sweets. Limit sweets to once in a week or twice in a month. You will not be able to do so in the first try. This requires a lot of determination. One more aspect that you really need to pay attention to is, soft drinks. Do not indulge in sugery drinks. You have no idea how many spoons of sugar you are gulping down. Soda’s can be especially harmful. If you want to drink something, why not try fresh fruit juices without sugar. They are healthy and do not let any unwanted sugar get inside your body. Lemon juice is one of the best juices till date. Just as sugar, all us of even consume a lot of salt without knowing it. Do you know how much salt is recommended per day? You’ll be shocked to know that we are supposed to eat only 1 teaspoon of salt per day. The fact is that we are so involved in everything else that we hardly notice how much salt is going inside us. Preserved food contains more salt. This is because salt preserves it. By eating one can of preserved food we fulfil the body’s need for sodium for weeks on end. Sea salt which is of good quality is good for health. It has a reddish or brownish look to it. It is NOT coloured. It is not bleached white. This is very nutritious and contains several minerals.