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Sugar kills. There’s a higher tax being imposed on sugary goods in the UAE to help residents live healthier lifestyles.
Sugar kills. There’s a higher tax being imposed on sugary goods in the UAE to help residents live healthier lifestyles.
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00:00Hello and welcome, my name is Jay from Ofgulfnews, today we're going to be talking about sugar.
00:17So how much sugar do you have in your bloodstream?
00:22There's a right amount and there's a wrong and deadly amount.
00:27And I have the deadly amount, according to my doctor, and I'm very proud of it.
00:32It's something that is eating me up inside and I haven't shown much progress.
00:41That's why my doctor, and I'm spilling the beans here to everybody, pumped up my dosage
00:48from 500 mg to 1000 mg of metformin, that's a diabetes medication.
00:58My mom is on insulin and my dad died of diabetes medication.
01:04A friend of mine just had a terrible, terrible stroke, he's a father of four.
01:14I'm not going to give his name now, but the kids are very young, he's not very old either,
01:25but he admits that it's his own lifestyle choices that got him to this point.
01:32He had a stent angioplasty as well, and this was like a few weeks ago.
01:39So let me just tell you a little bit about what's happening as far as the situation in the UAE is concerned.
01:50UAE is one of the 50 countries that imposed a sugar tax.
01:56So from the 1st of January 2020, the list of sugary foods and drinks, as well as electronic
02:10smoking devices had been expanded following a cabinet decision that was done on the 20th of August.
02:19Why is this being done?
02:21I think it's a good decision on the part of the government and an increasing number of
02:26governments are doing this, because health authorities everywhere are pointing to an unseen addiction.
02:36That is the sugar addiction.
02:39And let me just read out to you a couple of stats about how addictive is sugar.
02:46Some doctors are saying it's the new smoking, and I tend to believe them.
02:55Sugar is a body-wasting substance that besets modern man.
03:01Here's what scientists are saying.
03:03The craving for sugar is seen as harming only the individual, and it's not threatening.
03:12But the recent data, actually the data going back to 1950, show that sugar has a dreadful effect
03:22on the human body, as well as society as a whole, because of the cost, the billions
03:29of dollars that go into diabetes treatment and debilitating heart disease and all that
03:38comes as a result of the condition.
03:41There was a comprehensive population study of the UAE, and this is 2017 data, which shows
03:4770% of Emirati male adults under 30 are already obese and with high prevalence of diabetes.
03:57Now here's a deadly fact.
04:01In the whole Middle East and North African region, a whopping 39 million people are diabetics.
04:14There's an estimate that by 2045, this number is going to spike 110%.
04:26That reflects the general trend all over the world.
04:32So here's a bit that I'm going to leave you with.
04:35An average adult needs no more than 20 grams or about 6 teaspoons of sugar a day.
04:46And a single can of soda, that's your Coke or Pepsi can, contains 39 grams of sugar.
04:54So if you're drinking one can of soda, that's more than enough for your day's need of sugar.
05:04An average UAE resident consumes 103 liters of soft drinks per year.
05:12And an average adult here consumes 3,000 calories per day.
05:18So if you want to know, if you want to learn more about this debilitating effects of sugar
05:25on the human body and to you as an individual and society, the society as a whole, just
05:32read the story, log on to golfnews.com and have a sweet day.
05:36Bye!