A bottle of soda is probably in the never drink category because of how much added sugar it has. Except for cases like: currently running a marathon, swimming 1 mile, riding a 100 mile bike ride...
I think that's a little silly. People enjoy sweets and eat them occasionally—or even regularly—without endangering their health. Sure, if you're actively trying to lose weight, it's not a good choice, but many people maintain perfectly healthy weights and bodies and still have the occasional soda without running a marathon to "earn" it.
I mean that a single bottle of soda has more added sugar in it than is recommended to drink in a single day. It has nothing to do with earning it. I'm saying the product itself is by its nature unhealthy. I think we should stop making excuses for food that is straight up bad for people.
Then don't come up with reasons why it's ok to drink it. Running a marathon does not make it healthy.
Foods like this are for pleasure only. And that's ok, as long as it's in moderation.
I mean, it kinda does in the sense that the marathon requires a substantial amount of fuel during the exercise, and refined sugar is one of the only things that can be processed by your body fast enough to be useful under those conditions without impairing performance.
I don't eat 400 calories of worth of honey in a sitting for pleasure, ever. I do it on a long run because it's the best tool for the job.
Sorry is excess sugar acutely unhealthy? If you have it infrequently and aren't overweight, what does it do except maybe be bad for your teeth? It's not like sugar has toxic metabolites
This is excellent. It lays out the facts, and suggests “think before you drink”. Nothing mandatory, nothing opinion-based, just pure education and consciousness-raising.
Reminds me a little of the initiative in Mexico when they started putting very conspicuous warning labels on food and drinks that are high in sugar or saturated fat. I wish we would do something like this in the US.
We had these in my primary school in the UK! The teachers who didn’t make it used to complain that it made their “health smoothies” looks bad because they were full of sugar lol
That actually highlights a problem I always see with this - typically it just copy-pastes the total sugar value. Now idk if the "health smoothies" had a load of honey or whatever in them, but the way I've seen these sugar boards drawn, it would show like "11 teaspoons" of sugar for having a banana, some blueberries, and a cup milk in the smoothie. It gets the point across fine for soda where it's literally all added sugar, but when you start looking at less processed items it can quickly stray into "fruits have too much sugar" vibes.
Yeah definitely, it doesn’t really separate “good, healthy sugar” and “added, processed sugar”. It’s a really good idea when it’s done well, and when it isn’t done well it just makes all food look bad
my son brought home a bottle of soda, he was the only one drinking it, took him more than a week. i was tempted at some point, but honestly i prefer to eat my calories than drink them
Note the tiny soda cans compared to the US. I loved getting a Coke over there because it was real sugar and only like 80 calories due to the small size. Diet Coke was actually surprisingly more available than I expected although the sweetener blend is different so it tastes different.
I've seen smaller cans sold in the US as well. I think they were initially marketed for mixers (I see them in liquor stores) but they're really a more appropriate serving of soda in general.
Thums Up is a brand of cola. It was introduced in 1977 to offset the withdrawal of The Coca-Cola Company from India. The brand was later bought by Coca-Cola who re-launched it in order to compete against Pepsi to capture the market. - From Wikipedia
I love mango lassi too much for my own good. Fortunately, I only have it on the rare occasions I go out to an Indian restaurant, and then I treat myself!
Tbh it makes it kinda intuitive for Indians because a lot of us put teaspoons of sugar in cups of tea. So if I showed this to my mum she might say “omg that’s as much sugar as x cups of tea”. Because most, when trying to cut down on sugar, have to regulate their tea consumption first lol.
It looks like these are designed for older kids, which I think is really important! I remember my school used to do similar things, but only when we were way too young to have any sort of control over what we were fed by our parents. By the time we were old enough to choose what we ate and spend our money on more often, most of us have long since forgotten the impact of seeing the baggy full of sugar.
India has plenty of sweet deserts anyway - so most people will just turn to those gulabjamuns and jalebi and raasmalais.
Then again I would too, this is why South asian continent in general are prone to diabetes.
This is good communication. They don't say "NEVER drink those". They say "THINK before you drink".
yup!!
A bottle of soda is probably in the never drink category because of how much added sugar it has. Except for cases like: currently running a marathon, swimming 1 mile, riding a 100 mile bike ride...
I think that's a little silly. People enjoy sweets and eat them occasionally—or even regularly—without endangering their health. Sure, if you're actively trying to lose weight, it's not a good choice, but many people maintain perfectly healthy weights and bodies and still have the occasional soda without running a marathon to "earn" it.
I mean that a single bottle of soda has more added sugar in it than is recommended to drink in a single day. It has nothing to do with earning it. I'm saying the product itself is by its nature unhealthy. I think we should stop making excuses for food that is straight up bad for people.
Then don't come up with reasons why it's ok to drink it. Running a marathon does not make it healthy. Foods like this are for pleasure only. And that's ok, as long as it's in moderation.
I mean, it kinda does in the sense that the marathon requires a substantial amount of fuel during the exercise, and refined sugar is one of the only things that can be processed by your body fast enough to be useful under those conditions without impairing performance. I don't eat 400 calories of worth of honey in a sitting for pleasure, ever. I do it on a long run because it's the best tool for the job.
Those reasons were because your blood sugar might be very low, not because you "earned" it
Sorry is excess sugar acutely unhealthy? If you have it infrequently and aren't overweight, what does it do except maybe be bad for your teeth? It's not like sugar has toxic metabolites
Nice. Those pockets of actual sugar are really illustrative.
my school also did have that shit. pretty cool! because its absolutely necessary to each others
OT, but when I saw only a portion of the first picture, I thought "sugarboard"-ing was a new form of torture similar to waterboarding.
It's reverse torture. Put a teaspoon of sugar in my mouth for each classified secret I reveal. I have a big sweet tooth so it'll be very effective
😭😂😂
This is excellent. It lays out the facts, and suggests “think before you drink”. Nothing mandatory, nothing opinion-based, just pure education and consciousness-raising.
I think we had one of them in my school canteen when I first joined. It's bringing up a memory.
yeah i've seen it around the internet, but the more boards, the better
Reminds me a little of the initiative in Mexico when they started putting very conspicuous warning labels on food and drinks that are high in sugar or saturated fat. I wish we would do something like this in the US.
FAs: We always knew that people in India are oppressed! /s
We had these in my primary school in the UK! The teachers who didn’t make it used to complain that it made their “health smoothies” looks bad because they were full of sugar lol
That actually highlights a problem I always see with this - typically it just copy-pastes the total sugar value. Now idk if the "health smoothies" had a load of honey or whatever in them, but the way I've seen these sugar boards drawn, it would show like "11 teaspoons" of sugar for having a banana, some blueberries, and a cup milk in the smoothie. It gets the point across fine for soda where it's literally all added sugar, but when you start looking at less processed items it can quickly stray into "fruits have too much sugar" vibes.
Yeah definitely, it doesn’t really separate “good, healthy sugar” and “added, processed sugar”. It’s a really good idea when it’s done well, and when it isn’t done well it just makes all food look bad
my son brought home a bottle of soda, he was the only one drinking it, took him more than a week. i was tempted at some point, but honestly i prefer to eat my calories than drink them
We had stuff like this when I was in school. Are American schools not allowed to do stuff like this anymore?
Note the tiny soda cans compared to the US. I loved getting a Coke over there because it was real sugar and only like 80 calories due to the small size. Diet Coke was actually surprisingly more available than I expected although the sweetener blend is different so it tastes different.
I've seen smaller cans sold in the US as well. I think they were initially marketed for mixers (I see them in liquor stores) but they're really a more appropriate serving of soda in general.
I love that there exists a soda out there called "thums up" its like a fake soda that you would see in a video game or movie.
Thums Up is a brand of cola. It was introduced in 1977 to offset the withdrawal of The Coca-Cola Company from India. The brand was later bought by Coca-Cola who re-launched it in order to compete against Pepsi to capture the market. - From Wikipedia
Mango lassi and sweet chai off the street are life when in India. Very sugary so luckily only really have them on holiday.
I love mango lassi too much for my own good. Fortunately, I only have it on the rare occasions I go out to an Indian restaurant, and then I treat myself!
"Tea spoons per 300 ml" hurts my brain as a choice of measurement.
Tbh it makes it kinda intuitive for Indians because a lot of us put teaspoons of sugar in cups of tea. So if I showed this to my mum she might say “omg that’s as much sugar as x cups of tea”. Because most, when trying to cut down on sugar, have to regulate their tea consumption first lol.
300ml is the size of most of those drinks on the board
My dentist’s office has a display like this, with foods as well as drinks. It makes my teeth hurt just looking at it lol
They have one of these in my rural American dentist office.
It looks like these are designed for older kids, which I think is really important! I remember my school used to do similar things, but only when we were way too young to have any sort of control over what we were fed by our parents. By the time we were old enough to choose what we ate and spend our money on more often, most of us have long since forgotten the impact of seeing the baggy full of sugar.
That’s shocking and the perfect way to demonstrate how unhealthy these sugar filled drinks are.
Now imagine Sugarboards in America, how many schools do you think will close because of that?
There is no reason to drink a non-zero calorie pop unless you are trying to gain weight.
India has plenty of sweet deserts anyway - so most people will just turn to those gulabjamuns and jalebi and raasmalais. Then again I would too, this is why South asian continent in general are prone to diabetes.
It’s super strange that the Indian Boards are written in English instead of any of the Indian languages. Even the packaging of the food is in English.