Sugar consumption

Sugar consumption

From Kompas

I am referring to the report published in Kompas on Dec. 8, 1994 about the consumption of sugar. Prof. Dr. FG Winarno from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture explained in a symposium that excessive consumption of sugar can be harmful to health. As a member of the Association of Indonesian Experts on Sugar, I have the following comments.

In the era of globalization highly competitive products should be encouraged in order to increase farmers' income and provide employment opportunities. Natural cane sugar is competitive on the world market. Brown sugar, beet sugar and refined cane sugar are natural sweeteners that are high in calories and have nutritious value. Sugar can also enhance the capacity of the human brain, particularly children's and teenagers'.

This is evident from the high consumption per capita of sugar in developed and developing countries (over 20 kilograms per year) like Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, France, The Netherlands, Britain, Singapore.

I agree that people over 40 years old must be careful and reduce their consumption of natural sugar. They should also cut down on other food which contains high cholesterol and fat.

SOETOJO

Jakarta