As the prices of basic food items continue to skyrocket, an expert have warned that caution should be made in replacing sugar with sweeteners, to avoid endangering their lives.
Sugar which is most commonly used item in all households across the country, however, it’s price continue to sour higher and there are tendencies of people adopting sweeteners in it’s absence.
Malama Aishatu is a producer of local pap(kunu), told WikkiTimes that due to increase in prices of sugar, she changed into sweeteners as it is less costly and can serve the purpose.
According to her, she can not afford to buy a single measure of sugar at over two thousand naira which can not last for more than a week, saying with five hundred naira sweeteners she can served her family’s pap for a week.
“Nowadays I can’t afford to buy sugar and we need this pap on daily basis. The children have to be fed with it and we also need it to break our fast. The price is beyond our expectations and we can’t afford it. My neighbors used sweeteners so I adopted it and it is even sweeter than our sugar and also less expensive. So with five hundred naira I can have my pap ready and everyone enjoyed it”, she told WikkiTimes.
Malam Musa Mai Shayi said he has to adopt sweeteners to survive his tea business,but said he often faced challenges from his customers.
“They sometimes complained that the sugar is high and it may be have side effects, but there’s nothing I can do than to used it. I have to explain to them and most of them understand me. This is not the way I wanted it but I have no alternative”, he said.
Muhammed Auwal is a food scientist told WikkiTimes that there is a high chance of people using too much sweetener getting diabetes due to lack of adherence to manufacturer’s instructions.
According to him, human body need sugar to produce energy for daily work but it’s excess in the body can lead to illnesses especially if it is not excreted out, hence calling on people to be mindful of how they consume sweeteners nowadays.
“Taking excess sugar will lead to production of insulin which in turn convert the excess sugar to glycogen stores which will be circulated to liver and muscles which in turn gives one energy”.
“However, the failure of insulin to convert excess sugar is what causes diabetes which is retention of excess sugar in the blood or lever cell”.
“The sign include too much thirst, frequent hunger and delay in wound healing. So taking too much sweeteners is dangerous to someone’s body because it is not regulated unlike sugar which is automatically regulated by the company”.
“Processed Saccerene contain too much sugar and contain preservatives and flavouring agents but our people will just buy and not mind looking at the instructions given by the manufacturer and this can lead to diabetes.
So it is advisable that people desist from too much intake of Saccerene which they may used it for long time but consume it at once”, he opined.
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