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ShareOn the other hand, we, at least I, like many other Indians, love sweets. And we all know what that means. It's not my fault really that I have not one sweet tooth, but almost 32 of them. Look at what happens to us from the moment we are children. Sweets are always a part of celebration. When children are weepy, or won't take their medicines, when they are sick, or when they bruise their knees, love often takes the form of a hug followed by a sweet, to take the pain away. Sugar in milk makes the milk go down, additives and supplements to milk, more often than not are loaded with sugar. Sugar is after all energy and a child, we believe, so full of tricks and so active through the day, needs the boost.
Celebrations are marked by sweets made with labour and love, and distributed as a symbol of caring and affection. More time and effort has been expended by creative cooks in the concoction of things sweet than on creating vegetable or other staple dishes. The cuisine of every country has its entire encyclopedia of sweets and desserts. And which child can forget the extreme wonder of standing holding a coin in one hand while trying to decide from the universe of colours and shapes that stand staring back from the glass bottles on the confectioner's shelves, where he should spend his money.
The temptations come in every form, everything from rice to milk to cocoa can be transformed into a sweet, fruits, vegetables, even roots can be sugared and become wonderous food for the soul. We do not realize it then, but as the years turn, sugar becomes a crutch. We associate sugared confections with solace; in times of stress, with comfort, and even as we count the calories, we cannot but reach for one more tempting morsel. Yet, even as it soothes the mind and salves bruised psyches, sugar works insidiously. It digs deep trenches in tooth enamel, it burrows under the skin subcutaneously creating little globules of fat that suddenly burgeon into shapes that will just not go away.
Sugar cravings have been the undoing of our bodies, of our minds; of many an owner of an insulin challenged system. Yet sugar is as necessary as salt, to our wellbeing. Or why would nature have created natural sugar rich foods... the mango, the beet, the sugar bearing cane... among many others. But women, caring and creative as always, for centuries given to the task of seducing the minds and stomachs of their families, improved on nature and created sweet dishes and desserts. And have paid for opening this Pandora's box by being enslaved by the tiny crystal cubes. I've tried to wean my self away from my sweet fixation, by abstaining completely. I tried it for a year, but found myself sneaking in sugar in disguised forms. An extra spoonful in my coffee, more jam on my toast, honey in milk....and yet there was this constant feeling of deprivation. Till I gave in with a shrug.
It's a sweet life, after all, I consoled myself as I loaded my plate with pastries. Let's love it to the hilt.
