Kanpur: One-day National Conference & Expo 'Meetha 2022' commenced at

National Sugar Institute, Kanpur on Tuesday. The conference was inaugurated

virtually by Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary (Food & Public Distribution)

Government of India.

In his address Sudhanshu Pandey emphasized upon conducting awareness

programmes to bring forth the reality as to whether sugar is the only culprit for

diabetes, obesity and other health issues or it is attributed to physical work outs

and balanced diet. We need to also work on product diversification producing

nutritive sugars and other sweeteners like jaggery for their better acceptability by

the common man, he said.

Subodh Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary (Sugar) Government of India in his address

expressed concerns over sugary tax being imposed by many countries to reduce

sugar consumption. Sugar may not be the culprit for us otherwise also as our per

capita consumption (19 kg/per annum) is less than world's average (22.5

kg/annum) and is almost one-third of Brazil (56 kg/annum).

Narendra Mohan, Director, National Sugar Institute presented details of studies

taken up by International Sugar Organization which indicates no established

correlation between obesity and sugar consumption. Alok Vaish, Managing

Director, M/s Baja Hindusthan Sugars Ltd., who also inaugurated the Expo,

expressed his concerns over almost static direct consumption of sugar in the

country. In the technical session, Dr. (Mrs.) Seema Jaiswal, CSJM University, in her

presentation presented details of studies which indicates that increase in lipid

profile, obesity and cardio vascular disease is not necessarily linked with sugar

intake.

Dr. Narendra Gupta, Director, Diabetes and Hypertension Centre, Gurugram spoke

on myths and facts surrounding diabetes.