Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate 30% less sugar review

One of my Insta followers had DMed me to share my thoughts on the new Cadbury Dairy Milk with 30% less sugar. 

My criteria for picking products is quite simple - any brand that uses health-related claims in their promotions. That's the reason why you wouldn't have seen many reviews of typical chocolates or candies in my blog.

In my 20s, Dairy Milk used to be one of my favorite chocolates. I was never a big chocolate fan but whenever I wanted to eat a piece of chocolate, I used to choose Dairy Milk - the regular one (not the kozha kozha silk version). 

Dairy Milk wasn't on my radar of packaged food reviews, but this DM from a reader along with this media article with the attractive headline "Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate gets a healthier version with 30% less sugar" coaxed me to check out its ingredients.

From a brand perspective, quoting from this LiveMint article,

The company is betting that indulgence-seeking consumers who are also health-conscious will opt for the low-sugar variant.

Let's look at the comparison of the regular Dairy Milk along with the new less sugar version.

1. Yes, it is true that the new one has 30% less sugar. What's shocking is the amount of sugar present in the regular chocolate - a whopping 57%. I'm sure many of us wouldn't have realized the high amounts of sugar in the first place.
2. The Saturated Fat values still remain the same and the ingredient "Edible Vegetable Fat" is being used but no information shared on the source of this fat. The low sugar version contains the same emulsifiers and artificial flavouring substances, as compared to the regular chocolate.
3. Given that the sugar values have reduced by 30%, I was hoping that the carbs value would also have reduced proportionately but it hasn't. Carbs are more or less the same.
4. The ingredient "Soluble corn fibre" (SCF) contributes to the increase in carbs and fibre. On googling, I came across this medical research paper that talks about how SCF contributes to bone health. But I'm skeptical of it as the sample size is too small (14 women participated). There has been quite a discussion in the Keto community about this ingredient but mostly mixed responses. My conclusion - SCF is derived by processing corn syrup. There is nothing natural about it, even though some people claim that it can act as a prebiotic. SCF is typically used by food manufacturers as it is extremely cheap and can add bulk to processed foods. Some articles also state that SCF is nothing but resistant maltodextrin. 

All I'd like to suggest is this - Just because it is being promoted as 30% less sugar, let's not go overboard and stock up our fridge with loads of it and eat a pack whenever sugar/chocolate cravings hit us. It is still the same junk as compared to any other piece of chocolate. Let's get to the root cause of our cravings and address the real issue.

How to plan for Nutritional Variety?

This post has been lying in the draft mode for a year now. Finally, I made the time to complete it, along with a personal reflection.

Two incidents triggered me to work on this topic.

(1) Last July, I was delivering a talk on child nutrition to a group of young mothers. While discussing the topic of including more vegetables, I mentioned about the sheer variety of the native, local veggies available in India and how we could easily rotate the intake of vegetables once every 15-20 days. A couple of moms wondered if that is even possible. One of them told me that she usually ends up cooking the usual carrots, beans and potatoes.

(2) D seems to have taken a fascination towards buffet restaurants. Two of our family's favorite buffet places in Bangalore are Chutney Chang and Mango Greens (JP Nagar). Whenever we go to such buffet places, D knows exactly what she wants - pasta. She would have 2 servings of pasta, a bowl of cucumber/carrot slices and then head onto dessert section (mostly icecream, sometimes she would also eat chocolate mousse served in dessert spoons). She is happy at the end of her meal.

What do we adults do whenever we hit buffet restaurants for lunch? Not generalizing, but this is what happens mostly (including yours truly!)

First and foremost, we skip breakfast ;-)

We load up our plates with all possible foods (chaats, starters, soups, Indian main course, Western main course, Indian desserts, Western desserts and fruits in the end)

We tend to overeat, as we want to "receive maximum value" for the money we paid (Usually buffet meal is anywhere between Rs.500-Rs.800 in these places).

We might even order that tall glass of fruit juice (at an additional cost) that the waiters carry around the tables.

We come home and feel exhausted, maybe have a short (or a long) nap.

We wake up feeling groggy and intoxicated in the late evening.

We skip dinner, as our stomachs clearly scream, "no more food please, let me finish processing this load first"

Anyone can relate to this series of events? ;-)

After we experienced this cycle a few times, my husband and I decided that we will restrict our buffet restaurant outings to once in 6 months. On days we go for buffet lunch, we consciously make sure that we don't overeat.

How are these two incidents inter-connected?

Variety is the spice of life. We crave for variety in our foods. Given the easy availability of different kinds of cuisine, we would like to explore all of them. Depending on the food we eat, our digestive system secretes the required digestive enzymes to break down the food. Wrong food combinations and overloading the system with too many varieties in a single go can mess up the digestive process, resulting in bloating, acidity, constipation etc.

The current reality is - "We are overeating calories, but deficit on nutrients". Nutrient deficiency often leads to unwanted food cravings and various other health issues. 

The typical banana leaf meal served in South Indian cuisine is often made at home ONLY during special occasions. In Kerala, sadya meal is often prepared ONLY for Vishu and Onam. In Tamilnadu, the elaborate meal is made usually for Diwali and Pongal. In such meals, there will always be a special dish that helps in digestion (Inji puli, Diwali legiyam, rasam, spiced buttermilk). 

I have realized that the more variety I eat in a single meal, I find it difficult to digest and I end up feeling lethargic and drowsy after such a meal. We don't need to overdo variety in a single meal.

At the same time, our nutritional requirements (especially the micro-nutrients) can be met ONLY if we include a variety of vegetables, fruits, cereals and pulses in our diet. I don't prefer to take any vitamin/mineral supplements whatsoever.

So to ensure I get all the adequate nutrients, I've been planning my meals in such a way that 

"we eat less variety in a meal and more variety in a month"

The diligent tracker in me prepared this spreadsheet to track the variety of vegetables, fruits, greens, cereals and pulses in my meals this month (July 2019). The ones highlighted in blue indicate that I have included them in my meals in some way or the other.

As you can see, it is quite easy to rotate vegetable intake once every 15-20 days. Keep this list handy. You don't have to stock up all of them in one go. Whenever you go for weekly shopping, make sure you are buying a different set of veggies.

I'm consciously avoiding green leafy vegetables in monsoon season and will resume eating them once the rains subside.

Conscious meal planning helps us bring variety to our meals and makes cooking an interesting activity. Do you agree? :-)

Is breakfast the important meal of the day?

If I had answered this question a couple of years back, I would have said, "Yes, absolutely....breakfast is the important meal of the day". But now my answer is different - "All meals eaten AFTER you have felt hungry are important meals of the day". I'm not relying on scientific research to back up my answer but more to do with my personal experience. 

I have observed that on some mornings, I feel hungry enough to eat a solid breakfast. For eg, after an intense yoga practice today, I was quite hungry and so I grabbed a plate of dosais with dry coconut podi. A couple of days back, although my yoga practice was intense, I didn't feel hungry to eat and so grabbed a glass of vegan banana smoothie. By noon, I was hungry and ate a wholesome, homemade lunch. 

I'm slowly shifting my dinner timings to 7PM and so I fast for around 12 hours. I feel light and refreshed in the mornings. I'm no longer eating 3-4 meals based on set timings. 

I'm not advocating to skip breakfast. All I'm saying is to listen to your own body and eat only when you are hungry. There will be days when you feel a lot hungry in the mornings. Have some fresh fruits and nuts handy, make a quick homemade breakfast (not the breakfast cereal junk). On days when you are not hungry, give your body some time to finish the work it is engaged in. People who write about intermittent fasting talk about two phases that our body goes through - building phase and elimination phase. This makes a lot of sense to me. Again, don't immediately put me in the bucket of IF/Keto/LCHF and conclude that I'm gonna recommend a tall mug of bulletproof coffee 🙂

I read quite a bit about nutrition and follow the practices that I find relevant and sustainable for me. Please do your own due diligence before jumping onto anything.

Some might say "listen to your body" is nonsense. Let it be, that's your opinion. You could also try to prove me wrong by sharing some research articles. 

All I want to convey is that this idea - "listen to your body" is working for me and is guiding me well on what/when to eat.

Alarming levels of Sodium in packaged foods

Based on FSSAI's draft notification, I had earlier analyzed the sugar levels in various, popular packaged foods. If you haven't seen it, do check it out.

This post is all about sodium. As much as we give attention to sugar levels in packaged foods, we need to look for sodium quantities too.

According to WHO's report on "sodium intake for adults and children",

Elevated sodium intake has been associated with a number of NCDs (including hypertension, cardiovascular disease and stroke), and decreasing sodium intake may reduce blood pressure and the risk of associated NCDs

Higher sodium intake was associated with higher risk of incident stroke, fatal stroke and fatal coronary heart disease.

WHO recommends a reduction to <2 g/day sodium (5 g/day salt) in adults (strong recommendation).

The recommended maximum level of intake of 2 g/day sodium in adults should be adjusted downward based on the energy requirements of children relative to those of adults.

From my "Master List", I looked for the products with high sodium levels and compared the values with the thresholds prescribed by FSSAI in the draft notification. 

 As you can see, the values are alarmingly higher. In all these examples, it is more than double/triple the upper threshold values.

    Many brands don't even list sodium in their nutrition facts table. If and when the draft notification comes into effect, sodium will be made mandatory. Until then, it is better to avoid salty foods that don't list sodium in nutrition facts. 

    The brands listed in the above table are only a handful of examples. Do check the sodium levels in other similar brands (Amul cheese, Sunfeast Yippee noodles, etc).

Do we want to turn our observations into problems?

There will be some lines in a book that will leave you with a lasting impression even after you have finished reading it. As I was reading "Atomic Habits", this particular line made that impact on me.

Peace occurs when you don’t turn your observations into problems. You notice a cue, a bit of information, an event. If you do not desire to act on what you observe, then you are at peace.

Many times, we set goals or worry about certain issues based on what we read, what we see, what we hear, etc. For eg, "walk 10000 steps a day" has become one of the popular goals related to fitness. We read about it in news articles, see the step counter updates from our friends on social media and come across deals on pedometers. Firstly, it is important for us to think whether this is a goal worth aiming for. Is this a mere observation or do we want to embrace it as a problem to solve? Being physically active throughout the day is very important but does "walk 10000 steps a day" the right means to achieve the same? Is this a habit being perpetuated by the makers of pedometers? Something to think about. I'm not suggesting that this habit is wrong. All I'm saying is this - let's question it first instead of blindly following the herd. 

One of the habits I started tracking was "eat 3 servings of vegetables and 2 servings of fruits in a day". I have observed this goal in many articles/books I have read. But when I started observing my eating patterns, this felt too cumbersome. What does a serving mean? A cup? A bowl? measurement in gms? In my style of cooking, there are veggies added to sambhar, chutney, dal, etc. How do I account for these? Do I want to measure the quantity before eating? It indeed takes away the pleasure of eating (in my opinion, feel free to disagree). After having thought about all these, I decided I didn't want to pursue this habit. 

Another observation that I'm sure many of us might have noticed is the plethora of "sale" related emails/banners etc. The month of July is famous for such discount-focused sales in almost all retail clothing shops. The 50% / 75% number will be in big, bold font whereas the word "upto" preceding the discount percentage would be in tiny font size. But if we visit the stores, the clothes which we like would be under "New releases" or "No discounts" category whereas the ones which look dull/faded would be under "30% off" category. I had been disappointed a few times in the past, looking at the collection under discounts. I have also made the mistake of buying a few clothes at a discounted price but only to realize that they wear out after a couple of washes. What a waste of money! Not to forget the waste of precious time - thanks to the long queue right outside the trial room and billing counter. This year, I haven't bought any clothes for myself during this discount sale. I was getting a ton of promotional emails on a daily basis from Myntra/Westside/Soch/Max etc but I'm unsubscribing from them. Not interested to "convert these observations into my problems".