On too much sweat, too little sweat and sugary drinks

Last Updated on April 1, 2021

Lite FM radio (frequency 107.5 in the Klang Valley) have this morning segment of Living Lite with Dr Rajbans Singh. Dr Rajbans Singh is a consultant, physician and president and of the Malaysian Wellness Society.

Sometimes I catch a snippet of this while on my way to office in the morning. Last Wednesday, I managed the hear the last part of the show and some of the advice stuck in my mind. I was glad that Lite FM actually have podcast of the show where those who miss it/stay in another country can listen to the podcast.

Last Wednesday, the topic was ‘Lifestyle changes you can make to reduce the risk of cancer’. You may listen to part 5 of the podcast which covered the discussion as per below:

Exercise and staying slim…these are good attributes that can help prevent cancer. Then to the subject of sweating: Why a person does not sweat a lot?

In which Dr Rajbans answered, a person who does not sweat a lot could be because the body had chosen to remove toxins in other ways, or that we may need to build up our metabolic rate …and the sweating will increase.

Anyway, I have a slim friend who told me that she literally does not sweat– which worries me. Even during the result of medical checkup that she had undergone, the blood imaging indicates that her blood work tend to bind a little together- like crystals. She decided to go on a week of detox diet – no meat and more of fruits and vegetables. And after which, her blood results became more healthy.

Sara (the radio host) agreed as she mentioned she had been sweating more now that she is hitting the gym.

Then how about too much of sweating? Is it something to be worried about?

No, so long as we hydrate ourselves enough- it should not be problem.

Then how about the overweight or obese folks? They tend to sweat a lot.

For them, excessive sweating may not be an indicator of good health- because the body had to perspire as a way of throwing out heat and toxins away.

Dr Rajbans also mentioned that we can acquire the taste for anything- so long as we keep doing it – after 21 days, it becomes a habit. He cited his own personal experience- when he first started taking tea without sugar, at first he was not used to it. After he consistently did it for 21 days, he now take his tea without sugar. In fact, now if he takes sugar with his tea he would feel like…yikes.

The sugar content in drinks is an easy culprit for weight gain. When we consume sweet drinks, we are literally drinking in our calories- these are harder to see but they add up. You may check up the caloric content of Malaysia 3-in-1 coffee that I’ve compiled for various brands sold in Malaysia. If you eat a Magnum or a few bar of chocolates consistently- you know where the weight gain is coming from. But if you drink about 3 packets of 3-in-1 coffee each day, you would not be aware that you are taking in an excess of between 450 to 600 extra calories.

It would probably take an hour of punishing physical workout to burn off those calories. And often, we can probably do such intense exercise about once or twice a week. If you have been exercising and wondering why you are not losing weight, check if you have been consuming too much of sugary drinks- once you cut down, you may be amazed that you would start to lose weight.