By Lee Woo-jin
A lot of Koreans are familiar with "tanghulu," a traditional Chinese snack consisting of several sugar-coated fruits on a skewer, gaining huge popularity among Korea's MZ generation. There are over 120,000 Instagram posts related to tanghulu. Also, according to the delivery application Baedal Minjok, the related search volume in July this year increased 47 times compared to January. This figure surpasses that of "malatang," another popular Chinese food. Although many people enjoy this trend, it is true that it also raises some concerns, to the extent that a head of a tanghulu franchise has been summoned by the parliament's Health and Welfare Committee during a government audit session this month. Eating sweets like tanghulu is not conducive to good health. Recent statistics indicate that the obesity rate among people in their 20s has exceeded 25 percent. This may be related to increased sugar intake these days, and tanghulu is but one example of "unhealthy" food.
Along with tanghulu, the zero-sugar labeling on many drinks also caught my attention. Zero sugar drinks are so popular that domestic sales have exceeded 10 trillion won. Even without citing statistics, you can easily feel the ubiquitous presence of zero-sugar items via the many TV commercials, which feature K-pop stars such as NewJeans, Le Sserafim and (G)I-dle. This naturally leads to the obvious question: Why are people's sugar intake levels increasing despite the zero-sugar trend as well as the obesity rate? The popularity of zero-sugar products means that people are concerned about their health and therefore, try to pursue healthy lives. So why is tanghulu selling like hotcakes?
Anyway, isn't it a bit strange and paradoxical? On the one hand, we eat a lot of sugar and on the other hand, we try to avoid sugar. If so, I wonder which comes first. Did people's health deteriorate because they ate a lot of sugary foods such as tanghulu, or alternatively, did people seek out zero sugar products for the benefit of their health? Or did the emergence of zero-sugar products reduce people's vigilance against sugar, resulting in increased sugar intake? Some people think the answer is simple. Sugar has a long history, while zero sugar products have a short history. Therefore, one would think it is logical that high sugar consumption led to demand for zero-sugar products. But I think we need to think about the opposite logic as well. People feel relatively relieved about sweet foods while consuming zero sugar products, which allows people to consume more sugar. And this has a negative effect on their health.
There is a saying that nothing that is delicious is healthy. I completely agree with this statement. However, eating delicious food is an important part of life for humans. That's why I don't want to be critical of people who eat tanghulu or drink Zero co*ke. However, excessive consumption of these things can lead to poor health and you may soon become unhappy. Therefore, we always need to be careful of the foods we eat.
I hope we can get out of the swamp of sweets in a world full of different kinds of food. And I hope that we will not become an obese society.
The writer (leewj02official@naver.com) is a first-year student at Dongguk University.
