RIYADH: “It is the month of sweets,” says Abu Naif, a sales representative for sweets and pastries, adding that it is a Ramadan habit that people tend to load their tables with sweets after a long day of fasting.
Although Abu Naif was reluctant to give the exact figures for sweets sales during Ramadan, he assured Arab News that sales double, especially with regard to Arabic sweets and those filled with cream.
One reason, according to Abu Naif, that makes people buy sweets in Ramadan is “hospitality,” as Ramadan gatherings are the norm during the holy month when keeping in touch with relatives and family becomes so important.
On the other hand, Abu Omar, a sales manager of another famous brand of sweets, strongly believes — like most people — that the body actually needs sweets at the end of a day of fasting.
“Although my company produces diet sweets, people prefer the regular ones,” says Abu Omar.
“The idea that people need sweets after fasting is wrong,” says Dr. Faraj Gindi, a consultant nephrologist. “In my opinion, Ramadan is a suitable time for diabetics to regulate their sugar levels.”
He explained that if people fasted as they should, the month would be beneficial to them healthwise.
Gindi advises those who are fasting to replace sweets alongside their meals with fruits; he says that there is no biological explanation for the craving for sweets since two dates are sufficient to supply the body — of a diabetic or a nondiabetic — with all the necessary sugar it needs.
He added that a healthy diet during Ramadan — adding more vegetables to meals and cutting down on sweets as well as exercising — would “give us the benefits which the holy month is meant to.”
Exercising, Gindi suggests, can be done by the young right after iftar (the fast-breaking sunset meal) while for the older, a wait of two hours is better.
The nephrologist mentions that it is healthier to divide food intake in Ramadan to a light meal for iftar, to be followed by a second one about four hours later. A third meal, the sahur, should be taken another four or five hours later.
