The fat Malaysian
JJ RayPublished: May 2, 2006 6:06 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 10:21 AM
Malaysians have a serious problem on their hands. They have willingly embraced one of the seven deadly sins - gluttony.
No thanks to the food fetish, obesity has become an 'epidemic' with some 1.7 million adults being major candidates for heart disease.
A 10-month study by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) last year revealed that one million of them are women, many of whom have stopped exercising after getting married or later on in life.
Malaysians have a serious problem on their hands. They have willingly embraced one of the seven deadly sins - gluttony.
No thanks to the food fetish, obesity has become an 'epidemic' with some 1.7 million adults being major candidates for heart disease.
A 10-month study by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) last year revealed that one million of them are women, many of whom have stopped exercising after getting married or later on in life.
UPM associate professor Dr Lekhraj Rampal said the situation has spiralled out of control over the past five years due to a sedentary lifestyle. The study examined the risk of cardiovascular disease.
In 1996, health ministry statistics showed that 4.4 percent of the 10.4 million adult population was obese. Eight years later, the number had jumped to 12. 2 percent.
Lekhraj said there was a significant relationship between obesity and gender, age, race and level of education. Of those deemed obese, over one million were Malays, 400,000 were Chinese and nearly 200,000 were Indians.
Horrifying statistics, but preventable if only Malaysians stop being lazy and start making health their top priority. When it concerns health, ignorance can never be a bliss considering that cardiovascular disease has been the No. number one killer in the country over the past 40 years.
Children also obese
Obesity also affects children. A Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia study in 1998 showed that, of the 1, 026 schoolchildren aged seven to nine who took part in the survey, 12. 5 percent of boys and five percent of girls were obese.
However, it took the education ministry another seven years to merely consider placing nutritionists in schools to monitor the food served and to cultivate good eating habits among young Malaysians. In schools with low enrolment levels, teachers had to help out.
In Britain, meanwhile, the authorities have imposed a ban on vending machines selling fizzy drinks, chocolates and potato chips in all schools. The move followed a similar exercise in France which has replaced vending machines with water fountains in schools. Laudable move, most certainly!
Back home, however, the government has no such intention, which means it will continue to allow schoolchildren easy access to unhealthy eating habits. Incidentally, the Consumer Association of Penang has, for years, repeatedly called for a ban on vending machines offering junk food and drinks in schools.
The education ministry came out with a book on guidelines for school canteen operators in 2004 outlining food that is discouraged or prohibited in school canteens.
Strangely, one of the guidelines states that any food that contains excess oil, fat, sugar and preservatives is not encouraged, such as instant noodles, drinks with artificial colouring and carbonated soft drinks. And yet the government sees no problem in allowing vending machines selling soft drinks and junk food in schools.
Now, what is really going on here? Would the education ministry care to explain its reluctance in removing vending machines from schools? Why the lack of commitment in ensuring schoolchildren are not deprived of a balanced meal?
Issuing a booklet is not going to help if there is no enforcement by the education and health ministries respectively. Consistent surprise checks must be done on school canteens to make sure that operators adhere strictly to the guidelines.
Lack of commitment
If the government is sincerely concerned with the problem of obesity, it should have wasted no time in arresting the problem. But all it has done is to carry out ineffective campaigns which have barely made a dent in eating habits.
Teaching children and parents about healthy eating habits should be the topmost priority. While there is not much that can be done to prevent fast food restaurants from operating, the government can get them to come up with charts and information on healthy eating habits.
While profit will remain their main motive, restaurant operators must make sure they also do their social obligation by working with the government in arresting the problem of obesity.
Also, more talks, articles and documentaries become part of an aggressive delivery of messages on healthy eating.
Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek recently stated that 13 percent of the population used to exercise regularly, at least three times a week in 2003. However, the percentage of obesity had increased from 20 percent in 1996 to 37 percent in 2003.
The rise also explained the increase in the number of people suffering from high blood pressure, stroke and heart ailments each year. Statistics show that three million of the population have high blood pressure while 900, 000 are diabetic.
The Malaysian food intake had also seen a drastic change not only in the quantity of consumption but also the diet composition. Calorie intake stood at 2, 881 per capita per day when it should be limited to a maximum of 2, 500 and 2,000 a day for males and females respectively.
To tackle this problem, the government launched the second phase of the National Plan of Action for Nutrition in February. The plan targeted the prevalence rate for overweight adults at below 30 percent and obesity at below 15 percent. It also seeks to make sure that not more than 10 percent of children below the age of 12 are overweight.
After the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) was detailed in March, the government set up a board to design sports and cultural programmes in an effort to get Malaysians off the couch. Health is a big priority under the 9MP, with the health ministry allocating RM50 million for projects to get Malaysians to refrain from bad habits like smoking, unhealthy eating and refusing to exercise.
Chua can keep his fingers crossed hoping that through the 9MP, the eating habits of Malaysians will change for the better and so will their waistlines.
At the end of the day, it is not the board nor the money-wasting programmes that can change the mind of Malaysians when it comes to living healthy. The effort to want to maintain a healthy weight and eat health must come from the hearts of the people. and this as we can see, will take a long time coming.
No thanks to the food fetish, obesity has become an 'epidemic' with some 1.7 million adults being major candidates for heart disease.
A 10-month study by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) last year revealed that one million of them are women, many of whom have stopped exercising after getting married or later on in life.
UPM associate professor Dr Lekhraj Rampal said the situation has spiralled out of control over the past five years due to a sedentary lifestyle. The study examined the risk of cardiovascular disease.
In 1996, health ministry statistics showed that 4.4 percent of the 10.4 million adult population was obese. Eight years later, the number had jumped to 12. 2 percent.
Lekhraj said there was a significant relationship between obesity and gender, age, race and level of education. Of those deemed obese, over one million were Malays, 400,000 were Chinese and nearly 200,000 were Indians.
Horrifying statistics, but preventable if only Malaysians stop being lazy and start making health their top priority. When it concerns health, ignorance can never be a bliss considering that cardiovascular disease has been the No. number one killer in the country over the past 40 years.
Children also obese
Obesity also affects children. A Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia study in 1998 showed that, of the 1, 026 schoolchildren aged seven to nine who took part in the survey, 12. 5 percent of boys and five percent of girls were obese.
However, it took the education ministry another seven years to merely consider placing nutritionists in schools to monitor the food served and to cultivate good eating habits among young Malaysians. In schools with low enrolment levels, teachers had to help out.
In Britain, meanwhile, the authorities have imposed a ban on vending machines selling fizzy drinks, chocolates and potato chips in all schools. The move followed a similar exercise in France which has replaced vending machines with water fountains in schools. Laudable move, most certainly!
Back home, however, the government has no such intention, which means it will continue to allow schoolchildren easy access to unhealthy eating habits. Incidentally, the Consumer Association of Penang has, for years, repeatedly called for a ban on vending machines offering junk food and drinks in schools.
The education ministry came out with a book on guidelines for school canteen operators in 2004 outlining food that is discouraged or prohibited in school canteens.
Strangely, one of the guidelines states that any food that contains excess oil, fat, sugar and preservatives is not encouraged, such as instant noodles, drinks with artificial colouring and carbonated soft drinks. And yet the government sees no problem in allowing vending machines selling soft drinks and junk food in schools.
Now, what is really going on here? Would the education ministry care to explain its reluctance in removing vending machines from schools? Why the lack of commitment in ensuring schoolchildren are not deprived of a balanced meal?
Issuing a booklet is not going to help if there is no enforcement by the education and health ministries respectively. Consistent surprise checks must be done on school canteens to make sure that operators adhere strictly to the guidelines.
Lack of commitment
If the government is sincerely concerned with the problem of obesity, it should have wasted no time in arresting the problem. But all it has done is to carry out ineffective campaigns which have barely made a dent in eating habits.
Teaching children and parents about healthy eating habits should be the topmost priority. While there is not much that can be done to prevent fast food restaurants from operating, the government can get them to come up with charts and information on healthy eating habits.
While profit will remain their main motive, restaurant operators must make sure they also do their social obligation by working with the government in arresting the problem of obesity.
Also, more talks, articles and documentaries become part of an aggressive delivery of messages on healthy eating.
Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek recently stated that 13 percent of the population used to exercise regularly, at least three times a week in 2003. However, the percentage of obesity had increased from 20 percent in 1996 to 37 percent in 2003.
The rise also explained the increase in the number of people suffering from high blood pressure, stroke and heart ailments each year. Statistics show that three million of the population have high blood pressure while 900, 000 are diabetic.
The Malaysian food intake had also seen a drastic change not only in the quantity of consumption but also the diet composition. Calorie intake stood at 2, 881 per capita per day when it should be limited to a maximum of 2, 500 and 2,000 a day for males and females respectively.
To tackle this problem, the government launched the second phase of the National Plan of Action for Nutrition in February. The plan targeted the prevalence rate for overweight adults at below 30 percent and obesity at below 15 percent. It also seeks to make sure that not more than 10 percent of children below the age of 12 are overweight.
After the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) was detailed in March, the government set up a board to design sports and cultural programmes in an effort to get Malaysians off the couch. Health is a big priority under the 9MP, with the health ministry allocating RM50 million for projects to get Malaysians to refrain from bad habits like smoking, unhealthy eating and refusing to exercise.
Chua can keep his fingers crossed hoping that through the 9MP, the eating habits of Malaysians will change for the better and so will their waistlines.
At the end of the day, it is not the board nor the money-wasting programmes that can change the mind of Malaysians when it comes to living healthy. The effort to want to maintain a healthy weight and eat health must come from the hearts of the people. and this as we can see, will take a long time coming.
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