KUALA LUMPUR: The sugar intake by Malaysians has reached a "very alarming" stage and the country will continue to incur huge economic and social costs unless they change their "sweet-toothed" lifestyle, a prominent physiotherapist warned.
Dr B. S. Bains said some 14.5 per cent of the 26 million Malaysians are down with diabetes with the number growing at a seemingly uncontrollable rate.
On average, Malaysians consume around 120 grams of sugar a day.
The recommended intake is 50 grams.
Dr Bains, who is president of the Physiotherapy Association of Malaysia and chief executive officer of the Bains chain of physiotherapy clinics, said the high sugar content of many of the favourite food and drinks consumed by Malaysians was a major cause of diabetes
In an interview with Bernama, he identified Malaysians' propensity to drink "teh tarik" (tea with condensed sweetened milk) as the number one culprit for the high sugar consumption.
Recently, Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) president S.M. Mohamed Idris said Malaysia's "national drink" or teh tarik contained about six teaspoons of sugar.
Saying that the human body does not need extra sugar, he added that sugar, which was devoid of nutrients, "acted more like a drug", and was linked to over 60 ailments such as cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart problems, osteoporosis, kidney problems, asthma and other allergies.
"It's time the consumers were given the alternative of choosing fresh milk or unsweetened milk in their teh tarik. Why must it be confined to condensed milk only?" Dr Bains asked.
He appealed to the government to start a major campaign to change the people's eating habits and "engineer their sugar intake".
Such a long over-due national campaign should be started in line with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's "People First, Performance Now" slogan.
"The government certainly is the biggest agent of change and what better way than to earnestly start this campaign for a healthy population. We just can't go on building more and more expensive hospitals and footing the huge costs associated with health care," he said.
Dr Bains also urged the government to seriously revisit what he described as the country's "blatant sugar democracy" where sugar was too freely used in virtually all food items.
Reducing sugar intake would also mean the government saving billions in subsidy for the commodity.
He also suggested that the local authorities should review the issuing of licences for new 24-hour "teh tarik" outlets as Malaysia already had far too many of these ubiquitous stalls.
"Because of such outlets, many people who are supposed to rest and sleep are drinking teh tarik at 2 or 3 am. Their brain, body, muscles, bones are not resting and that's why they fall sick easily.
"How are they supposed to give their best at their workplace the next day?"
he asked, adding that the existence of these 24-hour stalls was making people to be out of their homes at uncivilised hours, thus adding to the accident and crime rates. - Bernama
No comments:
Post a Comment