FOOD INDEX TO CURB NCD, OBESITY

Govt to use index to encourage healthy eating habits, especially among schoolchildren, says Health Ministry official

MALAYSIA has launched its first Food-Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI) yesterday to fight the rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and obesity. Health deputy director-general Datuk Dr Azman Abu Bakar said the Food-EPI would be used as a benchmark in the government’s desire to promote a healthy eating habit.

He said eating healthily must be encouraged from a young age, especially among schoolchildren.

“While the introduction of preventive policies in ensuring a healthier food environment is important, the awareness on eating healthy food needs to be emphasised from a young age.

“A healthy lifestyle plays a major role in creating a healthy food environment.

“NCDs and obesity are rising, especially among children. With this policy, we can now tackle them.

“We should not just discuss the type sof food, but also the industry.

“The policies need to be implemented at all sectors.” he said.

Taylor University Pro-Vice-Chancellor (research and enterprise) Professor Dr Anthony Ho said having a healthy and supportive food environment played a vital role in preventing NCDs.

“Over the last few decades, NCDs have risen at an alarming rate.

“The National Health and Morbidity Survey 2015 reported about 73 per cent of deaths in Malaysia were due to NCDs, with half the number caused by cardiovascular diseases.

“We hope that findings from the FoodEPI project will be useful to stakeholders to assess where the nation stands, where we do well, and where we can improve on — both soft and hard policies,” he said.

The project was a collective effort of experts and researchers from Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

Present at the launch was Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Faculty of Health Sciences dean Professor Dr Bariah Mohd Ali.