Oodles of noodle issues

Manila – A diet heavy on cheap, modern food like instant noodles that fills bellies but lacks key nutrients has left millions of children unhealthily thin or overweight in southeast Asia, experts say.

The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia have booming economies and rising standards of living, yet many working parents do not have the time, money or awareness to steer clear of food hurting their kids.

In those three nations, an average of 40% of children aged five and below are malnourished, higher than the global average of one-in-three, according to a report out yesterday from Unicef, the UN children’s agency.

“Parents believe that filling their children’s stomach is the most important thing. They don’t really think about an adequate intake of protein, calcium or fibre,” Hasbullah Thabrany, a public health expert in Indonesia, said.

Unicef said the harm done to children was both a symptom of past deprivation and a predictor of future poverty, while iron deficiency impaired a child’s ability to learn and raised a woman’s risk of death during or shortly after childbirth.

To give some sense of scale to the problem, Indonesia had 24.4 million children under five last year, while the Philippines had 11 million and Malaysia 2.6 million, Unicef data showed.

Mueni Mutunga, Unicef Asia nutrition specialist, traced the trend back to families ditching traditional diets for affordable, easy-to-prepare “modern” meals.

Noodles are low on essential nutrients and micronutrients like iron and are also protein-deficient while having high fat and salt content, Mutunga added.

Indonesia was the world’s second-biggest consumer of instant noodles, behind China, with 12.5 billion servings last year, according to the World Instant Noodles Association. This is more than the total consumed by India and Japan put together.

Nutrient-rich fruits, vegetables, eggs, dairy, fish and meat are disappearing from diets as the rural population moves to the cities in search of jobs, the Unicef report said. Though the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia are all middle-income countries by World Bank measures, tens of millions of their people struggle to make enough money to live.

“Poverty is the key issue,” said T Jayabalan, a public health expert in Malaysia, adding that households where both parents work need quickly made meals. Low-income households in Malaysia depended largely on noodles, sweet potatoes and soya-based products for major meals, he said.

Rolling back the influence instant noddles have on the lives, and health, of southeast Asians will likely require government intervention, experts said.

Thabrany added: “There is massive distribution. Instant noodles are available everywhere.” –