LETTER | Our health, food choices deserve national attention

LETTER | Doctors who have spoken up and lent support to Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli’s spot-on assessment of the fast-deteriorating health and wellness of Malaysians, which deserves national attention.

While Malaysians' social media addiction to all things sex, sin, religion, racism and rumours hog the viral sensations - the state of our health, wellness and eating habits and choices which do not get the same traction, must now become a national concern if we are to see any turnaround.

I have, in the past, highlighted the deteriorating state of matters relating to food science knowledge, eating habits, rogue hawking and questionable bistro food outlets.

It is finally a great relief to hear a minister address the problem squarely, honestly and courageously.

We need more than policies and campaigns to address this “time bomb” that is already a serious, widespread liability to healthcare costs and services as well.

Obesity and all the symbiotically twinned problems - from heart disease to organ failures and diabetes need an abrupt remedy if we are to save the nation's future.

One, we need to remap our food business.

Begin by re-appraising licensing and stringent monitoring of food importers, manufacturers and the repackaging industry.

We have allowed glossy, arty, attractive packaging to cover up food that is truly bad and useless for health.

Two, we need to stop seeing hawking and restaurants as essential gears in the economic engine of nationhood.

Instead, we need to go beyond cleanliness (which is also a failure despite decades of enforcement) and ensure the nutritional value of food and knowledge of it, is emphasised as the responsibility of food sellers.

Three, home cooking - especially in urban environments suffers from a “no time to cook” syndrome.

With both couples having to work to make ends meet; with the two to three hours wasted getting to and from work daily; and the mindset that spending longer hours at the desk means you are hardworking and loyal to the employer - all of these have embedded a culture of eating out of necessity, convenience and a lack of time.

Too pricy

Fourth, good food - where upmarket restaurants serve with pricey bills, is far and well beyond most Malaysians.

Today in Malaysia – good and healthy choice food is way beyond the reach of most (if not all) B40 and many among the M40 category.

Five, in our quest to make quick, easy and tidy profits, fast foods were marketed for decades.

Even political parties - through their business tentacles, had ventured into fast food chains and eventually “flooded” the entire nation.

And so, an entire generation was fed unhealthy fast food. It has taken root as a lifestyle really.

Six, growing our own garden vegetables is great but in reality, we are pulling wool over our eyes.

The culprit is the housing industry. We built flats for the poorer segments. We sold upmarket condos.

We let the “free market enterprise” build landed properties with low-cost and medium-cost homes having just enough space to park their car.

Where is the allocation of plots in houses to grow garden vegetables, pray tell me.

We over-developed limited townships and capitalised (greedy ventures really) by inflating land prices in city centres to rake in ugly profits and to feed fast-tracked public listing ambitions.

And we proudly proclaim it is our track record as “fast developing nation”. On that same note, one past leader even reprimanded that there wasn’t enough land for everyone, while virgin reserves and forests got ravaged with impunity and made into wastelands.

Who really gained and who truly lost in all of these policies of past decades?

Today, we have beaten world records with our deteriorating health and wellness scores.

And today, despite having nature's best gifts of weather and soil fertility, 33 million people are languishing with mounting health and medical bills.

Our children and adults have no knowledge of food science. Even daily exercise is a luxury for many.

It is time to stop, hit the brakes, resolve and forge ahead with a national reset.

But are we united, agreed and willing to go the distance?

My best bet is, no. We are a failing population by comparison - even with some poorer nations not far from our shores.

We continue to cash in on crops by exporting the best bananas - while locals make do with low-quality “berangan” variety.

Check out the papayas and you will get the drift of reality.

When I was in London, I saw and bought the best petai from Malaysia. I have yet to find these in our local markets here.

Sad is not the word. Greed, failures and ignorance are our folly.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.