Malaysia is heaven for food lovers, from our classic Nasi Lemak to award winning laksa, there is nothing that can’t satisfy your taste buds here!
Photo: Food You Should Try
… but our food paradise may just be a curse for Malaysians, as a total of 7 million adults is expected to be affected by diabetes by 2025!
According to the Ministry of Health, over 3.6 million Malaysians currently suffer from diabetes. That puts Malaysia as having the highest rate of diabetes sufferers across Asia and one of the highest in the world!
Malaysian Health Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, told the Cambridge-Oxford Sunway Biomedical Symposium that the increase in diabetes cases is mainly for Type 2 diabetes. The causes for this disease is mainly attributed to excess body weight due to overeating and also the lack of physical exercise.
What’s alarming is that the increase in diabetes sufferers will also add an extra burden to the economy, as the majority of the public health system is subsidized by the government.
A study in 2011 showed that the cost of treating diabetes stands at about RM2bil of the entire healthcare budget for the year 2011. That cost could run up to as high as RM3.52bil if societal costs were included.
Dr Feisul Idzwan Mustapha, deputy director of non-communicable diseases at the Ministry of Health, noted that there are a lot of diabetes cases that go undiagnosed.
He told The Star that for “For everyone who is diagnosed (with diabetes) there is one who is undiagnosed. The proportion of those undiagnosed with diabetes is high in Malaysia because despite availability and accessibility of health screening, many Malaysians are not getting their health screened.”
The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) recently released its annual Diabetes Atlas in conjunction with World Diabetes Day on November 14th. The report found that over 460 million cases of diabetes was recorded worldwide and by 2050, the number is expected to go up to 700 million!
Besides diabetes, many Malaysians also suffers from obesity. The Ministry of Health also pointed out that Malaysia is amongst the fattest countries in Asia, with over 33% of us being overweight and 18% being obese.
If these statistics doesn’t scare you, we don’t know what will. So let’s put down our early morning Nasi Lemak and try to lead a more healthy and active lifestyle starting today!
By: Siti Farhana Sheikh Yahya
