opinion
APRIL, 2018 | The HEALTH
The Swedish
Saturday candies and
Malaysian nasi lemak
M
A L AY S I A N S
hold the record
of the most obese
and overweight
nation in Asia
and probably the
world. It also recently prompted
a Malaysian MP to pronounce
that “Malaysian obesity proves
country’s prosperity”. A statement
that reflects the attitude of some of
our own lawmakers who should be
more responsible in tackling the
problem.
Almost three million people or
10 per cent of the population have
been diagnosed with some form
of weight related illnesses - gout,
diabetes, hypertension and high-
blood pressure.
And the incidence of these
diseases are occurring among
younger members of the
population, particularly with the
obsession of social media activities
and computer games.
I once met a 32-year-old tough
looking man who was diagnosed
with diabetes and sadly after three
days in hospital doctors had to
amputate his left foot in order to
save his life.
How sad.
My acupuncturist believes that
diabetes is not a disease - it is a
lifestyle. Change your lifestyle and
the diabetes is gone. How many
sufferers have been cured taking
medication or injecting insulin?
They take them till they die.
And what is the real cause of
this? It goes back to the question
of health awareness, nutritional
consciousness and leading a
healthier lifestyle.
Well we all say that. Yet many
of us continue to indulge in not so
healthy comfort food. Are we not
the gastronomical capital of the
world?
Sweden is a technologically
advanced country where modera-
tion, common sense, a passionate
love for the environment and a
healthy lifestyle are part of their
DNA. They have a strong sense
of empathy and caring for human
lives and a healthy lifestyle has
been inculcated from a very young
age. In schools if you are not into a
physical sport you are considered
a nerd.
Common sense and leading a
life of moderation is reflected in
the philosophy of the IKEA brand.
Its founder, Ingvar Kamprad died
recently in late January 2018 at the
age of 91, well above the average
life expectancy in Sweden of 80.3
years for men and 84 years for
women in 2015. Despite being a
billionaire and one of the greatest
entrepreneurs of the 20th century
frugality and thrift was his attitude
in life. For two decades he drove
a 1993 Volvo 240 GL, though
he prefers the public bus. He
also proudly claims buying his
clothes at the flea market.
He was the “typical southern
Swedish kind” from Smaland, a
small town in the south of Sweden.
A character with a lot of warmth
and a playful twinkle in his eye.
Having a Swedish son-in-law
in my own family I can relate to
that. They do have a dry sense of
humour which I find to be typical
Different
Stokes
by ADI SATRIA
A media and markerting
communications veteran
and now in his six series
(age -wise), he was
Sportswork Group lead
director at the recent
Kuala Lumpur 2017. He is
currently UA Advertising
Sdn Bhd’s chairman.
of Kedahans. A recent research
finding showed that the top most
reason why some people live a
long life is having social relation-
ships with people.
Kids are taught at a young
age about health, nutrition and a
sporting lifestyle and most impor-
tant is the relationship in society
irrespective of race, religion or
creed. By the way, Sweden takes
in the most number of refugees
from the conflicts in the Middle
East, Syria and North Africa.
When a baby is born the moth-
ers will have individual and group
counselling sessions in bringing
up their babies. The emphasis
is on nutrition and relationship
building.
Using the cane to bring up chil-
dren is a crime as discovered a few
years ago by a Malaysian expatri-
ate living in Stockholm, who were
imprisoned for caning their
children.
Kids are fed healthy sugar
free diets. The Swedes love their
sweets and candy but they are a
no-no for children except on
Saturdays, known as Lordagsgodis
- ‘Saturday Candy Day’. Following
the high incidence of tooth decay
among three year olds before
the Second World War, a human
experiment was conducted at
Vipeholm in 1946 and found that
sweets or candies was the cause.
As prevention was better than
cure, municipal laws were enacted
and the tradition of consuming
candy only on Saturday was born.
I was amazed by the array of
candies available during my visits
03
to Sweden. I must say they do take
their candies seriously. But the
emphasis really was on moderation
and exercise - a healthy lifestyle.
Unlike in Malaysia, you can
actually count the number of
overweight people there.
No wonder they have created
world champions in a variety of
sports.
Looking at our own backyard,
we have actually failed to educate
ourselves, let alone our children
in proper nutrition. We continue
to indulge in food that have poor
or little nutritional value. Besides
“lepaking”, the growing trend
of indulging in computer games
and social media, we also love
watching football at the mamak
during late nights or early morn-
ings over teh tarik, nasi lemak,
nasi kandar, roti canai and all that
comfort food.
That is not balanced by going to
the field to exercise.
Having said that, following the
success of Kuala Lumpur 2017,
we can see more younger people
taking up sports nowadays. Cycling
seems to be a growing trend. Sup-
ported by the Ministry of Youth
and Sports, this initiative hopefully
will continue to grow as corpora-
tions are finding that sports
sponsorship and engagement have
proven to provide better return on
investments.
We also should be wary about
advertisements t hat continue to
promote fizzy drinks and so called
bottled fruit juices which typically
are just fruit flavoured water with
high sugar content. And ironically
these are some of the brands that
are big in sports sponsorship. Per-
haps we should emphasise more
in consuming real fruits and fruit
juices as well as vegetables and the
traditional ulams in our meals.
Serious change can only happen
when serious steps are taken to
improve our health education in
schools, colleges and universities.
I used to attend health science
classes in school in the 60’s. Nowa-
days it could well be nutritional
science subjects that are practi-
cal and made compulsory in our
education system.
We may not have a weekly
‘Saturday Candy Day’ but it could
well be ‘Sunday nasi lemak’.
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