M'SIANS CONSUME SUGAR AT ALARMING LEVELS, WARNS PHYSIOTERAPIST

By Azman Ujang

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- The sugar intake by Malaysians has reached
a "very alarming" stage and the country will continue to incur huge economic and
social costs unless they change their "sweet-toothed" lifestyle, a prominent
physiotherapist warned Tuesday.

Dr B. S. Bains said some 14.5 per cent of the 26 million Malaysians are down
with diabetes with the number growing at a seemingly uncontrollable rate.

On average, Malaysians consume around 120 grams of sugar a day. The
recommended intake is 50 grams.

Dr Bains, who is president of the Physiotherapy Association of Malaysia and
chief executive officer of the Bains chain of physiotherapy clinics, said the
high sugar content of many of the favourite food and drinks consumed by
Malaysians was a major cause of diabetes.

In an interview with Bernama, he identified Malaysians' propensity to drink
"teh tarik" (tea with condensed sweetened milk) as the number one culprit for
the high sugar consumption.

Recently, Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) president S.M. Mohamed Idris
said Malaysia's "national drink" or teh tarik contained about six teaspoons of
sugar.

Saying that the human body does not need extra sugar, he added that sugar,
which was devoid of nutrients, "acted more like a drug", and was linked to over
60 ailments such as cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart problems, osteoporosis,
kidney problems, asthma and other allergies.

"It's time the consumers were given the alternative of choosing fresh milk
or unsweetened milk in their teh tarik. Why must it be confined to condensed
milk only?" Dr Bains asked.

He appealed to the government to start a major campaign to change the
people's eating habits and "engineer their sugar intake".

Such a long over-due national campaign should be started in line with Prime
Minister Najib Tun Razak's "People First, Performance Now" slogan.


"The government certainly is the biggest agent of change and what better way
than to earnestly start this campaign for a healthy population. We just can't go
on building more and more expensive hospitals and footing the huge costs
associated with health care," he said.

Dr Bains also urged the government to seriously revisit what he described as
the country's "blatant sugar democracy" where sugar was too freely used in
virtually all food items.

Reducing sugar intake would also mean the government saving billions in
subsidy for the commodity.

He also suggested that the local authorities should review the issuing of
licences for new 24-hour "teh tarik" outlets as Malaysia already had far too
many of these ubiquitous stalls.

"Because of such outlets, many people who are supposed to rest and sleep are
drinking teh tarik at 2 or 3 am. Their brain, body, muscles, bones are not
resting and that's why they fall sick easily.

"How are they supposed to give their best at their workplace the next day?"
he asked, adding that the existence of these 24-hour stalls was making people to
be out of their homes at uncivilised hours, thus adding to the accident and
crime rates.

-- BERNAMA