ABOUT 2.3 million Malaysians suffer from diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity and non-communicable diseases, said the just-released National Health and Morbidity Survey 2023.
Of these, two out of five adults are oblivious to their conditions, while 56 per cent have poor blood glucose control, but all are walking time bombs for stroke and heart disease.
Thirty per cent suffer from hypertension, but 17 per cent are unaware of it; 91 per cent take medication, while 12 per cent, mostly those between 18 and 39, are ignorant about it. A good 33 per cent have high cholesterol but are oblivious to the fact.
Between 2011 and 2023, Malaysians' body mass index rose from 44.5 per cent to 54.4 per cent, so obesity is rising.
The survey may be illuminating, but it reveals something we don't already know: Malaysians' reckless gluttony.
At its core is the consumption of sugar, excessive calories and ultra-processed food. This inability to shrug them off is an "addiction". Sugar in coffee and tea, breakfast cereals and sweet cakes, processed meat and poultry in big breakfasts.
Then a walk to a fast food joint for more of the same, with sugary drinks. At night, they may raid the pantry, order food online or head for a stall. In that disease-prone diet, 95 per of adults consume inadequate fruit and vegetables daily.
No wonder they want to ban 24-hour stalls. Malaysians then get sick, blowing away billions in medical bills.
The way the health authorities and non-governmental organisations address this crisis doesn't go far enough.
They rail against high sugar consumption, poor diet, sedentary lifestyle and 24-hour stalls, even proposing a food tax and removal of sugar price controls.
But they stop in their tracks against the seeming collusion between Big Food and Big Pharma, two behemoths capitalising on the health crisis.
For Big Food, sugar and processed ingredients in snacks and fast food are like the spices and seasoning in Asian cuisine. People are captivated by advertisements and pop culture to maintain their sugar addiction.
Big Pharma cheer on: the sicker people are, the more they can be treated with drugs.
That's how the American opioid crisis kills tens of thousands of people annually. We are playing catch-up.
