Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Ministry going all out to fight obesity

Star: PUTRAJAYA: The National Nutritional Policy aims to reduce the number of overweight children to less than 10%, and adults to less than 30%, of the population by 2016.
At the same time, it hopes to reduce obesity among Malaysians to not more than 15% of the population.
Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said a survey of those aged between 19 and 59 showed that the percentage of overweight and obese Malaysians was 39% in 2003, up from 20% in 1996.
“At the same time, the number of people doing thrice weekly exercises of 20 minutes increased marginally from 12% to 14%,” he said after launching the policy here yesterday.
“The average weight of Malaysians is now 63kg. We have to seriously change the way we eat.”

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