Fat Nation: Can Malaysians stomach this?

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: There is too much fat in the Malaysian waist. But that’s not the frightening part.
This is: Malaysia has the most number of fat people in the Asean region. In fact, the number of fat people here exceeds that in many developed countries, including Germany and France.
In the last 10 years, the number of fat people has more than doubled, resulting in more Malaysians falling ill and diseases such as hypertension and diabetes shooting up.
A survey shows that 54 per cent of the adult population is either obese or overweight. Ten years ago, it was only 24.1 per cent.
The MySoN (Malaysian Shape of the Nation) survey also shows that 48 per cent of Malaysian men and 62 per cent of Malaysian women are fat.
By contrast, in Singapore, about 24 per cent of men and 48 per cent of women are fat. Only eight per cent of men and 13 per cent of the French are fat.
Malaysian Indians are the fattest at 63.4 per cent followed by Malays (53.5 per cent), Chinese (50.8 per cent) and others (45.2 per cent).
National Heart Institute senior consultant cardiologist and department of cardiology head Datuk Seri Dr Robaayah Zambahari said fat Malaysians were at risk of getting cardiovascular disease, hypertension, lipid disorder and diabetes mellitus.
“Our study also shows that 13.5 per cent of the adult population is diabetic, compared with only 8.3 per cent in 1996,” she said at a joint Press conference with consultant nephrologist Datuk Dr Zaki Morad, University Malaya Medical Centre consultant endocrinologist Professor Dr Chan Siew Pheng and Sanofi Aventis medical director Dr Muruga Vadivale.
The MySoN survey was conducted over two days — in May and June — and involved 1,985 patients (926 men and 1,033 women) and 90 doctors across the country.
The test for obesity — termed abdominal obesity — was how large a waist the patients had.
Anyone with a waist circumference of more than 90cm (35.4 inches) for men and more than 80cm (31.5 inches) for women is considered obese.
Dr Robaayah, the national co-ordinator of the survey, said: “The MySoN survey confirms the importance of measuring waist circumference, alongside current measures such as body mass index, blood pressure, blood glucose and lipid levels, in identifying patients at an increased risk of serious diseases such as diabetes and heart ailments.”
The reason why Malaysia is a fat nation, according to Dr Robaayah, is the good life and unhealthy lifestyle.
Among these, she said, were eating too much, especially fast food and carbonated drinks; the preference for lifts and escalators to staircases; and little or no exercise.
The MySoN survey, the first of its kind in the country, was initiated by Sanofi-Aventis.