Move to help obese school kids lead healthy lifestyle

Star: PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry is taking steps to help overweight children, especially the obese, to lose weight and adopt a healthy diet.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the Health and Education ministries would promote healthy eating among school children.
“We do not want overweight children to be teased or taunted by their peers. When children get their body mass index (BMI) checked, we will also send our officers to schools to promote the importance of healthy eating and lifestyle,” he said after witnessing the signing of an MoU between the Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed Malaysia), The Royal College of Physicians and the Health Ministry here yesterday.
Currently, about 26.5% of school children are overweight.
The Education Ministry has come up with new guidelines aimed at inculcating healthy eating habits among students.
Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong recently announced that students with weight problems would be referred to the nearest clinic for counselling. Their parents would also be informed.
He said BMI checks would be conducted twice a year.

On another topic, Liow said 30 doctors with high leadership qualities would attend a three-day Train-the-Trainers workshop in March aimed at providing them with skills and knowledge to help them train housemen effectively.
The workshop will be jointly administered by NUMed Malaysia and the Royal College of Physici-ans.
“They may be good specialists but not necessarily good educators. We need to expose them to such structured training programme as we believe in continuous improvement and hope they can impart knowledge to the younger generation,” he said.
On another matter, Liow said he would respect any decision made by MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek whether to contest in the next general elections.
“If the president chooses not to contest in the next general election because of age or other reasons, I will respect his decision,” he said.
Dr Chua had said he was not keen on contesting during the next general elections.
He was quoted as saying that he was not young, and that the young people should be given a chance.