Obesity is fast becoming a worrying issue in the Southeast Asia (SEA) as rising incomes, urbanisation and globalisation made more food choices, including many less healthy ones, accessible to people in the ASEAN region.
An Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report commissioned by the Asia Roundtable on Food Innovation for Improved Nutrition titled “Tackling obesity in ASEAN: Prevalence, impact, and guidance on interventions” stated that obesity is reducing productive years of an individual within an average of about six to 10 years. Obesity is linked to many chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, etc. According to the report, Singapore ranks third in the region in terms of obesity-related costs, and obesity is estimated to have cost the country at least US$400 million, in terms of healthcare and productivity loss, in 2016.
According to Global Chief Economist of The Economist Intelligence Unit Simon Baptist, the street food culture in countries like Singapore is very much alive, and policy makers and regulators will have a more difficult time in making an impact in the population in terms of their food choices.
If no proactive action is taken now, many countries will be challenged in the near future to tackle a range of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, and infectious diseases as well as undernutrition in some segments of the population, exerting a tremendous strain on public health systems.
Professor Chia Kee Seng, Dean of the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health commented that the results of any initiative taken up by policymakers will only be seen in the future. He mentioned that he is confident to see a change in the situation in the future as the policies are put into place with research data supporting the policies and having a positive sense of engagement of the public and community to tackle obesity.
Media Coverage:
- Vasantham News, 1 June 2017
- Lianhe Zaobao, 2 June 2017
- Channel News Asia, 2 June 2017