News

Malnutrition is a problem often perceived to be linked to food shortages, but many people do not realise that it can also be caused by excessive consumption of empty calories, such as from sugar. Singapore has already adopted a range of measures when it comes to managing sugar consumption, including prohibiting the sale of beveragesRead more

Based on last year’s National Nutrition Survey by the Health Promotion Board, Singaporeans take an average of 60g of sugar a day, which is higher than the 50g limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). High-sugar food and drinks are getting cheaper and becoming more easily available, while portion sizes are getting bigger and

Traditionally, workplace wellbeing focused on occupational safety and health, because concerns about it arose during a time where most jobs were blue-collar and many workplaces were full of hazards. However, workplaces have evolved and the greatest hazards for many are no longer hearing loss or accidents caused by machines, but the onset of chronic diseases

Southeast Asians make up about 20 per cent of the 450 million people living with diabetes globally, with many of them living in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Experts have blamed this on a prevalence of processed and unhealthy food, a lack of early intervention for patients and misinformation — for a long time, diabetes was

In recent years, Singapore has ramped up its measures to drive down the smoking rate, including banning point-of-sale display, increasing excise taxes and prices, banning alternative tobacco products, and proposing standardised packaging for all tobacco products. Joining this slew of measures with effect from 1 January 2019 are the country’s first precinct-wide smoking ban along

Today’s academic institutions are far from maximising their potential for catalysing social change, opined Assistant Professor Clarence Tam and Dr Vittoria Offeddu from SSHSPH, Assistant Professor Voo Teck Chuan, NUS Centre for Biomedical Ethics, and Assistant Professor Neisha Sundaram, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In terms of social value, current assessments appear tokenistic and irrelevant. For example,

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), disorders of the heart and blood vessels, are the leading global cause of death annually, and they are reaching epidemic levels in many Asian countries including Singapore, according to a study released by the Economist Intelligence Unit this month. CVDs contribute to approximately one in three deaths in Singapore, and they levy US$8.1

The Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health has joined the international Decision Support Initiative (iDSI), a global consortium working with low- and middle-income countries as they aim to make healthcare investment decisions that reflect the best value for money. Led by the Center for Global Development, iDSI received a $14.5 million grant from the

On Tuesday (4 December), the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Health Promotion Board (HPB) proposed new measures to reduce sugar intake from pre-packaged, sugar-sweetened beverages, as part of Singapore’s War on Diabetes. From 4 December 2018 to 25 January 2019, MOH and HPB will be conducting a public consultation to seek feedback on four

Preliminary investigations by the Ministry of Health (MOH) have not established a definitive link among the three recent cases of food poisoning. However, the number of such incidences in Singapore has jumped by 40 per cent on a year-on-year basis from January to October this year, compared to the corresponding period last year. Severe food