Recent studies conducted throughout Malaysia have indicated that the country is heading towards decreasing their average sugar intake within recent years.

With the increase of obesity globally and the direct link this has towards the sugar industry, studies have highlighted the gradual decline in sugar intake across the nation.

This coincides directly with a recent study conducted by Khazanah Research Institute, which according to them, “Malaysia is currently the fattest country in South East Asia”.

The study goes on to outline that obesity in adults has increased within Malaysia from 4.5% percent in 1996 to 17% percent in 2015 and that 25% to 35% of households are overweight in each income cohort.

However, many argue that the key increase in obesity has been linked to the high intake and consumption of sugary health drinks.

According to a recent publication by Unicef focusing on obesity within Malaysia “Consuming sugary drinks contributes to weight gain and obesity, and then a range of noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer”

The publication continues to state, “More than one Third (36%) of students have sugary drinks at least once a day, and the average daily sugar intake for adolescents has increased from seven teaspoons in 2012 to 10 teaspoons in 2017”.

These concerning statistics and publications, reinforced by the concern from the public and government led to action being taken, with the government introducing the 2019 recent excess tax of 40 cents per litre on sugary drinks.

This also led to the Sugar Association decreasing the recommended daily consumption of added sugars from 21 tsp/day down to 16 tsp/day.

 

Due to these major changes within the sugar industry and the overall consensus and perception of sugary products, the Sugar Association was forced to conform and publicise the decreased recommended intake.

This has sparked an interesting correlation within the Consumer Price Index Malaysia January 2019, conducted by the Department of Statistics Malaysia, official portal, which found that Sugar purchases were decreased by 2.3 percent from 2018 to 2019.

Has Malaysia started heading in the right direction to reduce their daily sugar intake and has the average person and the government come to realise that sugar can be enjoyed if controlled and consumed in moderate amounts?

Moving forward, normalizing sugar consumption in the general population is both desirable from a health perspective and will lead to long term sustainable growth for the sugar industry.

Written by, Marlon Thain 7/11/2019.




Services

Upcoming Events

MGBF In The News