DOUBLE BURDEN OF MALNUTRITION

Talking about double burden of malnutrition, what is that exactly on your mind? Why it is called “double burden”? It means that each of the issue complementary to each other. Definition from WHO 2003 states that double burden of malnutrition is characterized by the coexistence of undernutrition along with overweight and obesity, or diet-related non-communicable diseases, within individuals, households and populations, and across the life course.

Malnutrition over the World

Today, I am going to discuss more on obesity; a part of the "double burden". Many factors contribute to obesity and one of the factors that I am going to highlight is sugar intake. Report from the National Health Survey concluded that the connection between the calories and obesity are caused by a high intake of sugar that contributed to “obesity and diabetes epidemic”. In Malaysia, the price of sugar is highly subsidized. Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Chong Chieng Jen stated that Malaysia has the cheapest price of sugar among the ASEAN countries; RM2.95 for coarse white sugar and RM3.05 for fine granulated sugar. Since the real sugar is fully subsidized, the government introduced Sugar-sweetened Beverages (SSB) to control the intake of sugar. However, the tax is only implemented on ready-to-drink beverages sold off the shelves and exclude alcoholic beverages, cordial and unsweetened milk products. Under the new tax, 40 cents will be imposed on non-alcoholic beverages, except for milk-based drinks containing lactose with more than 5 g of sugar per 100 mL, a 40 cent tax per litre will be imposed on beverages with more than 12 g of sugar per 100 mL and a 40 cent per litre tax will be imposed on milk-based beverages that contain lactose for every 7 g of sugar per 100 mL.

The introduction of the tax is highly affected by the manufactures and the importers. But how about the consumers? Did we really against the new tax? Can we make another choice? The affordable price and readily available of real sugar is the threat. Just because the SSB has been implemented, does not mean that the world is over. People are determined to survive under critical circumstances. The consumers still continue enjoying their teh-tarik or kopi O, ais kacang, cendol, kuih-muih and etc that are concentrated in sugar since these are tax-free.

Kopi o and teh tarik are Malaysians' favourite drinks especially dyring breakfast.

Malaysians' kuih muih are mostly high in sugar especially gula melaka.

Cendol is one of the main favorite dessert in Malaysia.

In my point of view, the implementation of SSB should be stricter that covers all sugar-contained beverages. The implementation can be carried out from stage to stage. A win-win situation can be made between the policymakers and the manufactures. While for the sugar, withdrawing the subsidy of the price will cause public chaos. The subsidy may be reduced to half and replaced it with other items according to the economic status. There are many other things that are more beneficial to be subsidized. Thus, the public will not make such an issue caused they lose something better for the best.