By Norzuwariah Mohamad Yusoff
Malaysia has been experiencing a rapid phase of industrialisation and urbanisation in recent decades and has often been recognised as a role model for developing economies. Statistics available from several Ministries for the last two decades suggest that as the population achieve affluence, their intake of energy, fats and sugars increase, as reflected in the rising and now substantial size of the food importation bills.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2003 examined the various etiological factors that could lead to unhealthy weight gain. These factors include the eating habit practised by Malaysian citizen and sedentary lifestyles. According to Ministry of Health Malaysia, good nutritional status that leads to an optimal quality of life is basic to sustainable development.
As Malaysia forges ahead towards Vision 2020, it is imperative for us to consider the nutritional well-being of its population as a matter of everyday concern and practice. To reduce the problem of increasing overweight and obesity amongst adults and children, we have an obligation to understand well about the factors that contribute to weight gain.
Malaysia recorded an increase in its obesity rate last year, with the latest statistics showing that the overweight and the obese make up nearly half of its 30 million populace. Malaysia’s Health Minister has given warning that the country is in the midst of an obesity epidemic, with almost half the country overweight or obese.
There are many factors that cause obesity in Malaysia. Based on the Malaysia’s famous Health & Fitness’s Kevin Zahri’s finding people who tend to skip their breakfast, can actually lead to weight gain. Some dieters choose to skip meals to save calories, thinking this is a quick weight loss plan. Its important to keep your metabolism fired up with the right foods at certain times of the day.
The proper way to lose weight is to find a sensible weight loss plan that includes making healthier eating choices, exercising, and eating throughout the day to keep your metabolism up. Metabolism plays a key role in how quickly you burn fat and lose weight; therefore, meal skipping cannot be overlooked as part of your plan for weight loss.
Apparently, skipping meals also make people hungrier later in the day; therefore people tend to overeat when they are extremely hungry. Besides this, for those who skipped meals during day time or breakfast possible to consume supper within a couple of hours before going to bed.
Second, people who practise snacking especially unhealthy snacking is likely to play an important role in the development of overweight and obesity. Nowadays, the smaller packages of snacks such as 100 or 150 calories packs are very popular in the market.
But many people who eat the 100-calorie packs are likely to gain more weight by eating them simply because of the portion size. Since theyre in such small packages, consumers may eat more packs or tempted to eat more without remorse because they look like a diet-food product. So, for those people dieting should be a little more careful about the 100-calorie pack marketing strategy. Besides this, television watching has also become a problem in the home, especially the youth.
Next, late dinner also contribute to the obesity in Malaysia. This is a bad eating habit. Everybody has their own schedule, and with that schedule comes individual eating habits as well. While some people will eat their dinner at 6pm on the nose every single night, others will eat at 10pm or later.
Researchers found that the time of day you eat is a powerful predictor for weight gain. Experts also warn that late dinner can signal the start of a vicious cycle of weight gain due to total calories intake per day increased. As diet experts explain it, weight loss, gain, or stabilisation is based on total calories consumed per day versus the amount of energy burned. Therefore, try not to finish dinner later than 7.30pm.
Lack of exercise and skip this movement can make our body feel unproductive. Your level of activity plays an important role in promoting weight loss and to maintain the body health. Nowadays, most of the people are lacking of exercise or physically inactive due to packed schedule in their daily life.
For those who are working in the office, they seldom have the chance to move around since they only do their work by sitting at the same position. People will rely on vehicles instead of walking, spending hours in front of television and computers rather than exercise for a few minutes.
This results in the imbalance of caloric balance status. Caloric balance is a scale usually used to measure body weight status. The calories intake from food consumption equals to the calories used up or burned up by normal body function and physical activities, is said in balance status.
Eating fast food is always a number one choice of Malaysians. For example, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Dominos Pizza, A&W, Marry brown, Nandos, Kenny Rogers Roaster, and others are one of the factors which lead to overweight and obesity. It is because fast foods are more convenient, cheaper, prepared in faster rate and more delicious in terms of aroma and taste compared to home cooked meals.
In fact, these foods may lead to obesity as the portion size is large and high in calorie. Deep frying and roasting are the two main methods to cook the food with the addition of unhealthy spices, for instance, MSG, salt and sugar. Generally, fast foods contain a lot of saturated fats and sodium as well as the trans-fat, which is an unhealthy type of fats.
Regular consumption of fast foods will have a greater chance to become obese if he or she is consuming less on vegetables and fruits, lack of physical activity to burn up the excessive fats and the basal metabolic rate is low. Vitamin and mineral contents are comparably lower than healthier foods. Other than that, it may link to heart disease, diabetes, and atherosclerosis.
In Islam, there are guidelines for Muslims on how we can avoid overeating and obesity. The holy Quran stated about eating habit. œEat and drink but not to excess œ(7:32).The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) warned us about the dangers and health hazards of overeating. He advised us to fill our stomach with 1/3 food, 1/3 for drink, and 1/3 for air.
On the authority of Al-Miqdaam ibn Maadiy-Karib who said: I heard the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saying: œNo human ever filled a vessel worse than the stomach. Sufficient for any son of Adam are some morsels to keep his back straight. But if it must be, then one third for his food, one third for his drink and one third for his breath. [Ahmad, At-Tirmidhi, An-NasaaI, Ibn Majah “ Hadith sahih].
Obesity can be overcome if people keep practising the regular eating habit and to appreciate the food that we have. Mahatma Ghandi once said, œThere are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. ***