‘More variety and less oil, please’

STUDENTS often look forward to lunchtime when they break for recess in school. But are they consuming the right types of food for healthy growth?

According to the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2022, there is a rising prevalence of obesity, poor dietary choices, and excessive consumption of carbonated soft drinks and fast food, besides physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour, among Malaysian adolescents aged 13 to 17. The NHMS 2022, which was conducted from June to July last year and involved 36,000 students from 240 secondary schools, also revealed that four in five adolescents do not consume an adequate amount of fruits and vegetables.