IN response to alarming findings on the nutritional habits of Malaysians, the Health Ministry is stepping up efforts to promote healthy eating, including working with food influencers and introducing new policies to encourage healthier choices.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said social media influencers, or key opinion leaders, can play a crucial role in shaping public behaviour, and the ministry intends to leverage their influence to spread awareness of healthy lifestyles.
“We want our influencers to uphold the most important agenda, which is to promote healthy eating and lifestyles,” he told reporters yesterday, after moderating a dialogue on the National Health and Morbidity Survey (Nutrition) 2024 findings.
The report revealed serious deficiencies in the population’s dietary habits.
Only 12.8% of adolescents and 17.1% of adults meet the minimum recommended intake of fruits and vegetables, while dairy consumption is extremely low, at just 2.9% among adolescents and a mere 0.7% among adults.
At the same time, sugar consumption is excessive, with 63.1% of adolescents and 47.0% of adults exceeding the recommended intake, mainly due to sweetened beverages.
Fat consumption also surpasses the advised 30% of daily energy intake across all age groups, and 75.9% of adults consume more salt than recommended.
Dzulkefly said the government will begin with policies focused on food literacy and nutrition awareness and highlighted the importance of addressing supply-side issues to make healthy food more accessible.
“Ultimately, it’s about ensuring that food suppliers, particularly manufacturers, help promote the idea that healthy food does not need to be expensive,” he said.
Dzulkefly also revealed that the ministry is considering the introduction of a nutri-grade system, which would classify food items by nutritional value.
“When we introduce nutri-grade, we will know the category of food, from A, the best, to B, and so on, including those that cannot be advertised at all,” he said.
He also suggested that products deemed unhealthy could be placed in special sections of supermarkets, similar to how non-halal items are currently separated, to increase consumer awareness.
