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Report: Cereals Not As
Healthy As Claimed
Shuhada
Elis
New
Straights Times
September 5, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR: Breakfast cereals, aggressively advertised
and promoted as healthy food for children, are making
them fat, even obese.
Do not be fooled by the nutritional benefits printed on
cereal boxes as the food inside is laden with fat, sugar
and salt.
This damning judgment is contained in the Junk Food Trap
Report released by Consumers International (CI) here
yesterday.
Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca)
secretary- general Muhammad Sha'ani Abdullah warned that
the junk food trap would cause hypertension, diabetes
and high-cholesterol problems in Malaysia to soar.
Fomca is a member of CI.
Sha'ani said the impact such food had on Malaysian
children and the national health budget was "too
alarming" to ignore.
Last year, the Health Ministry spent RM180 million or 20
per cent of its RM900 million budget on drugs for
chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and high
cholesterol.
CI Kuala Lumpur regional office head Datuk Indrani
Thuraisingham said children brought up on these cereals,
as well as fast food and drinks, faced a "health time
bomb".
The Junk Food Trap Report revealed that each 100g box of
cereal could contain up to 25 teaspoons of sugar.
The report was compiled based on a study of foods
targeted at children below the age of 16, marketed by
six multinational companies in eight countries.
Indrani said the research found that children were
falling for the marketing ploys of foods that were high
in fat, sugar and salt.
"These companies share the same characteristics. They
use cartoon characters, cele-brities, free toys and
competitions to attract children.
"But their food and drinks have a negative impact on
children's health."
The research was conducted from April to June by CI
representatives in Malaysia, China, Fiji, India,
Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand and the Philippines.
Indrani said fast food companies were also using
insidious ways to sell to children, such as setting up
membership clubs.
She said one international fast food chain had about
58,000 members in its club.
"Sometimes these companies go to schools to conduct
activities, an indirect way of marketing to kids."
Sha'ani said Fomca would urge the government to develop
stringent guidelines against the marketing of unhealthy
food.
"Junk food marketing is a serious threat that we should
address. They should stop promoting unhealthy food in
schools in whatever form."
Fomca would ask for funding from the Health Ministry to
conduct research on the impact of food marketing to
children as it wanted the government to focus on
preventive health care.
Sha'ani said it would also lobby the government to adopt
the International Code on Marketing of Foods and
Non-Alcoholic Beverages to Children, which had been
submitted to the World Health Organisation.
Among the code's guidelines are a ban on radio or TV
advertisements of unhealthy food from 6am to 9pm, ban on
the inclusion of free toys or cartoon characters in food
packaging and a ban on using new media, such as the
Internet, and text messaging to lure the children. |
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