Obese Malaysians

Today, I remembered something in the newspaper I read last week. Sometimes, I have to recall from the recesses of my memory new topics to blog about. Anyhow, the big subject was Malaysians were getting too obese.

Now, I’m thinking, wait a minute. Compared to other societies, especially Americans, are we really that bad off? Certainly we don’t see a lot of Malaysians as fat as this guy.

Still, generalizing based on personal observations, isn’t a great idea. So let’s look at the food Malaysians typically eat compared to food that Americans eat. I’ll list down a few fat related facts from the Men’s Health Magazine August 2004. In this edition, Men’s Health did a study on the nutrition of local food.

I'll compare the local food to the famous McDonald's burger: the Big Mac

For the above, the Big Mac comes in the lowest in calories, among the lowest in fat, and tied for the lowest in cholesterol. In one oustanding case, Char Koay Teow has 4x the amount of cholesterol than in a single Big Mac.

Looking at these facts, one has to conclude we are in a “Stealth” obese society. Heck, Malaysian food doesn’t look fat, I'd probably never guess in my wildest dreams that the Big Mac is healthier than all of the above 5 foods. At least when US people get fat, they know as they hock down steaks, burgers, and what not. These are pretty massive pieces of food they consume.

Here in Malaysia, a couple of plates of Char Koay Teow or Mee Goreng per week, and before you know it; you’ll hit the obese category.

=(