REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Deputy Minister of Health Dante Saksono Harbuwono said that the root of the problem of obesity in children is the family. Because if the parents are fat then the child is also fat, because the child follows the life pattern of his parents.
He reminded that, despite making children seem cute and adorable, obesity carries the risk of metabolic syndrome related to coronary heart disease, stroke, and blood vessels. “So, if we let those kids stay fat, then we save that child's savings to have heart and blood vessel disease in the future,” Dante said.
According to him, this can be overcome by applying a healthy lifestyle. The Ministry of Health, he said, issued Isi Pelingku as a nutritional guideline, which suggested that protein consumption should be increased over carbohydrates in one plate at a time. Children need a lot of protein to grow, and not by increasing carbohydrates.
“Carbohydrates are still important for energy, but we limit them, we use them to prevent children from getting fat,” Dante added.
He explained that, according to Basic Health Research, one in three people in Indonesia is obese. In addition, one in five children in Indonesia is overweight.
The percentage of obesity has steadily increased in the past decade, he said, going from eight percent in 2007 to 21.8 percent in 2018. Dante says that this is almost the case in all developing countries, due to changes in incomes for the better.
“Their incomes are starting to go up, their food is starting to change and so on, so the obesity numbers in those areas are getting higher,” he said.
On the same occasion, Director of Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases of the Ministry of Health Dr Eva Susanti said, one of the challenges in the implementation of obesity prevention and control is access to customer-focused technology and facilities. Such as online meal messaging services and online ojek, thus making people less physically active.
“The occurrence of a lean or sedentary lifestyle or sedentary lifestyle, also increased obesogenic environment, that is, foods high in sugar and fat and without regard to caloric value,” says Eva.
Eva revealed that the success of obesity prevention and control in Indonesia is not isolated from the support of all parties and across sectors as well as across programs, private, and public. He said that the public is expected to increase knowledge and awareness and concern about obesity by conducting regular early detection in posbindu and fasyankes.
“Obesity is very likely to be prevented by implementing healthy lifestyle behaviors. Prevention against risk factors that require the commitment of each individual to be able to be responsible for their own health,” he said.
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