The habit of consuming unhealthy food, including foods with high sugar content, has an adverse impact on children.
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Kompas/Yuniadhi Agung
Elementary school students in Tanah Abang, Jakarta, buy snacks from a street vendor after school on Jan. 16, 2016.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The habit of consuming unhealthy food, including foods with high sugar content, has an adverse impact on children, as is evident in the large number of obese children. Children need to be protected from unhealthy foods in order to ensure healthy future generations.
Family health director Eni Gustina at the Health Ministry made the statement in a press release distributed in Jakarta in connection with this year’s World Children’s Day on Sunday (19/11). The ministry’s 2016 nutritional status monitoring survey found that the number of individuals aged 18 and above that were obese had increased from 29.2 percent in 2014 to 38.5 percent in 2016.
The habit of consuming sugary foods since childhood without adequate physical activities to balance such consumption was said to be the main reason why many Indonesian teenagers were obese. “Children who do not consume healthy foods will suffer health problems. This threatens the vision to create healthy generations by 2045,” Eni said.
“Children are prone to consuming unhealthy foods due to misleading advertisements. If they are used to consuming something in childhood, the habit will remain when they become adults,” she said.
Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) commissioner Dewi Setyarini said that the KPI had difficulties in preventing misleading food advertisements from being broadcast. “It is not easy to find misleading content in food advertisements. Cooperation with the relevant institutions is necessary. There are also advertisements of products licensed by the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), but the ads turn out to be different once they are aired,” she said.
Limiting sugar intake
Eni said that protecting children could begin by observing their food intake. Examples include limiting the daily sugar intake at 4 tablespoons, salt at 1 teaspoon and fat at 5 tablespoons. Exceeding the limit would increase the risk of children for various diseases.
The chairman of the Abiphraya Insan Cendekia Indonesia Foundation, Arif Hidayat, said that children should not consume too much high-sugar foods, such as sweetened condensed milk. Sweetened condensed milk contains high levels of sugar and fat of nearly 54 percent. “Sweetened condensed milk is not milk. It is sugar with an aroma of milk. The protein content in sweetened condensed milk is no more than 8 percent,” he said.
Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) commissioner Sitti Hikmawaty urged all children not to consume just one type of food. Food diversification was important for children to ensure their intake of all nutrients.
Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) deputy chairman Sudaryatmo said that the main issue among consumers was that they did not feel that they had comprehensive information on the nutritional content of processed foods. Consumers looked for comprehensive information on nutritional content in food packaging. Other than sweetened condensed milk, packaged fruit juices also have a high sugar content.
