Food availability and the rising obesity prevalence in Malaysia

It is estimated that more than 1.1 billion adultsand 115 million children worldwide are overweight.In Malaysia, the second and third National Healthand Morbidity Surveys in 1996 and 2006 respectivelyreported a three-fold increase in obesity prevalenceamong adults, surging from 4.4% to 14% over the10-year period. Evidence of rising childhood obesityhas also emerged. The aim of this article is to gatherevidence from food availability data for an insightinto population shifts in dietary patterns that mayhelp explain the rising obesity in this country. Thenutrition transition was delineated in conjunction withthe epidemiologic transition in order to explain theconvergence of dietary practices, and the high prevalenceof obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseasesworldwide. The Food Balance Sheets for Malaysia from1967 to 2007 were used to provide estimates and trendsfor the availability of foods and calories. Evidence isgenerated that indicate at least two major upward shiftsin the dietary patterns in Malaysia in the past 4 decades.These shifts have led to the rising availability of caloriesfrom animal products, and from sugar and sweeteners.These major dietary shifts, together with increasedsedentariness, constitute core public health challengesfaced in addressing the country’s obesity and noncommunicablediseases (NCD) conundrum.