Public Health Ministry hopes to cut salt, sugar consumption in Thailand by 30% within 2022

[Wongkitlo]

I find it hard to eat Thai food these days because everything has one taste. Sugar. My wife is an Australian Thai and she went to the doctor in Australia and they said she was pre diabetic. If she didn't change her diet it would come. Went to a dietician, bought lots of healthy foods to bring back to Thailand, gave up cola and sweets. Came back to Thailand  and the doctor said " You have no problems" . Out goes the healthy food, back to cola and sweets. Thais know best. Unless the medical profession gets involved there is no hope.

[ChipButty]

Its ok saying cut the salt and sugar out, just look at the state of some the young kids these days they are already obese just go in 7/11 early morning and see the junk they buy, 

We have a friend and their son is well over 100 kilo's and only 14, I saw them in central the other week the mother bought him a jogging machine at 150k Baht we can guess what will happen to that

[4MyEgo]

For a start, they can ban schools from selling soft drinks and those vendors from selling kids smoothies outside of schools.

 

You have to start at the source and start educating kids about the dangers of refined carbs and the long term damages it will have.

 

To me this is just another minister drumming up some media attention to justify his existence, if he were true to what he wants to achieve, then we would have had a heading like: Public Health Minister to ban the above in all schools from 1 January 2021 ! ! !

[bougnat]

Well ! good luck !
Unless you substitute sugar for cannabis...

 

[digger70]

18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Public Health Ministry hopes to cut salt, sugar consumption in Thailand by 30% within 2022

I never seen Thai people using salt in cooking ,only spices and soya sauce and oyster sauce and some other cr@p.

I wish him good luck trying to stop that or even reducing. 

Same with the Sugar Thais use a lot of sugar in their cooking. 

They love their sweet snacks Anything sweet.

I would say he's got no hope in Hell. Satan will look after that.  ????

[Harry Fingerling]

3 hours ago, Naamblar2014 said:

This guy looks the picture of health

He was clearly talking when he should have been listening.

[nausea]

Agree on sugar, the link between salt intake and heart disease is tenuous to say the least, maybe for some people it's a problem.

[Migrosmarket]

9 hours ago, smedly said:

just ban the consumption of salt and sugar in condo buildings 

But not on balconies....

[Migrosmarket]

As the saying goes.... fat chance of success.

 

Carbohydrates are the problem. They are not just present in sugar but also rice, pasta, potato, wheat and alcohol. 

 

Education and taxes are the answer but in a country where rice is a 3 meals a day staple along with copious amounts of sugar added to the cooking, there is little chance of change.

 

Those working in a physical environment like builders, labourers, farmers are often slim and healthy (apart from smoking ha ha so they gonna die a horrible death as well), along with well educated ambitious kids in cities who look after themselves, but go to a village and count the obese parents sleeping all day in a hammock (whilst their village decays under a mountain of rubbish), the obese children on their phone all day, having spent their 50-100 baht given to them each day for school on unhealthy food from the street vendors who give less than a flying one for the kid's health, whilst their mothers work away in places like Pattaya..... sitting around eating whilst waiting for customers or drinking "lady drinks" and eating as much as they can when a Farang bar fines them...... I would say most Thais are now significantly overweight.

 

Wow... covered quite a range of pet subjects in this rant.... did I forget any?

 

 

 

Edit - damn didn't get the Covid (flu) farce or road deaths in..... 

[Caldera]

Hope springs eternal, and hope is all they got... Back in the real Thailand, people love their sugary drinks and snacks. It's unhealthy, it's insane, but so is not wearing a crash helmet.

[kuzmabruk]

20 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

cut salt, sugar consumption in Thailand by 30% within 2022

You may have noticed there are two typos in the headline.  
 

First they meant 1/30th of 1% or 0.0333% and second they meant to write the year 3022.  

 

Now when you reread the article, it is definitely an obtainable objective which is well within the realms of reality.

[Cake Monster]

A much easier, and faster way to cut Sugar and Salt intake, would be to close every 7/11 by this Sunday.

The most unhealthy places on the Planet.

[xylophone]

28 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

A much easier, and faster way to cut Sugar and Salt intake, would be to close every 7/11 by this Sunday.

The most unhealthy places on the Planet.

That sounds like a good plan because I haven't seen anything healthy in any of them, however having said that, I was taken aback when I visited a new Family Mart which has opened nearby, and the absolute rubbish that is on sale in that place is astounding.

 

I could not see one item that I would want to buy, apart from some water to refresh my dwindling stocks, and the number and variety of packets of crisps, chips, savouries and other rubbish that were available saddened me.
 

[bimmerbob]

14 hours ago, smedly said:

I wish the Thai people would elect educated people into office .......

 

.......perhaps educated people don't wish to belong to that club of clowns?

[tukadadoll]

23 hours ago, djayz said:

Everything in moderation. 

 

I'm convinced that levying an extra tax on all this unhealthy food isn't the optimal solution. Those who can afford it, will simply pay more and continue their lifestyle. A more effective way might be to make people aware of the health issues associated with unchecked consumption of certain foods and ingredients. 

 

I am a Diabetic, Type 2. The problem in Thailand is that everything is flavoured with salt and sugar. For example the roadside chicken a favourite with both Thais and Farangs  has a sauce containing garlic and sugar. I  go and order chicken the day before, for pick up. If you are trying to reduce sugar you must be aware that in Thailand it is ubiquitous, not just in processed foods.

[paul1804]

It is a disgrace that the Thailand department of health have not banned the selling of MSG in their country, alternatively pass a law that all products containing MSG display it in large letters that the product contains MSG and advising the health risks associated with it. Go to any Macro store and you will be amazed how extensive the range of MSG on offer. I notice a lot of other Asian countries now proudly display that their products are MSG free, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan just to name a few. 
My first visit to Thailand was in 1988, very few fat Thai’s around then, take a look now! 
 

[daejung]

11 hours ago, CLW said:

The introduction of the sugar tax was a complete fail. The industry just slightly adjusted the amount of sugar and now can avoid this tax or even put a label on their food which claims healthier choice / less sugar. There must be a color code system to easily identify the amount of sugar, fat and carbohydrates. Just an example are the plenty of fat free milk products that instead have an ridiculous amount of sugar inside to compensate for the taste. I'd rather ingest some milk fat than 13g of pure sugar per 100g.

Like this

[Razek]

On 11/26/2020 at 12:35 PM, oldhippy said:

But as far as I know, the winner is fish sause / naam pla - take a look at the salt content as indicated on the bottle....

I want say the same .Somtam is a National cultural food

How to stop it 

[Meat Pie 47]

10 hours ago, thairookie said:

 

What about chilli ?

Nothing wrong with chilies

It found people who ate chilli at least four times a week were 44 per cent less likely to die from coronary heart disease and 61 per cent less likely to die of a stroke, compared with those who ate chilli rarely or never

[TimBKK]

There were posted at work for falangs - don't know enough about Thai food to vouch for their (complete) accuracy but seems like a good place to start...

 

[Mike k]

12 hours ago, johnarth said:

most god made products are healthy its the things man adds or takes away that kills it, but there is little profit in god made products

God made tobacco, cocane, opium, 

[Andycoops]

On 11/26/2020 at 6:35 PM, oldhippy said:

But as far as I know, the winner is fish sause / naam pla - take a look at the salt content as indicated on the bottle....

I use fish sauce in marinades but don't add salt as a result.

[mikebell]

One of the first Thai phrases I learned was 'mai waan,' - not sweet.  I ordered a coffee at a high end shop & had to stop the girl after FIVE gigantic spoonsful of sugar.  I asked if I had made a mistake in my Thai - she had understood my order totally but did not consider 5 sugars excessive!

[thaibeachlovers]

On 11/27/2020 at 1:02 PM, captnhoy said:

Not to mention what is made available to the school children at the school and near the school. Sweet snacks, sweet drinks and salty snacks in mass quantities. Then that consumption becomes normal in their lives. What a battle he has with a 2 year timeline. 

The mom and pop shops in my wife's village sell almost nothing BUT processed salty and sugary snack food.

[Wongkitlo]

19 minutes ago, mikebell said:

One of the first Thai phrases I learned was 'mai waan,' - not sweet.  I ordered a coffee at a high end shop & had to stop the girl after FIVE gigantic spoonsful of sugar.  I asked if I had made a mistake in my Thai - she had understood my order totally but did not consider 5 sugars excessive!

You can also say " mai ao nahm dtaam' . If you say " mai waan" they may think you are saying ' no free time' so am in a hurry.

[SuwadeeS]

Never ever!!!!

 

All there ideas will stay as ideas.

Or do you see any changes after motorcycle crackdown on sidewalks? Reckless driving???

 

Nothing changed.

 

[paulikens]

dont turn into a nanny state like the uk please thailand

[oldhippy]

34 minutes ago, paulikens said:

dont turn into a nanny state like the uk please thailand

The choice?: a nanny state or a banana republic.

[sandhurstmolonski]

It's a really great idea certainly , but wow , what a job ! 

In the processed end it should be reasonably simple , although you'd really need some big cuts , salt and sugar are such staples here , yet most seem to not even consider , then throw in Carbs also . I've watched the people get fatter and fatter over the last 20 years , blamed increases in processed and Western fast food , which is just horrible stuff . MSG as others have said is a massive problem , as for the " everything in moderation " argument , doesn't cut it unfortunately , these changes would need to impact partly culturally also .

When it's gone from basically zero fat people , to nearly 50 % of the population , and you need to get right down to the street food in a province , noodle sellers etc , you've got a task at hand .

But yeah , certainly needs to be harsh and quick , continued .

[Tarteso]

On 11/28/2020 at 6:32 AM, Andycoops said:

I use fish sauce in marinades but don't add salt as a result.

And never do it. Fish sauce is the saltiest offender of all the Asian sauces. A new report shows that one tablespoon of fish sauce contains 96% of your daily salt intake.