PUTRAJAYA, Nov 25 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today instructed all ministries to practice reducing sugar consumption in every gathering.

In his call on the people to reduce their intake of sugar in food, to avoid the risk of diabetes, Anwar also ordered all ministries to implement a campaign to reduce sugar in their diet.

"Reports show that the highest incidence of diabetes in Asia is in Malaysia... this is not the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) issue alone.

"We should be a healthy country because Islam emphasises the need to look after our health, but Malaysia is number one in terms of disease, due to consuming excessive sugar,” he said.

In his speech, when officiating the Rural Entrepreneurs Carnival KUD@Putrajaya 2023, here today, Anwar also asked entrepreneurs to help ensure controlled sugar consumption.

"I am upset that Malaysia, with the awareness of Islam and the preaching of tazkirah, has high diabetes (cases). This means that awareness of the importance of health is not controlled,” he said.

On Thursday, Health Minister, Dr Zaliha Mustafa, said that the findings of the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2019 found that the prevalence of diabetes in Malaysia is the highest in Southeast Asia, recording a significant increase from 11.2 per cent in 2011 to 18.3 per cent in 2019.

Dr Zaliha said that MOH was set to launch a sugar advocacy plan in the near future. — Bernama