KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 — Health is wealth, but keeping a healthy lifestyle is the one goal that some may find difficult to achieve.

Breaking bad unhealthy habits and trying to keep fit is always a popular topic among most Malaysians, considering how much we love our food, and eating is considered a national pastime here.

Such a lifestyle however comes with consequences as stated in the latest National Health and Morbidity Survey by the Health Ministry.

According to the report, almost one in two Malaysians has high cholesterol, which would lead to other serious health complications such as heart disease.

Recent studies analysing nationwide data also show that high cholesterol levels, or hypercholesterolemia, is significantly associated with obesity.

As a result, about one in five Malaysians is obese, making us Asia’s fattest country, with an unhealthy diet and lifestyle established as main factors for obesity here.

In a bid to curb obesity in the country and put Malaysians on the right track, the world’s leading oats brand Quaker and Yayasan Jantung Malaysia (YJM) have launched a challenge to help Malaysians take charge of their heart health.

Dubbed the YJM-Quaker Smart Heart Challenge, the 30-day intervention programme aims to motivate and help Malaysians manage their cholesterol levels by incorporating two scoops or eight tablespoons of Quaker oats daily, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

The challenge was recently launched by the Health Ministry’s medical development division senior deputy director Dr Fazilah Shaik Allaudin on behalf of director general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham bin Abdullah.

In his speech, which was delivered by Dr Fazilah, Dr Noor Hisham stated that almost half of the adult population of Malaysia face high cholesterol levels, yet a vast majority feel that it does not affect them.

Citing a 2015 survey, Dr Fazilah pointed out that among high cholesterol patients, 38.6 per cent (or 7.8 million people) of them were not even aware that they had high cholesterol.

"High cholesterol is in fact one of the major factors that leads to the development of heart disease.

"And in 2017, the cardiovascular disease remained the main cause of death in hospitals under the Health Ministry, totalling 10,284 or 22.62 per cent of the total deaths that year.”

Meanwhile, YJM President Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid in his speech, which was delivered by renowned gynaecologist Datuk Dr JS Sambhi, brought attention to the upsetting statistics of deaths caused by heart disease in the country.

"It is our fervent hope that our efforts here today will galvanise the Malaysian public into prioritising a healthy lifestyle instead of taking an ‘enjoy now, worry later’ attitude.

"This is important because many of these risk factors are so much a part of the typical Malaysian lifestyle that it may feel strange to change them. However, these same lifestyle habits are the main reasons for Malaysia’s heart disease ‘epidemic’.”

Tun Ahmad Sarji’s speech stated his hope that the Malaysian public would be more open to making healthier lifestyle choices and stop heart disease from being the number one killer of Malaysians.

The 30-day challenge aims at educating and motivating fellow Malaysians to develop healthy eating habits and lead an active lifestyle towards reducing the risk of heart disease.

It is open to male and female participants 20 years of age and above.

The participants must be residents of Peninsular Malaysia and have borderline high to high total cholesterol levels (above or equal to 200 mg/dL or 5.2mmol/L).

Qualified participants will then be called to participate in the month-long challenge to stand a chance to win attractive prizes.

Highlighting the benefits of oats, PepsiCo-Quaker R&D life sciences manager Dr Kit Phanvijhitsiri said oats contain more protein, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and folate than those grains or grain-delivered food commonly consumed in Asian diets at the present times such as white rice, brown rice, white bread, barley and corn.

Quaker first embarked on a heart-health awareness programme with its Quaker Smart Heart Challenge over a decade ago in 2004.

For more information on the challenge and its requirements, visit here.