15 Dec 2010
OBESITY UP
BUDDING entrepreneur Viveganandam Deveraj says that Singapore may be a food haven, but it has got one big drawback: It has too few food options that are healthy.
The 24-year-old, better known as Raj, was crowned the champion of weight-loss reality-television series, The Biggest Loser Asia Season 2, yesterday.
He beat contestants Atikom Laksanapanai (Nai), 26, from Thailand, and Genghis Khan, 34, from the Philippines, to nab the US$100,000 (S$129,000) prize.
Raj, who quit his job as a 3-D modeller in order to join the competition, tipped the scales at 144kg before the competition. He attributes his former weight – he now weighs in at a trim 77kg, a healthy weight for his height of 1.81m – to eating badly, and eating out every day.
“Hawker-centre food is cheap and (readily) available, while it’s so difficult to get food like salad or brown rice at low prices,” he said, adding that there is a need for cheap and healthy food.
When he ate out, he would chow down on roti prata and chicken rice, he said.
Despite the Government’s efforts in promoting a healthier lifestyle, a recent Health Promotion Board survey found that six out of 10 people ate out each week this year, up from 49 per cent in 2004. Fifty per cent of those surveyed ate out eight or more times a week.
It is no surprise, then, that young executives like Raj are increasingly facing obesity issues.
Obesity rates here stand at 10.8 per cent, compared to 6.9 per cent in 2004. The rise is even greater for those between ages 30 and 39, with 12.3 per cent in this group obese this year, up from 6.8 per cent in 2004.
Fitness experts told my paper that a sedentary lifestyle and poor dietary habits are to blame.
Mr Zen Lee, fitness manager with California Fitness, said 55 per cent of its clients are made up of young executives. Around 40 per cent of those executives have obesity problems.
Home-grown fitness chain True Fitness has seen a “healthy increase in membership in the past years”, but its spokesman said young executives now work harder, and for longer hours.
Fitness can take a back seat for this group, especially when they are focused on getting their careers on track, the spokesman said. True Fitness has some 30,000 members and about 65 per cent of them are young executives. Of that group, 8 per cent are obese and 35 per cent are overweight, said the spokesman.
Dr Daniel Wai, director of Singapore General Hospital’s obesity and metabolic unit, said there is an increasing number of obese young executives. The patients he sees are typically overworked, and eat out at hawker centres often.
Hawker food usually has higher salt, sugar and oil content, compared to home-cooked meals, he said.
Mr Jonathan Wong, 34, a freelance photographer and a Biggest Loser Asia contestant, turned to junk food out of sheer convenience.
Mr Wong, who stands at 1.85m, dropped to 140kg from his initial 191kg. But he recalls how he would keep late nights editing pictures. He would eat three full meals and two suppers a day. His choices include beehoon goreng and hokkien mee.
He said: “There are many ‘quick fixes’ in the form of junk food here.”
He now eats smaller and healthier meals, such as fruit or yong tau foo.
Losing weight is all about being determined, said Raj. To get on the right track, accept that you need help, seek out a certified trainer and commit to an exercise plan, he urged.
And, if you must eat out, “enjoy the good things but don’t take it to the point where it is excessive”, he said.
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Dept of Obesity and Metabolic Unit
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