Obesity among school children is attracting the attention of the Health Ministry of Malaysia and the Minister of Health issued a rules to all school canteens all over the country that nasi lemak cannot be sold to school children. The school canteen operators argue, if they cannot sell nasi lemak, what should they sell to the school children? Nasi lemak has been the traditional breakfast for the Malays for centuries. Malays used to take rice cook with coconut milk which is known as nasi lemak with sambal of dried small fish known as ikan bilis as the main food for breakfast. Malays used to be farmers or fishermen and they need more carbohydrate in order to provide them the energy to do work. Nasi lemak provides the carbohydrate that the farmers and the fishermen need. Now not many Malays are farmers or fishermen. Most Malays are now working as government servants, professionals, and businessmen. They do not need that much carbohydrate as the farmers and fishermen needs. All children go to school but they do not need much carbohydrate as they do not use that much energy to do work. The habits of eating rice cook in coconut milk in the early morning as breakfast continue throughout the generations. It passes on from generation to generation and the habit of eating nasi lemak dies hard. Can we stop our children from eating nasi lemak at school by giving the rules that canteen operator cannot sell nasi lemak? Our children are used to eat nasi lemak and if they cannot buy nasi lemak from the school canteen, our children will buy nasi lemak from stalls outside the school. Can we stop the stall outside the school from selling nasi lemak? The government cannot stop people from eating nasi lemak and neither the government can stop people from selling nasi lemak. Rules to stop the school canteen operator from selling nasi lemak will not solve the problems of obesity among our children. The Health Ministry is pointing to only the habit of eating nasi lemak as the cause of obesity. What about the habit of eating mee or noodles? Rice and noodles are all carbohydrate and when taken in large quantity or more than what that person needs they will be converted into fat and stored in the body leading to obesity.
