The government should ban advertisements of highly-sugared and junk food items, and drinks, during children's television viewing hours to control diabetes and other sugar-related diseases from young.

In making this call, Consumers' Association of Penang (CAP) president SM Mohamed Idris pointed out that 15 per cent of Malaysians aged above 30 were suffering from diabetes.

‘We should educate Malaysians from young on the danger of sugar and diabetes," he said.

Malaysian health authorities once described diabetes as the "mother of all diseases."

Idris said over 60 ailments were linked to sugar consumption including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, asthma and allergies.

"Diabetes is strongly linked to high sugar consumption and obesity,"he said in a statement today.

He added that the health authorities should also educate children on the danger of excessive sugar intake through health, home science and cookery subjects.

Plea for educational programmes

He also said programmes over radio, television and other media should be intensified to educate the public on the danger of high sugar intake, especially refined white sugar, the main cause of diabetes.

He described the refined white sugar as the "most dangerous white powder known to man."

He said that it was an addictive substance devoid of nutrients and was more like a drug than food capable of damaging human health more than most drugs.

sm mohd idris Idris suggested that the school managements provide free drinking water in dispensers to prevent children from buying and consuming sweet drinks.

According to him, diabetes affects 246 million people worldwide with the figure expected to leap to 380 million by 2025.

He said an average seven million people developed diabetes yearly and 3.8 million deaths each year across the globe were linked to diabetes related causes such as cardiovascular disease made worse by diabetes-related lipid disorders and hypertension.

He said according to the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 1986, diabetes prevalence was about 6.3 per cent in the country.

The prevalence, he said increased to 8.3 per cent 10 years later and had almost doubled to 14.9 per cent in 2006.

He said Malaysia was reported to be eighth most sugar consuming country in Southeast Asia.

"In 1970s, each Malaysian consumed 17 teaspoons of sugar daily but now is 26 teaspoons," he said

Idris called on the health authorities to enforce laws requiring manufacturers to label the sugar contents and its levels in their products.

He also wants the authorities to ban child-height confectionary displays at supermarket and grocery stores and remove vending machines dispensing junk food and sweet drinks from hospitals, airports and schools.