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More and more children in Jakarta are increasingly overweight and obese due to an unhealthy diet and lack of supervision from parents, raising concerns of long-term degenerative diseases. Indonesia Medical Nutritionists Association (PDGMI) secretary-general Yusnita Anie said that the trend was worrisome.

'€œThere is a trend of over nutrition among children in Jakarta. This may cause degenerative diseases, which could be very dangerous for the child'€™s health,'€ Anie told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

According to triennial research conducted by the Health Ministry released earlier this year, the prevalence of overweight children in Jakarta had increased in 2013 compared to 2010. In 2010, the overweight and obese prevalence in children aged 5-12 in the city was 12.8 percent. Calculations were based on body mass index for age.

Your comments:

This is the product of bad parenting and the wrong foods. It is indeed worrisome but far worse is the corruption that causes long-term health problems on a national level, like formaldehyde and fake medicines.

To die of diabetes-related problems is practically unheard of in developed countries, but in Indonesia it happens all the time and it'€™s very easy to cover up and nobody questions it.

Formaldehyde accumulates in the body and you die an early death that very few connect with formalin poisoning. Diabetes medicines are simple and effective, if they are real and not fake. Formaldehyde is not necessary if refrigeration is available. You figure it out yourself. Corruption is costing lives.

Yours if you'€™re not careful or rich enough to afford periodic visits to other countries.

Pauloh

Six-year-old children in my housing area ride motorcycles to the shop rather than walk.

This is at least 95 percent a parenting issue.

Ketoprak

We all need a balanced diet comprising fiber, fruit, fish, meat and fresh vegetables. The major problem for Indonesian people is their lack of understanding and care about food, health and obesity.

If we look at the Indonesian consumption of rice, it is more than double per capita that of any near-developing countries.

Rice, unlike many other carbohydrates, if not used up it is stored in the body as sugar. If we look around, almost no children here are involved in intense physical activities or sport whatsoever.

Diet, education, discipline and laziness are the major issues.

If one checks you will find out that Indonesian people eat double the amount of rice than any other developing nation, nearly 130 kilograms per capita annually.

The major issue with eating too much rice is that the form of carbohydrate in rice, if not burned, is stored in the body as sugar.

Most Indonesians eat rice three to five times a day with no exercise. Diabetes and obesity are now at epidemic levels in this country and nobody gives a hoot.

Bay V

Can someone ban the kerupuk kulit sapi (dried cow-hide crackers)? They are not just fattening, they will kill!

Malam

Get students to understand the importance of healthy lifestyles by promoting it in schools.

Osn TNC

Stop eating carbs, rice, wheat and sugar, get some exercise and the weight will fall off.

Abdul Malik

What do upper-middle-income parents do, exactly? Mostly they throw money and gadgets at the kids, who are often left in the care of a nanny/maid/TV/something/anything who just gives the kids what they want: cheap, pointless distraction.

But, how could eating junk food and being fat possibly be considered bad? Only poor people are thin, tanned, walking, eating vegetables. Consumption = wealth = status.

What about the city planners and managers? Where are the open park/play areas? What piece of land is left that a property '€œdeveloper'€ doesn'€™t covet to fuel the bubble?

Notice the lack of public seats in the malls, forcing you to sit in the cafe, where you have to buy.

Where are the adequate sidewalks for pedestrian traffic? They could even provide shade!

Where are the low-pollution areas? But even so, there is no status in walking or exercise, well at least not unless you are riding the most expensive bike at a breathless 10 kilometer/hour (note: sarcasm).

Where are the sports promotion programs and stories, other than for Indonesian '€œshuttlers'€.

Swimming, diving, gymnastics, tennis, squash etc.?

Why is it, on an island nation that 95 percent of its people cannot swim to save themselves? (bobbing up and down while touching the bottom down does not count as swimming).

Given the obsession with status symbols, perhaps the population needs to be reminded that in the past you had to walk to Mecca for the haj. Not like the faith-based tourism of today. Get in training people.

John Elliott

As a Western teacher, I have lived in Indonesia for the past 11 years and have noticed a high increase of obese kids in my classes. Obesity is now not exclusively a Western problem.   Gradually as diets change and there is more use of sugar and fat, combined with lack of exercise, Southeast Asians will have the same obesity and related health issues as the West.

This is a shame because when I first arrived in Asia (Malaysia) some 16 years ago, obesity was rare, and most males were slim, with only the odd fat '€œtowkay'€, and the women were slim and svelte.

Colroe

Eating a bowl of boiled white rice is the same as eating 15 spoons full of white processed sugar.

Colin Anderson

The problem is that there is no one is walking, cycling or playing on the streets anymore. They just hang out in their homes and play Internet games and eat all day. That'€™s the life of an average boy in Jakarta, as well as in other big Indonesian cities, today. The heart attacks, high blood pressure and diabetes come later.

Charles Jarret