Jakarta – The public should be educated on the health risks of consuming foods and drinks with high sugar content, an official at the Women's Empowerment and Children Protection Ministry said on Tuesday.
"How can people understand that high-sugar foods and drinks harm children's health, making them vulnerable and shortening their lives," the ministry's assistant deputy for children's right Amurwani Dwi Lestariningsih said, as quoted by the Antara news agency.
"Many elementary and middle school children now need dialysis because of kidney failure," she said.
"Their hearts are enlarged from uncontrolled diabetes. This will cause problems for the next 10 or 15 years. We need to think about the long-term effects."
Amurwani added that the causes of these silent killers should be taken seriously.
She said that these health conditions do not develop overnight. It takes years of consuming high-sugar foods for the adverse health impacts to manifest.
Amurwani also encouraged people to consume local foods for better nutrition.
"Dishes like [nasi] pecel and gado-gado are more nutritious than readily available junk food," she said, referring to two types of Indonesian vegetable salads with peanut sauce.
Earlier on Aug. 2, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin revealed that about 13 percent of Indonesia's population, or 35.8 million people, have diabetes, and the situation could worsen without continuous management.
"Without daily treatment, diabetes can become chronic. A simple check is your jeans size – if it's over 34, your sugar levels might be high," Budi said in Bandung, as quoted by Antara.
He encouraged the public, especially children, to cut down on sugary foods and drinks to prevent chronic diseases.
"Kids today drink too many sugary beverages. We need to reduce that and return to [consuming] unsweetened [beverages]," he added.