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Obesity among Malays: don't blame coconuts!

!n Singapore, there has been quite a high rate of obesity among Malays, and this is commonly blamed on their liking of foods prepared with coconut milk. These foods are said to be “lemak” a Malay word meaning “rich”. 

  Back in 1995, following a newspaper report advising Malays to avoid or reduce taking coconuts, I wrote the a Letter to the Editor to The Straits Times and Berita Harian, respectively the leading English and Malay language newspapers in Singapore. It was translated into Malay and published in Berita Harian. 

I then reproduced it in an issue of The Good Life. At that time, my view of coconuts was that they are not as harmful as they are made out to be.
Since then, I have discovered that coconut oil and coconut milk are, in fact, very highly beneficial. It even helps weight loss! Click here to read about the benefits of coconut oil on my Stop-Trans-Fat website.





Coconuts in the diet
For centuries, probably for thousands of years, coconuts have formed a regular part of the diet a month the peoples of Southeast Asia and South India. No problems. Yet now, it is being blamed for causing obesity among Malays. The coconut has been unfairly used as a scapegoat by lovers of mutton. A Straits Times report on obesity among Malay women (ST Life! 18 May 1995) points out that coconut milk is high in calories. This is partly true.

But consider... 1/2 to 1 cup of coconut milk (348 to 696 calories) goes into a pot of vegetable kuah lemak (vegetable curry cooked in coconut milk) that feeds a family of five or more. Each person’s share is at most 140 calories, probably less. In contrast, one piece of beef rendang (dry beef curry, also prepared with some coconut milk) contains 228 calories and is eaten by just one person. That same person is also likely to eat, in the same meal, a piece of fried chicken (340 calories), plus fried fish, fried eggs and other high calorie foods.


Cause of obesity among Malays
This is where the real problem lies. Meals like this are not just eaten at occasional Malay weddings. For many Malays, they are eaten two or even three times a day. Just walk up to any Malay food stall. Look at what they sell; look at what their customers buy. Sure, the sayur lemak is there. But everything else is meat, meat and meat. And almost all of it is fried. 

The ST article focused on the calorie content of various foods. This is important. But there is more to weight control (and the problem of obesity among Malays) than just the number of calories.

In The China Health Project, the biggest ever nutritional study, researchers found that the average Chinese consumes 20 percent more calories that the average Westerner. Yet Westener are at least 25 percent more overweight than the Chinese. One reason could be that the Chinesse are physically more active. But Dr Colin Campbell, who heads the study, believes the difference is in where those calories come from. 

In a dish of sayur lemak, the calories come from vegetable and coconut milk. So apart from being slightly high in calories, sayur lemak is actually quite a healthy dish. In contrast, the calories in beef rendang or fried chicken come from meat, animal fat, cooking oil (often containing harmful chemicals) and, yes, maybe coconut milk (in the case of beef rendang). 

The high fat, high protein content of such foods contributes not just to obesity but also to other degenerative diseases, including gout, kidney failure and many types of cancer.


Solution to obesity among Malays
The solution to obesity among Malays is therefore not simply to cook meat curry with skimmed milk, as one nutritionist suggested. The real solution is to reduce drastically the consumption of meat and fats.

Even lean meat has about 30 percent fat – the maximum fat level recommended by health authorities. For optimum weight and optimum health, fat should be only 15 to 20 percent of total calories. 

Using skimmed milk instead of coconut milk may cut out a few calories. But cow’s milk is nowadays loaded with pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics and other harmful substances. High consumption of cow’s milk is associated with allergies and respiratory problems like asthma and sinusitis. Countries with the highest milk consumption – Britain, New Zealand and the Scandinavian countries – have the world’s highest rates of breast cancer.
What to do about obesity among Malays? 

Return to traditional ways of eating, where the diet consist primarily of whole grains (eg, brown rice instead of white rice), beans and vegetables, with meat on festive occasions a few times a year. You won’t find many obese people in traditional societies. Not even in places where they eat coconuts everyday.
PS: It is has now also been established that obesity – whether obesity among Malays or other races, especially among Americans where it has become a serious epidemic – is caused by, amongst other things, transfats. Click here to learn about the Dangers of transfats in causing obesity and diabetes.