HEALTH Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad has advised consumers who care for their family to avoid food and drinks that have excessively high sugar content like the popular bubble tea.

The Health Minister said drinks like the pearl bubble tea have sugar content which is three times in excess of the recommended daily sugar intake of eight teaspoon.

“I was made aware that the bubble tea, which is extremely popular now, has up to 500ml of sugar, or equivalent to 20 teaspoons.

“It’s way above the recommended intake of eight teaspoons a day,” he said today after launching the “Kurangkan Gula Hidup Sihat” (reduce sugar, live healthy) campaign at Giant hypermarket in Subang Jaya today.

“That is why I am advising you as a smart consumer you should be knowledgeable, and be well informed on food and drinks with high sugar content.”

The Kuala Selangor MP said the best measure the consumer could take was not to expose family to food and drinks with high sugar content.

“We want consumers to be responsible and not expose their children to any kind of food or drinks like these, including bubble tea,” he said.

However, he said his ministry had not taken any steps to meet bubble tea distributors just yet about using sugar tax as a measure to control sugar consumption.

“From the campaign, our goal is to have a healthy society and avoid obesity.

Dzulkefly had previously said non communicable diseases – like high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes – were on the rise in Malaysia.

More Malaysians are at risk of these silent killers, he said.

A study by the health ministry showed 73% of deaths in this country were from these NCDs.

The statistics also showed Malaysia had more obese people than any other countries in Southeast Asia. – July 25, 2019.