A webinar titled “Health Myth: Healthy Diet Plan” was conducted on 19 February 2021 via Google Meet. The invited speaker was Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) Department of Surgery Clinical Assistant Professor Dr Ooi Se-En.
.jpg)
Dr Ooi delivering her talk
In her talk, Dr Ooi stated that obesity has been recognised as a disease by
the American Medical Association and has become a big problem compared to a
few years ago. “This is because of bad habits and the usage of drugs such as
depressant drugs,” she said.
She also mentioned that environmental and behavioural influences, especially
social factors were strong obesity risk factors. “About 1% of obesity is
because of genetics,” she explained, adding that other factors such as
pollution, technology, food abundance and chemicals in the environment were
also strongly associated with the issue.
“If you eat the same amount of calories and burn the same amount of
calories, you will maintain the same weight,” she said. She highlighted that
calories count is part of weight loss management. “If you do not want to do
the calories count, at the end of the day, when you lose the weight, you
will gain it back even worse. Calories in, calories out. If you eat more and
you burn fewer calories, you will gain weight,” she explained.
She advised the participants to exercise more and eat balance to lose weight. “Our food consists of macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are the main bulk of our food; micronutrients are what we require in small quantities in order for our body to function properly and extract nutrients from our food,” she said.
.jpg)
Dr Ooi advising people to consume the same number of calories as they burn
in order to maintain the weight
Sharing news regarding the overweight issue in Malaysia during the MCO due
to the Covid-19 pandemic, she highlighted the concern was that obesity not
only increased the risk of contracting various chronic diseases but also put
a strain on the finances of the government in terms of healthcare
allocations. “Just imagine if more and more people get diabetes, our
government will have to buy more health care systems and diabetes medication
to support the community. This will be a big burden for our government,” she
said.
She provided diet guidelines for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, saying that a healthy diet has to contain adequate, balanced, and variable nutritious foods to avoid vitamin deficiencies and other diseases of malnutrition. “There is no single food that provides all the nutrients required by our body. We have to select a combination of food that delivers full contingents of nutrients for good health; selecting food that delivers all the essential nutrients without excessive energy intake. The choice of food intake influences our body’s health and poor eating habit increases the risk of chronic diseases,” she said.
.jpg)
Dr Ooi presenting the old and latest version of the food pyramid
.jpg)
Dr Ooi showing some of
the most common diet and weight loss myths
She shared the general diet myth and presented the latest version of the
food pyramid. She mentioned that the food pyramid has been revised because
of the progression and the development of technology and society. She
pointed out the changes in the food pyramid and said, “Fruits and vegetables
move downwards in the food pyramid, which means we have to consume more
fruits and vegetables.”
She further gave more tips on how to maintain a healthy life and highlighted
the importance of regular physical activity. The webinar then ended with a
Q&A session.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Wholly owned by UTAR Education Foundation Co. No. 578227-M LEGAL STATEMENT TERM OF USAGE PRIVACY NOTICE