Source: Signature Market 

    Although the Malaysian Healthy Plate concept was introduced by our Health Ministry, Malaysians seem to be luxuriating themselves by arbitrarily eating cholesterol-laden and a prodigious amount of calorie food. The aversion of our locals to comply with the Malaysian Diet Guidelines has proven my supposition that they indeed have yet to fully grasp the concept of incorporating a balanced diet. 

Source: Positive Parenting 

    The World Health Organisation's “5 A Day” campaign encourages people to eat a minimum of 400g of fruit and vegetables a day to lower the risk of health problems. Similarly, Malaysia also had launched the “Eat Fruits and Vegetables” campaign at the behest of S Subramaniam in 2016 in the hope that Malaysians would infuse more vegetables and fruits in their daily diet. 

    Fruits, in general, have a myriad of benefits, but it all depends on how you incorporate them into your daily meal. Provided you don’t fry or roast them in excessive oil, the nutrients in fruits alone can help to maintain your dietary plan. Most fruits, such as rambutans, papayas, and apples are low in fat, sodium and calories and cholesterol-free. However, myths about fruits being meagre and plain seem to be ingrained within our minds, though that is far from the truth. Hence, these myths shall be debunked forthwith. 

    Take for example, the durian. The king of fruits is often associated with a spiked level of cholesterol upon eating. Because truthfully, durians do not contain any cholesterol at all! And I can vouch this by referencing The USDA National Nutrient Database as my source on this. In fact, the durian itself has monounsaturated fats that help to lower bad cholesterol. 

    Furthermore, fruits like bananas contain potassium and as far as we all know, the mineral is much needed in our diet. Without a doubt, consuming fruits that are rich in potassium have been proven to bring powerful health benefits such as reducing high levels of blood pressure, improving water retention, protecting against stroke, preventing osteoporosis and even kidney stones! 

    If you have ever heard of the saying “eat a rainbow”, it might bring a flicker of recognition of the word phytochemicals. And if you have not even heard the word, fret not as the scientific jargon is not that hard to understand. Phyto, a Greek derived word that means “plant”, can be found in plant-based foods. In this case, fruits are one of them. So what does “Eat a rainbow” has to do with the word phytochemicals? Well, simply because phytochemicals are often related to color. Each fruit has different colors, be it in a merger of yellow-orange, and blue-purple. These combinations of phytochemicals are nutrient-laden and can promote good health. For example, berries. Berries contain anthocyanins which is a form of phytochemicals that could help in reducing blood pressure. 

    This article illustrates the importance of incorporating fruits into our daily lives. The lack of fruit consumption can also heighten the tendency for an individual to be prone to constipation, hemorrhoids and other maladies. There are more benefits that could be included, but I can foresee that list would be endless, so it is best I stop here. 

    Lastly, the increased emphasis by our Ministry is much needed but such a convoluted issue is best to be reviewed thoroughly by not only implementing ways to tackle every facet of the problem, but one shall think first to educate the locals on the importance of fruits beforehand. Through this, consumers would be able to grasp its importance and begin to inculcate the habit of eating fruits. 

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Taylor’s University is delighted to work with The Department of Agriculture Malaysia to come out with a local fruit awareness campaign - LocalBuah4U. LOCALBUAH4U is a 6 weeks campaign focused on educating and increasing awareness about the nutritional facts, health benefits and interesting facts of local fruits in Malaysia. We do this through a series of informational social media postings and engagement activities. 

For more information, visit @localbuah4u and their collaborator, @mydoa_hq on Instagram.