ALL travellers have experienced at least one occasion when they set out on a route and yet unknowingly go off-track, only realising it when their senses tell them something is wrong.
This happens on everyone’s religious journey but if we fail to realise this, we can keep going on the wrong path. A broad religious guideline is that no dangerous and unhealthy substance is to be taken into the body. Malaysia has long gone off-track.
If we assign equal weightage to three substances that should fall under the guideline – highly sweetened foods, high-nicotine cigarettes and high-alcohol liquor – we are 0%, 50% and 50% compliant, respectively. This gives us an overall compliance of only 33% out of 100%.
Malaysia has the highest number of diabetic cases in Southeast Asia, with one in six adults being diabetic. Diabetes can lead to limb amputation, blindness, kidney failure, hearing failure and nerve damage.
Malaysians are also getting obese, with the prevalence of being overweight among adults standing at 50.1%. In Malaysia, 9.7% of deaths are due to obesity as an attributing risk factor. Resulting sicknesses include diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.
Diabetes is mainly caused by excessive consumption of refined white sugar put in drinks and dishes. The sugar is quickly absorbed into the blood-stream, causing a rapid spike in blood sugar levels prompting the pancreas to release a large amount of insulin to help cells absorb the sugar.
Over time, repeated spikes can lead to insulin resistance with cells becoming less responsive to insulin and more susceptible to developing Type 2 diabetes as well as cancer.
The average Malaysian takes 26 teaspoons of refined white sugar per day – more than four times the recommended maximum.
Has any religious authority recommended severe restrictions on the sale of foods laden with added sugar? Has it preached
that natural sugar contained in unprocessed foods is best for health?
Next on the list is tobacco, which is inhaled into the lungs with each breath. Tobacco use has been conclusively proven to be a definite cause of lung cancer.
It is the biggest risk factor and accounts for 23% of cancer-related deaths worldwide and 17% of all deaths in Malaysia. Individuals who smoke tobacco products increase their risk of death from stroke, coronary heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. On average, 29,457 Malaysians die from smoking each year.
Nicotine, the main stimulant in cigarettes, is the third most addictive drug after heroin and cocaine. Besides nicotine, cigarettes have other chemicals, including 60 which are known to cause cancer.
Data gathered by the Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2023 indicates that 4.8 million adult Malaysians smoke tobacco, and of this number 3.7 million smoke daily. Tobacco use continues to be an epidemic in Malaysia, with the age of initiation
for smoking getting younger.
Of particular concern to the non-smoking public is that out of eight million people globally who die of tobacco use each year, 1.3 million are non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke.
There has also been an increase of 600% in the number of e-cigarette users over the past 12 years. Over this period, the prevalence of e-cigarette or vape use among those in the 15 to 24 age group jumped from 1.1% to 8.6%.
The National Anti-Drug Agency statistics show that vape devices are not only harmful to health but the use of vapes also lures young people into drug addiction.
Again, has any religious authority recommended severe restrictions on smoking and vaping? They do not because tobacco is not mentioned in any scripture.
Smoking used to be confined to the American continent and it spread around the world only beginning from the 16th century. Scriptures for the six main religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam – had been compiled well before the 10th century.
We behave like the unthinking maid who did not stop the child from playing with fire because the master’s instruction was that the child must not play with water. He did not mention fire.
Fortunately, the government is not waiting for a religious push and has begun enforcing the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act, which covers regulations on the registration, sale, packaging, labelling and the prohibition of smoking in public places. It is a start.
Malaysia should also capitalise on a great economic opportunity here as nicotine does have some medicinal properties when used in tiny doses.
Encourage the public university research and development departments to invent a cigarette that uses only a medically permitted amount of nicotine and no addition of carcinogenic chemicals. It is all a matter of chemistry and rearranging the protons. It has already been done with liquor, and that is our third topic.
Non-Malay politicians are sometimes a disgrace to their own religion by campaigning on grounds of religious freedom for the right of non-Islamic shops to sell liquor without undue restrictions.
A recent issue was the proposal by one local council to stop the sale of alcohol in more areas. What is the problem? If you want a bottle, just travel a bit further.
The Buddha commanded: “You shall drink no maddening drink.” He explained that there are “six
dangers through being addicted to intoxicating liquors: actual loss of wealth, increase in quarrels, susceptibility to disease, loss of good character, indecent exposure and impaired intelligence”.
When two religions emerging from vastly different civilisational regions 1,200 years apart decree the same prohibition, all the rest should take note. Do not be like the maid who said that although both the left and right neighbours instructed their maids to ensure the children do not play on the road, her master did not give such instruction. So, she let his children play on the road.
Removal of near-zero beer
The World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer states that alcohol is a group one carcinogen, putting it in the company of tobacco.
The US surgeon-general in an advisory last month warned that alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the US, after tobacco and obesity. Drinking just once a week is tied to a 10% risk of developing an alcohol-related cancer.
Alcohol also kills or maims. Sept 2024: a company supervisor was sentenced to 10 years in jail for driving under the influence of alcohol, causing the death of another driver and leaving his three children with permanent disabilities. Aug 2024: two college students were killed when a 23-year-old motorist, believed to be driving under the influence of alcohol, skidded and entered the opposite lane. May 2024: a national kayaker had to be admitted to ICU after a drunk driver hit her motorcycle.
However, the number of fatal drunk crashes is not half as deadly as the tragic fact that Malaysia has long rejected a marvellous technological invention that reduces or removes the alcohol content in liquor. The local industry turns its back on it and politicians see this new technology as a vote-spoiler.
Spirits, wine and beer containing low or zero alcohol by volume are becoming the rage around the world because of growing public concern for health and safety. Spirits are the main target for reduction as their alcohol by volume (ABV) is at least 20%, much higher than wine and beer.
The most popular spirit in Malaysia is whiskey. One master distiller in California has won multiple awards for its zero-alcohol whiskey with a convincing bit and afterburn, reminiscent of high ABV whiskey. It is also completely free of calories, gluten and sugar.
The next target is beer as drinkers tend to down one bottle or can after another, resulting in the alcohol intake matching that of spirits.
Six years ago, a near-zero beer was introduced to Malaysia. Instead of the standard 5% ABV, it contained less than 0.05% alcohol. It tasted
like the real thing. But it was soon removed from all shelves. No explanation was given.
It could not be due to poor sales as every product inventor knows the adage: a great marketeer can sell bags of sand to an Arab. It is all about creating a demand. Worldwide, low-alcohol beers have achieved a compound annual growth rate of 5.9%.
With one in three French people switching to low- or no-alcohol wine, Bordeaux winemakers have put up a new banner over the entrance to the region’s world-famous vineyards: the less the alcohol, the better the wine. As with nicotine, tiny amounts of alcohol are known to have medicinal benefits.
The authorities of all religions in Malaysia need to decide whether they are keen on public health or just want to enforce strictures that were explicitly spelled out a thousand or more years ago, excluding from their concern any health dangers not specifically mentioned in scripture.
One of the main goals of religion is public health. The correct practice is to lobby the government to severely restrict the availability of refined white sugar, cigarettes and high-alcohol liquor.
Religiously permit only medically permissible amounts of any of these three substances to be consumed if the substance is not completely disallowed by the religion.
The law must come down hard. Non-compliant retail outlets must be ordered to close for one week for the first offence, two weeks for the second and three weeks for the third offence.
Penalties must be imposed for urban or rural outlets and shops or roadside stalls with no exception.
Joachim Ng champions interfaith harmony. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
