8 ms·

My wife is Malaysian, but I am not. Here is my outsider's perspective: * Street food is very tasty, but often laden with gular (palm sugar) or rock sugar (case

My wife is Malaysian, but I am not. Here is my outsider's perspective: * Street food is very tasty, but often laden with gular (palm sugar) or rock sugar (case in point: Sambal). You don't notice because it's spicy! * Sweet drinks (milo, teh tarik) often accompany the spicy food. * The street food is so cheap, and available pretty much everywhere. People avoid cooking at home[1]. Fresh fruit and vegetables are not that cheap. * Because the weather is so hot and humid, people avoid walking. * People like to eat white rice, as opposed to brown rice (high GI) * Society has transitioned to office work rather than manual work * People can afford larger portions because they are wealthier * The weather is hot and humid, so people avoid walking outside during the day! AC office to AC car to AC shopping mall, etc, etc. [1] One fascinating thing I have noticed is the concept of a "wet" and "dry" kitchen. The dry kitchen is inside the house, and is almost a show-piece. The wet kitchen is where the real action happens (albeit by the maid), but is typically a lean-to adjoining the back of the house.

logicallee 9y ago
I'm no social justice warrior, but would you kindly edit your comment not to be so gauche. EDIT: Not sure how I can get downvoted to -4 within a couple of minutes of my post. Parent poster literally says * Society has transitioned to office work rather than manual work * People can afford larger portions because they are wealthier while mentioning * the dry kitchen is inside the house, and is almost a show-piece. The wet kitchen is where the real action happens (albeit by the maid), but is typically a lean-to adjoining the back of the house. I'm sure the maid doesn't avoid manual work, and a lean-to https://www.google.com/search?q=lean-to&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=lean-to&tbm=isch literally outside the house is the opposite of an office. In the United States you have to be extremely wealthy to have a maid, because maids are expensive, since they make a living wage. A normal office job by no means allows for it. Parent's attitude shows vast wealth inequality they seem completely blind to. Clearly maids make peanuts, apparently while working in a lean-to outside the home they work for, and without even being considered in the set of "people". Again I'm not a social justice warrior, not trying to drum up outrage. Parent should have figured this out for themselves and edited their comment, I shouldn't be at -4 for requesting a light edit. To make sure I was rooted in facts, after this edit I googled "malaysia wealth inequality" - which I didn't know anything about, the only thing I knew is what I read from parent post's attitude - and got a Wikipedia page that says "Malaysia has the highest income disparity between the rich and poor in Southeast Asia, greater than that of Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia." I'm not "outraged" at the parent poster or anything like that, I'd just request a tiny amount of sensitivity.
- always_good 9y ago
  I think it's a bit silly to request someone to edit their comment. If you have a good point, then your comment will stand alone without the demand. But I've reread both comments and I still can't spot the outrage. It seems to me that you think "society has transitioned to office work" somehow means that all people not working in an office are not part of society. Not quite sure yet though because you seem to want everyone else to draw the final conclusion for you as if it were self-evident after linking to google image search for a lean-to.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- cybergoat 9y ago
  I am more than happy to address your concerns. You are absolutely right about the wealth inequality. There are also deep inequalities within Malaysian society not just along socio-economic lines, but also racial lines. It's a complex, multi-faceted issue. My comment was intended to be a simple set of observations about diet and the broader society of Malaysia, relating to the one of the article's points: Rising obesity.
  - logicallee 9y ago
    [Withdrawing this comment after huge criticism in replies]
    - morsch 9y ago
      The tone and attitude of this post is so obnoxious it almost seems like satire.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
    - seibelj 9y ago
      I hope you are trolling, because this comment sounds like it was written by someone with some sort of mental issue. OP isn’t “required to edit” anything just because you say so.
chewz 9y ago
As a European who lived in Malaysia for a few years I do agree. Malaysia is terrible trap. First the amounts of sugar and carbohydrates like white rice is completly devastating. There is very little alternative like fresh fruits or protein in diet. Milk is pretty bad and not tasty - usually low lactosis milk. There is no real cheese or real, good yoghurt etc. Food is of poor quality mostly - think junk food rather then freshly made and freshly cooked. It is tasty due to spice and sugar but not something you would like eating daily. But more devastating then the diet is the lifestyle - due to climate mostly. There is very lityle outdoor activity in cities like KL - in this climate jogging, cycling or even walks in the park are out of question for most people. Malaysia also has sub-par 3rd World city infrastructure - cars rule the cities and the pavements are terrible and dangerous to walk. On the streets one can see a lot of Malayi people who due to lack of activity and carbohydrates intake are overweight and with symptoms of type II diabetes. It is quite suprising that not that far North in Thailand - addmitedly better climate - cycling is as popular as in Italy and people exercise much more outdoors and look healthier. I love Malaysia and they are sweet people there. Just it is a difficult place for me regarding sugar intake and lack of outdoor activity.
- cybergoat 9y ago
  I'm not sure where you went to eat, but I found the food in KL to be of lower standard as compared to Melaka (which is famed for its hawker food) and Penang. In KL, I had to be shown to the good places[1], but in Melaka you'd be pretty set where ever you rock up! But the fruits are amazing! There is so much variety of tropical fruits! But my comments about the pricing were based on my observations at the supermarkets -- it felt like the costs were quite high for fresh fruit & veg compared to simply eating out. [1] Shout out to Klang Bah Kuh Teh. It's been my first stop many times once I've arrived in M'sia!
  - chewz 9y ago
    I would love to go get some good roti and kopi susu but I have left Asia SE a month ago for good. I have pretty much enjoyed the food but it just isn't the kind of diet that you would recommend to anyone for health and and loosing weight. Penang is a little better then KL because of more food diversity there and some really nice Indian, vegetarian restaurants. And the climate is also better then KL so there is more people jogging along the waterfront. But still it isn't a good city for biking.
namelost 9y ago
Over-obsession with carbohydrates/sugar intake is a health fad. One simply can't expect health fads to be uniformly distributed across the planet. People like to eat white rice, because they've been doing so for thousands of years with no ill-effects. The question is how can we improve nutrition education in the west so that people don't think that they are going to get diabetes from eating rice.
- nindalf 9y ago
  > People like to eat white rice, because they've been doing so for thousands of years with no ill-effects As pointed out, human society is wealthier and we're eating more white rice than ever. Since its considered 'superior' to other cereals, we eat it to the exclusion of other cereals. In Japan, for instance, eating too much white rice almost sank the Japanese navy [1] [1] - https://medium.com/war-is-boring/eating-too-much-rice-almost-sank-the-japanese-navy-f985772c81a6 https://medium.com/war-is-boring/eating-too-much-rice-almost...
- teenytim 9y ago
  This. It's fascinating people in the West patbologize disease like diabetes to sugar, when it is actually fat toxicity. Sugar isn't even a causal factor, but you can bet that hamburger patty is!
- cybergoat 9y ago
  There is nothing particularly wrong in eating white rice, if your energy expenditure is matching up to the intake. But as societies change, manual labour is replaced by machines and people move on to physically less demanding work, diets have to adapt.
  - contingencies 9y ago
    Roughly... Cup of cooked white rice: 205 calories. Single cup of milo and milk: 100+ calories for milo, 100+ calories for milk. So they're about the same in energy, however that is not the whole story. Firstly, the glycemic index[0] or how fast sugars are released - rice is good (low and sustained energy release) whereas Milo is bad (fast). Secondly, the overall eating habits encouraged... Milo is encouraging time-poor, less considered, more commercial/productised single-serving consumption and provides little additional nutrition, whereas rice typically accompanies and encourages more natural foods with a more complete nutritional profile (not just "massive energy hit plus incidental protein"). Obviously the environmental overheads with respect to packaging and transport are also far worse for Milo than rice. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index
thisrod 9y ago
Wet kitchens are a very sensible idea, for the kind of cooking that is done in them. Just hang around a hawker stir fry cart, and imagine 20 years of that smoke and oil mist raining down in your living room.

logicallee 9y ago

I'm no social justice warrior, but would you kindly edit your comment not to be so gauche. EDIT: Not sure how I can get downvoted to -4 within a couple of minutes of my post. Parent poster literally says * Society has transitioned to office work rather than manual work * People can afford larger portions because they are wealthier while mentioning * the dry kitchen is inside the house, and is almost a show-piece. The wet kitchen is where the real action happens (albeit by the maid), but is typically a lean-to adjoining the back of the house. I'm sure the maid doesn't avoid manual work, and a lean-to https://www.google.com/search?q=lean-to&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=lean-to&tbm=isch literally outside the house is the opposite of an office. In the United States you have to be extremely wealthy to have a maid, because maids are expensive, since they make a living wage. A normal office job by no means allows for it. Parent's attitude shows vast wealth inequality they seem completely blind to. Clearly maids make peanuts, apparently while working in a lean-to outside the home they work for, and without even being considered in the set of "people". Again I'm not a social justice warrior, not trying to drum up outrage. Parent should have figured this out for themselves and edited their comment, I shouldn't be at -4 for requesting a light edit. To make sure I was rooted in facts, after this edit I googled "malaysia wealth inequality" - which I didn't know anything about, the only thing I knew is what I read from parent post's attitude - and got a Wikipedia page that says "Malaysia has the highest income disparity between the rich and poor in Southeast Asia, greater than that of Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia." I'm not "outraged" at the parent poster or anything like that, I'd just request a tiny amount of sensitivity.

always_good 9y ago
I think it's a bit silly to request someone to edit their comment. If you have a good point, then your comment will stand alone without the demand. But I've reread both comments and I still can't spot the outrage. It seems to me that you think "society has transitioned to office work" somehow means that all people not working in an office are not part of society. Not quite sure yet though because you seem to want everyone else to draw the final conclusion for you as if it were self-evident after linking to google image search for a lean-to.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
cybergoat 9y ago
I am more than happy to address your concerns. You are absolutely right about the wealth inequality. There are also deep inequalities within Malaysian society not just along socio-economic lines, but also racial lines. It's a complex, multi-faceted issue. My comment was intended to be a simple set of observations about diet and the broader society of Malaysia, relating to the one of the article's points: Rising obesity.
- logicallee 9y ago
  [Withdrawing this comment after huge criticism in replies]
  - morsch 9y ago
    The tone and attitude of this post is so obnoxious it almost seems like satire.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - seibelj 9y ago
    I hope you are trolling, because this comment sounds like it was written by someone with some sort of mental issue. OP isn’t “required to edit” anything just because you say so.

chewz 9y ago

As a European who lived in Malaysia for a few years I do agree. Malaysia is terrible trap. First the amounts of sugar and carbohydrates like white rice is completly devastating. There is very little alternative like fresh fruits or protein in diet. Milk is pretty bad and not tasty - usually low lactosis milk. There is no real cheese or real, good yoghurt etc. Food is of poor quality mostly - think junk food rather then freshly made and freshly cooked. It is tasty due to spice and sugar but not something you would like eating daily. But more devastating then the diet is the lifestyle - due to climate mostly. There is very lityle outdoor activity in cities like KL - in this climate jogging, cycling or even walks in the park are out of question for most people. Malaysia also has sub-par 3rd World city infrastructure - cars rule the cities and the pavements are terrible and dangerous to walk. On the streets one can see a lot of Malayi people who due to lack of activity and carbohydrates intake are overweight and with symptoms of type II diabetes. It is quite suprising that not that far North in Thailand - addmitedly better climate - cycling is as popular as in Italy and people exercise much more outdoors and look healthier. I love Malaysia and they are sweet people there. Just it is a difficult place for me regarding sugar intake and lack of outdoor activity.

cybergoat 9y ago
I'm not sure where you went to eat, but I found the food in KL to be of lower standard as compared to Melaka (which is famed for its hawker food) and Penang. In KL, I had to be shown to the good places[1], but in Melaka you'd be pretty set where ever you rock up! But the fruits are amazing! There is so much variety of tropical fruits! But my comments about the pricing were based on my observations at the supermarkets -- it felt like the costs were quite high for fresh fruit & veg compared to simply eating out. [1] Shout out to Klang Bah Kuh Teh. It's been my first stop many times once I've arrived in M'sia!
- chewz 9y ago
  I would love to go get some good roti and kopi susu but I have left Asia SE a month ago for good. I have pretty much enjoyed the food but it just isn't the kind of diet that you would recommend to anyone for health and and loosing weight. Penang is a little better then KL because of more food diversity there and some really nice Indian, vegetarian restaurants. And the climate is also better then KL so there is more people jogging along the waterfront. But still it isn't a good city for biking.

namelost 9y ago

Over-obsession with carbohydrates/sugar intake is a health fad. One simply can't expect health fads to be uniformly distributed across the planet. People like to eat white rice, because they've been doing so for thousands of years with no ill-effects. The question is how can we improve nutrition education in the west so that people don't think that they are going to get diabetes from eating rice.

nindalf 9y ago
> People like to eat white rice, because they've been doing so for thousands of years with no ill-effects As pointed out, human society is wealthier and we're eating more white rice than ever. Since its considered 'superior' to other cereals, we eat it to the exclusion of other cereals. In Japan, for instance, eating too much white rice almost sank the Japanese navy [1] [1] - https://medium.com/war-is-boring/eating-too-much-rice-almost-sank-the-japanese-navy-f985772c81a6 https://medium.com/war-is-boring/eating-too-much-rice-almost...
teenytim 9y ago
This. It's fascinating people in the West patbologize disease like diabetes to sugar, when it is actually fat toxicity. Sugar isn't even a causal factor, but you can bet that hamburger patty is!
cybergoat 9y ago
There is nothing particularly wrong in eating white rice, if your energy expenditure is matching up to the intake. But as societies change, manual labour is replaced by machines and people move on to physically less demanding work, diets have to adapt.
- contingencies 9y ago
  Roughly... Cup of cooked white rice: 205 calories. Single cup of milo and milk: 100+ calories for milo, 100+ calories for milk. So they're about the same in energy, however that is not the whole story. Firstly, the glycemic index[0] or how fast sugars are released - rice is good (low and sustained energy release) whereas Milo is bad (fast). Secondly, the overall eating habits encouraged... Milo is encouraging time-poor, less considered, more commercial/productised single-serving consumption and provides little additional nutrition, whereas rice typically accompanies and encourages more natural foods with a more complete nutritional profile (not just "massive energy hit plus incidental protein"). Obviously the environmental overheads with respect to packaging and transport are also far worse for Milo than rice. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index

thisrod 9y ago

Wet kitchens are a very sensible idea, for the kind of cooking that is done in them. Just hang around a hawker stir fry cart, and imagine 20 years of that smoke and oil mist raining down in your living room.