04/10/2025

SATURDAY | OCT 4, 2025

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T HE Education and Health ministries recently banned 12 categories of food and drink from school canteens – everything from candies, chocolates, nuggets to instant noodles and sugary iced drinks. On paper, it looks like a bold step to curb childhood obesity and promote healthier eating. As a parent of a Year Four boy, I welcome the intent. But here’s the truth every Malaysian parent knows: banning junk is the easy part. The hard part is getting children to eat wholesome food without groaning, sulking or sneakily trading carrot sticks for keropok at recess. The lunchbox reality My mornings are a juggling act familiar to thousands of parents. It’s 6.30am, and I am packing a lunchbox while negotiating with my nine-year-old food critic. Son: “Not fried rice again, Amma. ” Me: “It’s healthy.” Son: “Healthy is boring.” He inspects the box like Gordon Ramsay judging contestants. Sometimes the food goes from “yummy” to “why me?” in 10 minutes, and the apple slices are already turning brown. Meanwhile, canteen stalls compete to sell food that children will actually buy, which – let’s be honest – often means fried, sweet or salty. This is where the ministry’s plan hits its first snag. Without subsidies, training and clear monitoring, banning nuggets doesn’t mean children will suddenly start eating spinach; it just means vendors will get creative with labels, children will smuggle in Choki-Choki from home and teachers will be left playing canteen police on top of teaching. Why bans alone don’t bite The ministries have their hearts in the right place but enforcement without support risks backfiring. Fresh fruit costs more than a plate of fried mee goreng . Wholesome meals take longer to prepare. Vendors can’t absorb higher costs, and parents won’t stomach higher prices. The result? Either boring menus nobody eats or unhealthy food disguised as something else. Call a nugget a “golden soy cube” or slap the label “vitamin water” on sugar syrup – it doesn’t change what it is. P O T T U B Y H A S H autoimmune conditions are serious illnesses, yet people often speak about them openly. But mention a terminal illness and the tone changes. Patients conceal their diagnosis even from close friends, hiding the pain and the decline for as long as possible. Only after death do loved ones discover the truth, leaving them shocked and bewildered. Why do some people keep a terminal illness secret from those closest to them? After conversations with others, and reflecting on personal experience, it is clear that the reasons are varied and deeply human. 0 Protecting loved ones: Many feel they are sparing their family and friends pain. They do not want to be the constant source of sadness, worry or pity. 0 Preserving normalcy: Sharing a terminal diagnosis often means life immediately revolves around the illness. Some wish to avoid being defined as “the sick person” or for relationships to shift prematurely into caregiver–patient roles. 0 Denial and avoidance: For some, speaking about the illness makes it real in an unbearable way. Avoidance is a coping strategy that helps them manage overwhelming emotions. 0 Fear of stigma: Despite progress in awareness, certain conditions –

Ban the nuggets but who’s packing the broccoli?

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The children know and so do the parents. So, why let policymakers play along? What needs to happen next Here is my wishlist for the ministries – and no, it is not just more circulars and PowerPoints. T

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Real change means reshaping the food environment so that healthier meals are tasty, affordable and socially normal. That requires funding, training and creativity - not just another laminated list on the canteen wall. – BERNAMAPIC

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0 Subsidise wholesome food: Fresh fruits, local vegetables and whole grains – make them cheaper for vendors. Otherwise, healthy = costly, and bans = resentment. 0 Train canteen makciks : Don’t just ban foods – provide a recipe bank of tested, low-cost and child-friendly meals. Workshops on taste, hygiene and portioning will go further than circulars. 0 Steal with pride: In Japan, schools serve fresh, balanced meals every day. Students eat together and help with serving and cleaning so healthy eating is part of daily life. Menus change with the seasons while they teach children to enjoy variety and fresh ingredients. In Finland, every student gets free, healthy meals. Nutrition is taught in class, so children understand why balanced eating matters, not just what to avoid. This helps healthy habits stick from a young age. Singapore ensures school canteens follow strict health rules. Vendors are trained and monitored, and national campaigns make healthy meals appealing. Children eat nutritious food that is tasty and accessible. Malaysia doesn’t need to copy wholesale but we should adapt the principle: healthy food must be fresh, affordable and normalised. 0 Educate children: You can ban Coke but unless children understand why, they will smuggle in sachets of 3-in-1 Milo. Children need to know why certain foods are better. Make it part of Science, Bahasa essays and even art projects. If children are invested in, enforcement becomes easier. A V I

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0 Monitor and adapt: Track food waste, sales patterns and health outcomes. If nobody eats the boiled broccoli, change the recipe – don’t just scold the children. Let’s be real Malaysians love food – nasi lemak,teh tarik , not quinoa bowls. Tell a child it is “unhealthy”, and you’ve declared war. Picture this classic canteen scenario: Vendor: “ Encik , this one bukan nugget… ini sfera protein artisan special- lah .” Food Inspector: “ Aiyo , artisan- ah ? Okay lah .” Child: “Teacher, I tak beli from canteen… I bawa sendiri from rumah !” At home, negotiating with my 10-year-old food critic: Me: “Fried rice with telur dadar , carrot and broccoli.” Son: “ Alamak , carrot and broccoli again?” Me: “It’s healthy, sayang .” Son: “Healthy? More like death by green lah !” Sometimes the spinach disappears and sometimes it comes back untouched but slip in

a piece of chocolate, and suddenly I’m the “best mummy ever”. Bigger picture The ban is a start but it cannot stop at outlawing nuggets. Real change means reshaping the food environment so that healthier meals are tasty, affordable and socially normal. That requires funding, training and creativity – not just another laminated list on the canteen wall. As a parent, I don’t want my child to be a sugar-zombie but I also don’t want him coming home hungry because the only canteen option was plain rice and boiled egg. Banning the bad is half the job but making the good desirable is the real challenge. Until then, parents like me will keep waging daily battles with our little food critics. This morning, I won with fried rice – spinach included. Tomorrow, who knows? Maybe I’ll even sneak in a single piece of chocolate, for morale purposes only. of powerlessness is twofold: they could not help during the illness and they cannot change it now. 0 Confused grief – Love, hurt and anger coexist, creating a more isolating mourning process. 0 Secondary trauma – Family members who kept the secret may carry guilt, straining relationships at a time when At one point in my life, I thought I too would keep a terminal diagnosis private but having been on the receiving end of secrecy, I understand now how heavy the silence can be for those left behind. Protection through secrecy deepens the pain of loss. Friends and loved ones do not need to be shielded from reality; they long to help in whatever way they can. If you or someone you know faces the end of life, consider the gift of openness. Sharing the truth allows loved ones to support you, create meaningful final moments and find peace in knowing they walked beside you until the end. Secrecy may feel like control but openness fosters connection – the very thing we need most when time is running out. Nahlana T. Kreshnan is a somatic psychotherapist and life and executive coach. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com unity is most needed. Rethinking secrecy Hashini Kavishtri Kannan is the assistant news editor at theSun. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

Cost of shielding terminal illness from loved ones HEART disease, pacemakers, kidney failure, chronic diabetes, strokes and particularly cancer and HIV – still carry stigma. People fear being pitied, treated differently or excluded.

and texted like usual. She occasionally mentioned being unwell and said the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong. Anytime I mentioned visiting her, she made some excuse. At her funeral two weeks ago, I learned that she had asked her family to keep her illness private. Friends stood around in shock, all echoing my own disbelief. Though her intention may have been to protect us, many of us were left grappling with complicated grief and unanswered questions. The emotional impact of being excluded from news of a loved one’s impending death can be significant: 0 Loss of time – Loved ones grieve not only the death but also the moments they never knew they were losing. There is no chance for final conversations, farewells or reconciliation. 0 Feelings of rejection – Being left out can question the relationship’s value. “Wasn’t I close enough? Didn’t I matter enough to be told?” 0 Anger mixed with grief – There may be resentment at being denied the chance to help or simply be present. That anger often collides with guilt, complicating the grieving process. 0 Betrayal of intimacy – Discovering that others knew while one did not can feel like a breach of trust, particularly in long-standing friendships. 0 Helplessness and regret – Survivors agonise over what they would have done differently if they had known. The sense

0 Desire for control: A serious diagnosis often strips away a sense of agency. Choosing who knows and when is one of the few things they can control. Managing disclosure allows them to retain dignity and autonomy. 0 Guilt and burden: Many worry about weighing others down with grief. They fear “ruining” others’ happiness and prefer to carry the load silently rather than risk being seen as a burden. 0 Cultural and personal influences: In some cultures and families, illness and death remain taboo topics – something that should be endured privately. Impact on loved ones These motivations are understandable but secrecy has profound consequences for those left behind. I experienced this recently when a close friend of 30 years, living in Hong Kong, died. Our last contact was in February 2024, when I sent her Chinese New Year greetings. She thanked me but afterwards my texts, calls and voice notes went unanswered. Months later I reached out again, worried she was upset with me. Her husband replied to say she was in hospice care after battling cancer for nearly a decade. During those 10 years, we spoke

“Protection through secrecy deepens the pain of loss. Friends and loved ones do not need to be shielded from reality; they long to help in whatever way they can.