Sweet Drinks Can Affect Your Health

VIVA – In celebration of World hypertension day, May 17, 2022 the PTM Alliance (Non-Communicable Disease Alliance held a virtual press conference with the theme "Control of Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factors for a Healthier Indonesia" on May 18, 2022. The purpose of this event is to give more information about non-communicable diseases and the causes.

This event was hosted by Nina Samidi as moderator and attended by Dr Rita Damayanti, MPSH as Head of Public Education and Community Empowerment of Komnas, Dr Elvieda Sariwati as Plt. Director of P2PTM of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, Dr Ade Meidian Ambari as General Secretary of the Indonesian PTM Alliance, Gita Kusnadi, MPH as Plt. CISDI Research Manager, and Anita Sabidi as a member of PERSADA and IKADAR.

Non-communicable diseases or locally known as PTM include diabetes, hypertension, cancer, heart disease, and others.

First, dr Ade Meidian Ambari as General Secretary of the Indonesian PTM alliance conveyed about the burden that Indonesia faces in health due to non-communicable diseases which are worrying.

“Indonesia faces a health burden due to non-communicable diseases that are increasingly worrying. It is known that 73% of the causes of death in Indonesia are caused by non-communicable diseases, the trend of increasing PTM in the young age group is getting higher, PTM contributes as a cause of poverty and hinders socio-economic growth and ironically, 80% of PTM is caused by a lifestyle that can actually be prevented.” said dr Ade Meidian Ambari.

According to him, the main factor of non-communicable diseases is smoking. Smoking is a risk factor that contributes to all causes of PTM death. Then, consume a lot of salt and saturated fat, and also consume very sweet packaged drinks or locally known as MBDK.

Then, Anita Sabidi as a member of PERSADA and IKADAR explained about the challenges in the health system, namely the broad demographics of Indonesia which makes not all areas reachable by medical parties and lack of diabetes awareness.

"In Indonesia, there is already a National Insurance or locally known as BPJS that guarantees public health, such as basic medicine, including insulin and oral medication, doctor consultation, and laboratory work." she said.

“But we have a challenge too, such as limited sources of HCP, there isn’t diabetes technology, and there are still unlimited packaged sweetened beverages. If people still consume sweet-based foods and drinks such as packaged drinks, the number of non-communicable diseases will also be higher.” said Anita Sabidi.

After that, the party of packaged sweetened drinks, Gita Kusnadi as the center of Indonesia's strategic development initiatives said that Indonesia is indeed in the 3rd highest rank in Southeast Asia with packaged sweetened drinks consumption with a total consumption of 20.23 liters/person/ year.

The relationship between consuming packaged sweetened drinks and non-communicable diseases is that it refers to an increase in body weight which eventually leads to obesity, and increases the risk of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer, liver etc.

"Because many people consume packaged sweetened drinks, we hope that the tax can increase. So, the price of these packaged drinks can also increase which in the end will reduce the consumption of these unhealthy drinks and have an impact on reducing the level of obesity and non-communicable diseases.” She said,

Gita also added that the implementation of MBDK tax in Indonesia must be a real step for the government to protect the public from the adverse health effects.

Not only consume packaged sweet drinks, it turns out that smoking is also the cause of the high number of non-communicable diseases.

According to dr Rita Damayanti as Plt. Director of P2PTM of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, the government must place the interests of public health above any interests that become obstacles in implementing public policies. The government also needs to implement policies and be right on target for these products that bad for health.

“Cigarettes are a social problem, we should change the norms in people. It becomes very significant.” dr Rita said.

Dr. Elvieda Sariwati as Plt. Director of P2PTM of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, said that currently the Ministry of Health has regulated the existence of BMDK regulations.

“For now, we have proceeded with CISDI friends and were assisted by other partners. We have given a letter to the ministry of finance and we are together to commit to implementing this excise policy." dr Elvieda said.

"Based on the letter that has been given, we will discuss in more detail the substance of this BMDK regulation." She added.

Not only that, dr Elvieda also provides advice for the community towards a healthier life, namely with four pillars, eating a variety of healthy foods, getting the healthy living behavior, doing physical activity, and maintaining and monitoring a normal weight.

PTM Alliance (Non-Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Alliance) is an institution of member organizations in carrying out various activities to control risk factors and non-communicable diseases in Indonesia in accordance with the vision and mission of each organization.

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"In Indonesia, there is already a National Insurance or locally known as BPJS that guarantees public health, such as basic medicine, including insulin and oral medication, doctor consultation, and laboratory work." she said.