The lifestyle of consuming food and drinks with high sugar has become uncontrollable; it has even become children's habitJakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), Lestari Moerdijat, has emphasized that political will is needed on the part of policy makers for tackling cases of diabetes in children.
"The lifestyle of consuming food and drinks with high sugar has become uncontrollable; it has even become children's habit. Therefore, political will to protect the future of our children is needed," she said at the Denpasar 12 Discussion Forum, which was followed online on Wednesday.
She explained that policy makers need to have political will to create policies that limit products containing sugar to keep children from being exposed to them, for example, by imposing excise or taxes.
Apart from that, political will is also needed to make producers ensure their products reach the community safely.
"It cannot be denied that we have not yet owned comprehensive protective policies to protect our children from the dangers posed by those products. Moreover, our community's health literacy is still lacking," she noted.
She said that, based on a report from the Indonesian Pediatric Society (IDAI), cases of diabetes in children increased 70 times in 2023 compared to 2010.
"IDAI also recorded that the incidence spread to various cities, and most cases came from Jakarta and Surabaya," she added.
She stressed that diabetes could threaten the future of the nation's children, if not taken seriously.
She further said that serious action is needed to address the risk of consumerism and exposure to advertisements, which makes it very easy to attract children to products containing minimal nutrients and high sugar.
"We are confronted with unhealthy lifestyles that endanger children, and the problem of diabetes leads to problems in the quality of human resources, the value of life, and the support for the nation's competitiveness," she added.
Moerdijat stressed that the interests of children must become a serious topic of discussion in every policy.
"By prioritizing the interests of children, the nation's future can be better," she said.
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Translator: Lintang Budiyanti, Raka Adji
Editor: Sri Haryati
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