Healthier-oil subsidies not the only way to promote healthy fare

The Health Promotion Board’s (HPB) subsidies for healthier oil was a recent TalkBack topic on 938LIVE.

It is important to note, however, that palm oil is not the main culprit. The HPB should instead curb the use of lard from pig fat and ghee.

Lard is commonly used to add taste to char kway teow and fried Hokkien mee. We can also find lard residue in our bowls of noodles, porridge, zhi char and even supposedly healthier chee cheong fun and yam cake.

Ghee is commonly used to make roti prata and mee goreng.

A better, more targeted approach is for the HPB to promote its Healthier Hawker scheme. There are not enough of these hawker centres, coffee shops and food courts to cater to our population.

Oil is only one of the factors that may contribute to heart problems. What about salt, sugar and refined rice and noodles?

If we have healthier oil without replacing salt with herbs, or white rice and noodles with whole-grain varieties, it may not solve much.

At the Healthier Hawker eateries, there are posters showing which stalls use healthier salt and oil, brown rice, whole-grain noodles and less sugar/syrup. The HPB could put up such educational posters at eateries that have yet to join the programme.

Ultimately, the key to healthy food lies in moderation.

We need not refrain totally from oil, sugar and salt, but we should ask for less of these while continuing to enjoy our meals.

What the HPB could do for hawkers is to buy healthier oil and whole grain in bulk.

Instead of oil subsidies, the money could be used to help the poor buy healthy meals, using food vouchers, at Healthier Hawker eateries.