Many Thais are addicted to sugary drinks, raising concerns about health risks, according to the latest health study.
Health risks involving obesity and diabetes stemming from excessive sugar consumption remain a major concern despite improvements in other areas, Deputy Prime Minister Adm Narong Pipatanasai said at a briefing on the latest health study at the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) office in Bangkok on Monday.
"Compared to the 2009 health study, health behaviour among Thais was improving such as lower alcohol consumption and a decline in smoking habits. However, we're seriously concerned about daily consumption of food with high sugar content among Thai people," Adm Narong said.
In Thailand, the prevalence of obesity in women has been higher than that in men for years, he added.
"Recent statistics showed that Thailand ranked second in Asia after China in the number of obese women, while women in Japan and Hong Kong become less obese," he said.
Of Thailand's total population of about 68 million, 19 million (28%) were overweight and 7.7 million (11.3%) were at risk of more serious health issues such as diabetes.
"About 43.1% of diabetic patients don't even know they have the disease," he said.
The study also found that children aged 10-14 drank more sugary drinks.
"Parents will play a key role in helping us reduce unhealthy dietary risks among children. We'll come up with a campaign to educate parents and children about dietary facts soon," he said.
Excessive daily sugar intake among Thais has been the major cause of obesity for a large number of Thais and the trend remained unchanged, said the admiral, who supervises the Public Health Ministry.
Wichai Aekplakorn of Ramathibodi Hospital's Faculty of Medicine said the study was based on a survey on 19,468 people aged between 15 and over 60 in 21 provinces including Bangkok between October 2014 and February 2015.
The study defined overweight people as those having the body mass index (BMI), calculated from the correlation between height and weight, of 25 or more, while obesity had the BMI of 30 or more.
On a brighter note, the study found Thai people consumed 400 grammes of vegetables and fruit a day, the minimum recommended by the World Health Organisation.
The number of people consuming enough nutrition also increased by 8% while a decrease in the number of Thai smokers aged over 15 was encouraging, Mr Wichai told.
"The percentage of Thai male smokers slightly declined to 31.3% from 38.7% in the previous health report conducted in 2009, while the number of female smokers decreased to 1.8% from 2.1%," he said.
He attributed the improvement to anti-smoking campaigns carried out by the ThaiHealth.