The role of public health dietary messages and guidelines in tackling overweight and obesity issues

@#Overweight and obesity in Malaysia pose serious threats to health. Prevalence has escalated to alarming levels in recent decades despite a multitude of public health dietary messages geared towards obesity prevention and health promotion. Gaps between health messages, messengers, and the public must be identified and closed to effectively combat obesity and overweight. This review article aims to examine public health dietary messages, guidelines, and programmes for the prevention of obesity in Malaysia, and explore potential reasons for the continued rise in its prevalence. Public health dietary communication in Malaysia has progressed and improved substantially over the years. However, most messages have been designed for the general audience, with little consideration of differences in physical, social, cultural, and environmental backgrounds, and varying levels of comprehension. We offer several recommendations to increase the effectiveness of public health dietary messages in fighting the obesity epidemic, based on a cross-sectoral, place-based approach that recognise the complexity of the underlying causes of obesity.

The Role of Green Urban Spaces in Enhancing Population Health and Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

@#As urban centres pursue localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), rapidly growing cities in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), many of which are located in the Asia-Pacific region, are experiencing competing demands for limited resources. The protection and enhancement of Urban Green Spaces (UGS) is a practical, lowcost opportunity to produce multiple benefits across the SDGs, ranging from improving the health and wellbeing of city dwellers and reducing inequalities to protecting local flora and fauna and attracting economic investments for future generations. In developing a city-wide strategy for UGS that aligns with the New Urban Agenda, it is important to consider the coordination of efforts from multiple sectors through participatory decision-making mechanisms that engage the civil society and address the needs of the most vulnerable population groups regarding mobility (such as children, elderly, women and people with disabilities) to ensure no one is left behind.