The Lady's Choice Healthy Eating Campaign launch at SK Brickfields 2.

A whopping 25% of primary pupils are overweight and obese. This is the finding of a study conducted by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in 2008.

The UKM 2008 study also showed that almost 30% of primary school children skipped breakfast on an average of two to three times a week.

“This is rather shocking as breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” said Lenny Chuah, senior brand manager, beverage and dressing category, Unilever Malaysia and Singapore. Chuah was speaking at a recent roundtable discussion on “Are Malaysian Children Eating Right?”

“We believe it is important to start young. There is an urgent need to improve Malaysian children's nutritional status and understanding of what is healthy eating. We hope that through Lady's Choice Healthy Eating Campaign, we inculcate healthy eating habits including breakfast and encourage a healthy lifestyle where physical activity and breakfast habits are favoured,” she added.

One of the key programmes in the Lady's Choice Healthy Eating Campaign is a nationwide school outreach to primary pupils to educate them about food choices and eating habits. The outreach comprises 46 schools in urban and semi-urban areas across the country (except Labuan and Perlis).

The primary pupils will be exposed to educational talks by Lady's Choice about obesity and BMI (body mass index), elements to a healthy diet, consequences of an imbalanced diet, types of food to consume more of and what to avoid, the importance of three meals a day and exercise and sufficient sleep, and the benefits of healthy snacking.

The second phase of the campaign will see Lady's Choice reaching out to mothers by engaging them to submit recipes through Lady's Choice's Facebook page. Five finalists will be invited to compete live to win a kitchen makeover.

More information on the Recipe Challenge will be unveiled soon.

For more information on this campaign, go to facebook.com/ladyschoicemalaysia.