Health Minister: Make Healthy Lifestyle a Cool Movement to Prevent Obesity

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has called on the public to turn healthy living into a cool movement and not just a programme to prevent obesity, so that everyone feels involved and participates together.

Budi stated during the World Obesity Day 2026 talkshow in Jakarta on Thursday that obesity is linked to health, as seen in indicators such as blood pressure and cholesterol, making maintaining an ideal body weight an absolute requirement to increase life expectancy.

To achieve this, his office is intensifying public education through nutritional labelling or Nutri-level.

“One of them is eating. We must educate on how to eat properly. But if the education style is too scientific, calculating calories and such, it will confuse people. The easiest way is using red, yellow, green indicators. That’s the simplest, like ABCD,” said Budi.

Now, nutritional labelling or Nutri-level has begun to be implemented in various places to make it easier for the public.

His office is also partnering with relevant health influencers, such as dr. Gia Pratama, to widely disseminate this education to the public.

Secondly, besides regulating eating patterns, physical activity also needs to be increased. With exercise, he said, cortisol hormones decrease and endorphins increase. Based on WHO guidelines, exercise should be at least 30 minutes a day, five times a week.

“We run together, to foster awareness that running is cool, trendy, and the cheapest (form of) exercise,” he said.

On the same occasion, Denmark’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Sten Frimodt Nielsen, said that obesity is an increasingly real challenge at the global level. To address it, strong public leadership, active roles from the health sector, and public awareness are needed.

“Sometimes, this is about small steps. Small changes in daily routines, small increases in awareness, small actions that, when combined, create a much bigger impact,” said Nielsen.

He also highlighted the need to eliminate stigma around obesity through proper education and support.

“Through activities like health screenings, consultations, and open discussions, we help people understand their own health, and we encourage them to take positive and supportive actions,” he said.