Jakarta- January 26, 2022 - National Nutrition Day enters its 62nd year and the Ministry of Health is campaigning action to prevent stunting and obesity. These two things are still global problems, and it is important for all Indonesian families to understand and apply a well ordered and healthy diet with balanced nutrition. PT AJINOMOTO INDONESIA (Ajinomoto) plays a role in disseminating obesity prevention literacy by cultivating a healthy living community movement, through the “Smart Salt” campaign.
The latest Primary Health Research (Riskesdas) data in 2018 shows 21.8 percent of Indonesian people are obese. The obesity rate is predicted to reach 40 percent by 2030, which means that almost 1 in every 2 adults in Indonesia will be obese. This condition must be addressed immediately because obesity is associated with a number of diseases, such as a higher risk of developing high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. “The prevalence of non-communicable diseases in Indonesia is increasing from year to year. This implies that people must change their lifestyle to be healthier. One of the keys is to maintain a balanced nutritional intake by paying attention to the amount of sugar, salt and fat in each dish," said dr. Rafael Nanda R, MKK in Health Talk & Virtual Tour held by Ajinomoto Visitor Center (25/1).
Salt plays an important role in giving delicious taste to food. Salt also has various benefits for the body. The benefits of salt or sodium are to maintain fluid balance in the body and play a role in maintaining nerve and muscle function. However, foods with high salt tend to make people overeat, leading to obesity and other diseases such as hypertension. In addition, high salt consumption can cause high sodium levels in the blood. The WHO (World Health Organization) recommends a safe consumption limit of salt per day for adults is a maximum of 5 grams or less than one teaspoon. Therefore, it is important to maintain salt intake so that the body still gets its benefits without causing various risks of disease.
Recognizing the importance of a salt diet for health, Ajinomoto introduced the “Smart Salt” campaign. Grant Senjaya, Head of Public Relations Department PT AJINOMOTO INDONESIA explained, "Currently we have a "Bijak Garam" (“Smart Salt”) campaign that literate people about the importance of a low-salt diet and persuades Indonesian families to live healthier by reducing their salt intake or use in cooking. One of the factors that make it difficult to reduce salt in cooking is to keep the taste delicious and not bland. This “Bijak Garam” campaign is a smart solution in reducing the use of salt in every dish by maintaining a balanced taste. Reducing salt intake or a low-salt diet can be replaced by using salt with umami spices such as MSG. So, if you still want your food still taste good, but at the same time you want to reduce salt intake, this method is perfect. The sodium content in MSG is only 1/3 of the sodium content in regular salt, and there have also been many previous studies that have shown the use of MSG to help reduce salt intake while maintaining food deliciousness. We also promote the importance of salt diet intake through www.dapurumami.com/page/bijak-garam. In this website, there are information about the importance of a salt diet, we also share tips on how to make low-salt dishes delicious and nutritious, we also have "Tanya Nutri Expert" rubric so consumers can find out nutritional information directly from the experts and the "Umami Journal" which is an interactive means of sharing tips, recipes, and various culinary info”.
Umami seasoning has been shown to enhance the taste of food. However, the use of umami spice is still widely doubted due to various misinformation circulating in the community. To overcome these doubts, Ajinomoto supported PERGIZI PANGAN Indonesia in a webinar entitled "Does Umami Really Cause Obesity?" on February 2, 2022 which presented by Prof. Dr. Ir. Hardinsyah, MS, a Professor of Nutrition Science, Faculty of Human Ecology, Bogor Agricultural University as source person in providing complete and reliable information about the benefits and safety of umami seasoning. Now it’s time to take care of your health and those you care about, through the #bijakgaram movement.