As age catches on, and thanks to the public education propounded by the Ministry of Health and health-related associations like Singapore National Heart Association, I am made more aware of the importance of a good diet. (And, we are not even talking about the harm caused by smoking here.) At the back of my mind is also the many true stories of so-and-so's relative who has passed on in life because of stroke, heart attack or cancer. Mind you, they are ordinary-looking persons who neither drink liquor nor smoke cigarettes nor done anything hintingly innocuous so as to invite an early or earlier demise. Eating, you may say, is dead serious.

Fresh in my mind is an article entitled: "ARE YOU DIGGING YOUR OWN GRAVE?" issued by Singapore National Heart Association. This article explains why fatty food and high cholesterol food can lead to high cholesterol level and high blood pressure causing heart disease and stroke. Also, it provides convincing assertion that a good diet at all ages will lead to better health. Thank you Ministry of Health and all concerned parties for being with us over the years. I am with you now.

The way forward is: to educate all, but especially the young and their parents. At the end of the day, when we can appreciate that the primacy of eating is for nutritional value and good health, then the food industry will follow suit and the food landscape in Singapore will undergo a gradual but certain shift. Overall, our people, our nation will incur a proportionately lower health costs, ceteris paribus. So MOH please make full use of your budget. Move us (reach out to us) , shape us (give us good ideas) and lead us (guide our thoughts so that the day will come when the taste of food will play dessert to the appetizer of nutritional value).

The challenge continues: when will we have people eating fruits and vegetables like bitter gourd regularly and avoiding food such as curry laksa, char kway teow, pig's organ soup and chilli crab? The time would have come when it's the hawker selling yong tau foo and not the char kway teow seller who drives a Mercedes Benz. At the moment I think both breeds are driving Mercedes Benzes.