REMARKS BY MR ONG YE KUNG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH, AT THE LAUNCH OF NHG POLYCLINICS' "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT TASTES SO GOOD!" COOKBOOK

Janet Ang, Chairperson, Public Transport Council. I am very glad for you to come to Sembawang Polyclinic to support this event.

Belinda Tanoto, thank you to the Tanoto Foundation for supporting this particular initiative.

 A/Prof Karen Ng, Chief Executive Officer, NHG Polyclinics

 Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen

1.            This is my constituency. Welcome. I want to first say I just had lunch, and I feel very thirsty now. So this is a sign that I consumed too much sodium during lunch. The thing is, we subconsciously consume too much sodium and probably too much fats and probably too much sugar.

2.            Sugar is better, because now most of our sugar intake, 30% of our sugar intake, come from sodas. And when you look at sodas now, they are all labelled A to D, we try to avoid C and D, so consumption of sugar has dropped in Singapore.

3.            And what is amazing is that sugar consumption has not just dropped, but I think we have acquired a new palate as a nation to actually require less sugar. So much so that the Health Promotion Board tells me it is music to their ears when Singaporeans tell them “this dessert is very nice, it's not so sweet”. So, we have acquired a new palette.

4.            We have not acquired this new palette for less sodium. For many Singaporeans, especially those who don't cook, namely the men, and sometimes we equate tastiness with saltiness, and actually it's not good.  

5.            If we can just cut down sodium, actually our food tastes better. You should really try. I tried that before and within a month, you find that you can taste a lot more food.

6.            You can taste the ingredients, you can taste the meat, you can taste the vegetables, the natural taste becomes discernible to you. Salt and sodium and soya sauce, balachan, dark sauce, fish sauce, just smothers all the taste. And so no matter how good your recipe is, the moment you throw in a big lump of salt, you are actually not tasting anything. All the ingredients are wasted on our palate.

7.            So, I think we need to start this new movement, cookbook by cookbook, label by label, campaign by campaign, ushering a new palate. We are after all, a food paradise, right?

8.            Where you are now is actually a historical place in Singapore. This is called Bukit Canberra, used to be called Canberra House. In other words, the British, when they colonised Singapore, this was their base. And why did they colonise Singapore? Because of our spices, because of Southeast Asia’s spices, and today, it is a pity if all we taste is salt when we are actually a land of spices and a food paradise.

9.            So, on this note, this is also one of the reasons why I must pay tribute to all our kitchens in our hospitals. I visited a couple of them, and it is really quite impressive that, over time, our kitchens operate no different, maybe even better than hotel kitchens with professional chefs, professional executive chefs, supervising big teams of chefs producing healthy tasty meals for our patients.

10.         And I hope our patients notice this, that food is becoming more tasty in hospitals, and yet its healthy and it's tasty for two reasons. Number one, our central kitchens are well run by professionals. Number two, we put less sodium, less salt, which means your tongue becomes more discerning.

11.         So, here's towards better food, healthier food, and I wish everybody many more healthy years in our lives. Thank you.