Rendang – so delicious, so deadly
America is known as the land of hamburgers and french fries, and the American people’s problems with obesity and heart disease are almost as famous as their problems with racial profiling.
But Americans hardly have a monopoly on unhealthy food. Between our love of gorengan and coconut cream curries (you really don’t want to know how bad rendang is for you) the Indonesian diet can potentially be quite deadly.
So while some Indonesians suffer from serious malnutrition problems, so many others have problems with eating high cholesterol foods that medical experts are now warning that Indonesians have similar levels of the heart-clogging stuff as Americans.
Dr. Djoko Maryono, an Indonesian cardiac specialist, told CNN Indonesia that about 25 out of 1,000 deaths in Indonesia are due to high cholesterol levels, which can cause heart disease and strokes, putting them in the same range as Americans.
Djoko said that from 2005-2015, heart disease has remained at the top of the list of killer diseases in Indonesia.
“The increase in heart attacks for those under 50 years old increased nearly 60 percent from 2009-2011. The increase was mainly in Asia Pacific and Indonesia,” Djoko said.
He attributed high cholesterol levels amongst Indonesians to excessive consumption of red meat and lack of exercise. He noted that in Japan, there were only three deaths due to heart disease out of every 1,000, due largely to their diets which usually involve eating much more fish than Indonesians.
So take a moment, before you dig your hands into a plate of crazy delicious but cholesterol-laden rendang, to think to yourself – do I really want to be as unhealthy as an American?
