Khaw Boon Wan, who is the Health Minister, has backed the impending introduction of guidelines on the advertisements of junk food since the recent statistics this week showed that the diabetes rate had risen here to an all time high of 12 years.

As per the latest national health survey which was conducted once in every six years almost 11.3 percent of adults between the age group of 18 to 69 years suffer from diabetes in comparison to 8.2 percent in the year 2004 and almost 9 percent in the year 1998.

Despite all this the rate of high cholesterol and hypertension has reduced. This year the rate of hypertension in people has dropped by 23.5 percent which was 26.8 percent in the year 2004. Cholesterol on the other hand fell down to 17.4 percent from 19.1 percent during the same time.

Mr Khaw said, "The Japanese and the Koreans have remained slim. Their obesity prevalence at 4 per cent ... is less than half of ours. We must understand their approach and see if it can be adopted here."