The MILO Controversy in Malaysia

The MILO Controversy in Malaysia

Malaysians grew up with MILO. Almost every household had a tin of MILO in their home. Everyone was told with the tagline ‘Minum MILO Akan Sihat dan Kuat’ which means Drink Milo Will Be Healthier and More Energy. There are more MILO products now such as ‘3 in 1’ sachets, MILO nuggets, MILO packet drinks and MILO chocolate bars. There are even mini MILO packet drinks for kids.

I still remember everyone was so happy when the MILO truck comes to our school, we got a short break to take a cup of cold MILO. Whatever you do at home with your MILO, it will never taste as good as the MILO from the MILO truck.

After years of consuming MILO, recently Malaysian came out and released a video on the credibility of Milo’s nutritional benefits. Wait! This means MILO won’t make us ‘Sihat dan Kuat’?

Meet Vishen Lajhiani, founder of MindValley and you can watch his video as below.

In short, Lajhiani told us that MILO contains lots of sugar. That explains why you get the ‘energy’ as it comes from sugar. We know how sugar can harm our body and turn us fat if we don’t use all the energy. Thus, Lakhiani claims that a glass of MILO contains roughly 20 grams of sugar and that is almost our daily quota for sugar.

To counter the claims made by Lajhiani, Nestlé Malaysia released the statement below recently.

[NESTLÉ MALAYSIA, Feb 2018] Thanks for the alert. Nestlé Malaysia is aware that a video commenting on MILO has been circulating. The facts in this video are clearly misleading. We take our responsibility to produce great tasting, nutritious products very seriously. MILO is made with milk, malt (barley) and cocoa powder and contains vitamins and minerals including vitamins B2, B3, B6 and C. Over 50% of the total sugars in MILO naturally come from milk and malt. We keep the amount of sugar we add to a minimum – adding only 6g of sugar for every 200ml serving, which is about 1 teaspoon of sugar. This is to maintain the taste that Malaysians are familiar with. In line with the ever-evolving needs of our consumers, we continuously make efforts to produce healthier and tasty products. For more info, please call our Nestlé Consumer Services Free Phone at 1-800-88-3433.

Hence, what is the MILO Controversy here? People felt betrayed because of the tagline ‘Minum MILO Akan Sihat dan Kuat’? Or we trusted the brand because athletes are ambassadors of MILO? If we drink MILO, we believed we become as good as the ambassadors?

Take a pause here and think again.

For all these years, you mean you didn’t realise MILO is sweet and contains sugar? It is bad now because someone told you that it is contains lots of sugar? Remember how you make it sweeter by adding sugar or sweet condensed milk? Didn’t you know sweet is not good for our body? You never thought of all these things before this?

You want to know how we feel about this whole MILO controversy?

Honestly, there is a label stating all the ingredients in MILO products and you didn’t read it before this? It is all stated black and white on the labels. Should we start blaming because people don’t bother to read labels? MILO might create the taglines for advertisement but they also have the labels for you to read. Do you make your MILO drink as per what its recommended by them?

Why there are so many Malaysians obese? Reason is simple, eat and drink without moderation. Eat first and think later. If you want to start counting sugar, then you should consider when you drink canned drinks, packet drinks, yogurts and also all the food you are having.

The next big question is what is next? We believe that there will be another person and says how fat is nasi lemak or how sweet is the soft drink or more.

To be honest, we all know what is good or what is bad. We don’t need someone to tell us what is right or what is wrong.

One funny thing is many people exposed how bad is cigarettes are but why so are there so many people still smoking? We are sure many of them are commenting on this issue too.

There is always a choice in our life. Nobody forced you to drink MILO. Stop the blaming game, it won’t end.

Make a habit of reading the labels before you purchase the food. You will discover a whole new world of food and it can be ‘life saving’.

Wilson Ng