Tips for employees:

Know your numbers. Keep track of your blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels, abdominal girth and Body Mass Index.

Ask your doctor two "normal" questions at your check ups: what the normal range of a given reading is and what the normal range for you is (only possible if you go regularly.) Assess your overall cardiovascular disease risk with him and develop an action plan to improve your cardiovascular health.

Give up smoking. Your risk of coronary heart disease will be halved within a year and will return to a normal level over time.

Get active. Take the stairs; fill up a cup - not a bottle - at the water cooler, so you have to walk back and forth more often; pace while waiting for photocopies; walk around your building during your break; park further away from your office entrance and speed-walk to it; or do a few desk press-ups (like a push-up, but off the edge of your desk.)

Eat better. Choose healthier options (see above), or bring food from home if none are available. Be wary of processed foods; they're more convenient on the go, but they often contain high levels of salt and sugar.

Eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. Fruits are especially cheap and available in handy, ready-to-eat portions, so you've no excuse. Examples of one serving include an apple, or two pisang mas, or a small fistful of cauliflower. For a fantastic guide on 5-a-day, visit www.5aday.nhs.uk.

If you want to forget all the palaver about saturated versus unsaturated fat, poly- and monounsaturated fat, and trans-fat versus non-trans-fat (cis-fat, if you're curious), then abide by Dr. Khoo's simple rule: minimise fat intake, period. As he says on the Asian Food Channel programme Palm Oil: Good Fat, Bad Fat - "As far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as a good fat."

Speak up. If there are policy changes you'd like to see, don't just dream/gripe about them.

Do your homework (What can be done? What's being done successfully elsewhere?); then enlist supporters (How many workers want this change?); then structure your case (What are the benefits for all concerned, especially the company as a whole?); then present your case to your human resource department. Be a catalyst for change in your organisation.

This article was first published in The Star.