Thursday, 18th June 2009 - 11:49CET
Eat more than five a day
Video: Mark Zammit Cordina.
The low consumption of fruit and vegetables in Malta has led the health authorities to launch a campaign aimed at increasing their consumption, ideally to more than five a day.
The campaign was launched in Valletta this morning by Health Parliamentary Secretary Joe Cassar. He said that fruits and vegetables, which should form part of a healthy, balanced diet, were generally low in fat and calories.
They could help a person maintain weight and prevent some cancers and stroke. They also reduced the risk of heart disease.
The World Health Organisation recommended a minimum intake of five fruit and vegetable portions daily. But increasing this intake could further improve health.
Health Promotion director Charmaine Gauci said that according to data gathered from the Health Interview Survey in 2008, only 44 percent of the Maltese population ate two or more portions of fruit a day. This dropped to 19 percent when it came to vegetables.
An alarming three percent and five percent of the Maltese population ate less than one portion of fruit and vegetables respectively per week, while three percent of the population never included fruits or vegetables in their diet.
According to this survey, people aged 15 to 24 consumed less fruit and vegetables when compared to the rest of the population. Consumption levels in children were also reportedly low.
The Health Behaviour in School Age Children study revealed that only 44 percent and 16 percent of 11-year-olds in Malta ate at least one daily portion of fruits and vegetables, respectively.
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Comments
Re Turkish takeaways I never mentioned the Meat. One can buy a VEGITEREAN take away (pls see my commet) easily and its also healthy, they always have a nice mixture and can leave the yukkie rotating dripping junk meat bits out, unless you opt for healthy chicken or beef kebabs.
and plus, people dont have to over do it with veggies and fruit, just a moderate portion, thats all. instead of having an icecream, have an orange or an apple. i dont think just because a person would take an apple instead of an icecream is going to make him poor.
"I would suggest that the psstizzeriji that mushroomed all over the place can at least offer some kind of healthy alternatives"
If you go to a pastizzerija, what do you expect to find?: moules marinieres??? What I would say about pastizzi is eat less, and pastizzara: use good products and stop putting God knows what in you rikotta and pastry! A bit of pride!!!!
"The only place where one can get a tasty healthy vegetarian quick meal and at reasonable prices is at the Turkish takeaways. Cant the pastizzeriji offer something similar? "
Absolutely untrue: I have tasted the meat in many of them round the island (ie the main one) and it tastes like dog food or if you want a better comparison, to kebabs in the UK! They use the worst parts of meat (connective tissue, etc , skin) and add all sorts of pigish stuff similar to what happens in bad sausages! Healthy kebabs are the ones in Turkey, France and Tunisia, etc.
You are right in that many Maltese get their priorities wrong. It's OK for them to have mobiles, Playstations and all that but they're unwilling to spend money on good food which marks a stark difference between us and the Italians, French, Spaniards..and recently even the English.
However, I must say that, still, even by European standards, food is VERY expensive in Malta. Let's not forget that we have used our land so that the fat cats make money out of property and entertainment venues which shows how soul-less we are.
To those moaning that they cannot afford to buy fruit and vegetables , and yes it is expensive , to be able to make comments on this blog you can afford to have a computer and an internet connection, unless you are wasting your employers time and resources and doing it from work..... what a pathetic lot we are
I would suggest that the passtizzeriji that mushroomed all over the place can at least offer some kind of healthy alternatives - Do we know what type of fat is mixed with all tha pastry? Some margarines are worse than animal fat. Maybe the health authorities should promote some scheme or ideas to these entrepreneurs.
The only place where one can get a tasty healthy vegetarian quick meal and at reasonable prices is at the Turkish takeaways. Cant the pastizzeriji offer something similar?
A couple of years ago I returned to my old private school in the north of the country. I was more than shocked to see the high number of obese/overweight children. Before you used to have 1 obese/overweight in a class of 35!!!! Today there will be around 25 /35!
Thank god we've become a modern sophisticated country: we've got computer drinks, energy drinks, McDonalds, KFC, kebabs (go and eat REAL kebabs in France, Turkey and Tunisia and see the difference!) ....! Plus 'il-professur' Austin Gatt was promoting 'WIFI in the park' to children (he actually took a photo with them) instead of encouraging them to use parks to exercise and run around!
Instead of wasting money on illegal immigration and giving out pocket money and E5000 to return home, we should spend our money to set up eating, health and sex education programmes in school. We've become a FAT country with an explosive rate of STDs!!
Now that I am living in Ireland I can buy a lot of veggies and fruits at a more cheaper and reasonable prices and the quality and grading is excellent (see my previous blog about this).
Where the wages are at least twice better!!
I still miss some local products for the taste but absolutely not for the price and grading!!!
1 example was the price of strawberries that suddenly exploded up with the euro price!!
I am not a Maltese MOANER as how you are calling some people ,the fact that I left Malta because I was not doing it at the end of the month proves that and what Jos Rijpman wrotes confirms it 100%!!
Yes the Maltese are being definetely being ripped off in prices and quality of a lot of products and it will take some of you to live abroad to see the difference but it won't be the case for some politically blinded people!!
being expensive is no excuse why one should not eat healthy. it is better that the bunch of you moaners cut down on useless things which are harming your life such as cigarettes, arcohol, drinking coffee every hour, hobz biz-zejt(or better yet, zejt bil-hobz) and eating pasta with a bowl full of cream everyday.
Can you tell us where and when you had carried out this research and how many people you have interviewed to reach your conclusions?
Francois Bulteel, Jos Rijpman
You are right. Some pn apologists do not want to accept the fact that Malta has some of the highest prices and one of the places were wages/salaries are the some of the lowest in the EU.
Gino Schiavone Can you advise us from where you can get 100% juice?
What's more, we should also bear in mind that apples are sprayed with about 25 different chemical products ..... excellent for our health, n'est-ce pas?
I truely support your view. I used to work in holland in late 90"s. Food was already cheaper than Malta and that when your salary is more than double than ours.Here we have some pro-goverment readers that cannot accept the fact that Malta is one or even the most expensive countries in the EU. The only cheaper item there is Malta than the rest of any EU member is True Lies.
1. It's not the first time I have a chat with my green grocer whose sales slump whenever the super 5 jackpot hits a high. Gambling vs fruit? A no-brainer for many maltese apparently.
2. It's not that expensive buying fruit and veg if you cut out those trolley-loads of soft drinks, sweet packets, biscuits, chocolates, burgers and all kinds of junk food that I see stacked in the average trolley at the supermarket. I regularly buy and consume fruit and veg. It's not cheap, true, but I make up by eliminating products that lack nutrition. At the end of the day a soup is not expensive to make and it feeds a whole family, I can vouch for it.
3. Apart from this campaign I would like to see more organic produce being introduced on the market. Our fruit and veg contain way too much pesticides. That can't be as healthy as the ministry wants us to believe.
Well, that is what some call 'human rights' - you have the right to die early, although the P.S. is advicing us how to live longer and without much trouble. :)
Hmmmm.. what shall it be today? 12 euro on cigarettes or 12 euro on fruit? Tough decision.
@ the rest - Gemgem, gemgem. Kif lanqas parir utli ma jghogobkom, imma ssibu skuza biex tmaqdru?
NICE ADVICE, THAT IS ONLY IF WE CAN AFFORD TO BUY FRUIT,
Living abroad made me realise how good the Maltese products are in taste but lack in presentation and grading (eg. spoiled fruits with good ones)when put on sale in shops,veggie mongers etc. and this is surely one factor which keeps people from buying fresh fruits and vegetables when everyone is in a rush and would like to pick up a product which is ready!!
Its not the first time you buy a 4kg bag of Maltese potatoes and you find half of it with soil!!
Its about time that a serious packing and grading system is introduced in Malta and prices are monitored as some local products are really expensive!
Kif jghid il-Malti L-Ghajn l-ewwel ma tiekol!!
Television cooking programs need to constantly put these reminders and they should also start giving calorie counts of the recipes especially how many cabohydrates, protein, fat cholesterol and sodium each recipe contains. The public must get concrete examples. restaurants should also give calorie counts in their menus.
For more information visit www.mehfa.eu