Shedding excess fat
The health authorities are calling on people to change their behaviour in a bid to tackle obesity.
"We want to see more people eating healthily and exercising more," Charmaine Gauci, head of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department, said.
A 30-second advert, being aired on television stations, urges people to be motivated into a behavioural change.
"We want to urge adults who are already obese to take action to lose weight while others should do their utmost to prevent becoming obese," Dr Gauci said.
The health authorities have long been urging people to change their lifestyle but shocking figures released earlier this year showed that more than a fifth of the Maltese population is obese.
Obesity is a slightly higher problem among men than women, according to figures from the health interview survey, carried out last year. Although the percentage of obese people had gone down by 1.3 per cent since the survey was carried out in 2002, it is still considered a problem.
Parents needed to lead by example and help children who were overweight to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle, Dr Gauci said.
The Health Behaviour in School Aged Children study, carried out in 2006, indicated that 28 per cent of 11-year-olds and 31 per cent of 13 year-olds were overweight.
"Children are our future adults and we need to take good care of them, teach them how to prevent obesity so that we have a healthy and informed society," Health Parliamentary Secretary Joe Cassar said.
Dr Cassar stressed that obesity was the primary cause of a number of cardiovascular problems, including heart attacks, stroke and high blood pressure. Moreover, it contributed to diabetes, which was also common in Malta, and, together with high cholesterol and high blood pressure, was a risk factor for heart disease, the highest cause of deaths in Malta. He said the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department was planning to work with schools to teach children about a nutritious diet.
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Stephen Sammut
Nov 6th 2009, 09:19
An active lifestyle, not healthy food promotion should be the key ingredient if the authorities want progress on fat people. No amount of "dieting" or "healthy-eating" will significantly reduce your waste-size, tone up your muscles or magically improve your figure if one remains a lazy couch potatoe.
- Using a car to get to work? Try a bus! Catch a late one, so you'll run to the bus-stop in the morning! Back home? 40-minute walk? Why not? Sweat? No problem -- it'll definitely pay-off in the weekend........
- The sea's close-by -- swim! Yep, even in winter, nothing can be better than a 15-minute swim after an evening jog
- Play sports -- rugby, football, tennis, squash -- they're all fun
But yeah of course, the usual excuse: "Heq andek raggun hi...imma mandiex hin!" Oh-go-to-hell-then.
Ray Buhagiar
Nov 6th 2009, 09:18
Eating healthy is good but not enough. Exercising is just as important to lead a healthy life. But in the current Maltese context, this is extremely difficult as all the stakeholers involved in such an endeovour are pulling the other way. For example:
Education system: The balance is towards spending hours and hours of homework, projects, studying whereas Physical education is not given much importance.
Sports: Sports Clubs in Malta are not given enough funds. First our kids do not have time to practice sports, so the club fees are dwindling and on a national level we do not have a scheme to support sports associations. Parents are finding it difficult to pay tuition fees.
Cost of living: Parents have to work twice as much, leaving them with less time to concentrate on their kids healthy living. If children arrive back from school to an empty home, they usually consume junk food because it is easier to cook.
Please note that these are simply my observations based on a small sports club. Since the sample of young athletes is too small I cannot generalize. Maybe University students in Education could consider such a research study.
John M. Grima
Nov 5th 2009, 20:03
Yes Mr. C. Muscat we enjoyed eating salted fat when we were kids. But we did not have cheap, Western, fast-food outlets in our country, Foods full of MSG to make it tastier and hooking you to eat more. Or cheap foods full of soy, aimed particurly at children, exposing them to Obesity.
It is commendable. But unfortunatley not enough for the health authorities to call on us to change our behavior. The Government must exercise more control on our health and less on profits and commercializm. How can they not, after hearing about so many 6 year old children dying from diseases like brain cancer, and othrer such diseases?
And when it comes to eating healthy. Where are the Organic food stores in Malta? Yes. contrary to a recent report in the Times of Malta. Organic food IS healthier and more tasty. It is grown without the usual cancer-causing fertilizers and spraying.
I suggeast that the onus is on to-day's mothers to be more educated and be srticter with their childre's food choices. And consult their Grandmothers instead of science.
ppace
Nov 5th 2009, 15:26
this may sound insane and business threatening here in malta but if i am not mistaken usa or oz had implemented or were going to implement a fat tax . i.e. fatty foods would have an added tax to discourage buyers from buying that particular item ( particular if its cheap and very rich in calories ) .however ,i cannot immagine this being done in malta. immagine buying pasti or pastizzi @2 Eu each ... what would happen? lol
Malcolm Borg
Nov 5th 2009, 14:08
I think that obesity is so common in Malta for various reasons.
- A prevalent mentality that the more you eat the better you are- a mentality on the decline but which is derived from the lack of food during WWII. In fact such comments are very common by elderly people especially when nursing their grandchildren.
- A complete lack of parks and other places to enjoy a walk in. If someone decides to go for a walk in Malta, he'd be burning fat and increasing the probablility of lung cancer.
- A sedantary lifestyle due to distractions from video games etc. although this also has to do with the point above.
- Laziness as correctly pointed out by Nigel Lawrence
Joseph Tabone
Nov 5th 2009, 12:46
I concur with Mr. Mula's statement. I change my lifestyle drastically over the past 5 years and I lost c. 65Kg and am now at 71Kg. I do cycling and walking for exercise and I eat healthily. However, I spend c. €40 a week on fruit and nuts, which are the basis of my nutrition, not to mention other costs like oat cerial, chicken and fish. To encourage fellow citizens who are challenged and burdened by their body weight, I wish to say that I would never dream of reverting to my old eating habits ... weight ties you down and ruins your life. Courage people!
Nigel Lawrence
Nov 5th 2009, 12:19
Well exercise is definitely out of the question. How many people do you see climbing into their SUV's to pop round to the corner shop to get a newspaper?
Charles Muscat
Nov 5th 2009, 12:11
Dear Mr. Mula, why do we have to believe everything they tell us. When we were young kids we use to bury fat in salt and eat it few months later, let me tell you it was delicious. I'm much older now and thank GOD I'm still kicking.
John Mula
Nov 5th 2009, 10:11
Why do you continually tell us to eat healthily, when healthy foods are the most costly.....
It is true that whoever said this is not in touch with the real world..... The issue is healthy food is very costly and fatty food is much cheaper. How many people really can afford to eat this healthy food you describe!!!!!!
Maybe you should tackle this issue before urging people to eat healthier food....