Malta, like some other European Union countries, is facing a crisis because of our eating habits. A recent OECD report, entitled ‘Health at a glance: Europe 2014’, placed Malta in the fifth place for “prevalence of obesity among population aged 15 and over”.
Almost 23 per cent of adults are clinically obese. This is not good news for the health of the nation.
Poor eating habits developed from early childhood lead to a lifetime of real health consequences. Children spend most of their time in schools and this is where the foundations of health habits are laid. Many states in the US are taking the threat of junk food on the health of American children very seriously. They are prepared to legislate to ban the sale to children of food that has a high content of sugar, salt and fat.
A 2013 study published online in the US journal Pediatrics claims that “children who live in US states with strict laws regulating the sale of junk food and sugary drinks in school gain less weight than their peers in states with weak or no such laws”. The junk food market is very competitive and children are often lured to buy calorie-laden items from convenient vending machines or schools’ tuck shops that have no strict policy promoting nutritious food.
The Pediatrics study was “the first to take a broad look at the effectiveness of laws controlling the sale of junk food nationwide”. The effect of such laws was modest and the researchers “couldn’t definitely say that the laws directly caused healthier weights in children but the findings are encouraging and likely to inform the debate over how best to curb child obesity”.
Legislators in Malta who have recently promoted the idea of curbing the sale of junk foods in the vicinity of schools need to understand that this will be no silver bullet that will necessarily have a substantial effect on reducing child obesity.
Child obesity is a complex problem with a multitude of causes. Many nutritionists argue that school accounts for only one small factor in a child’s overall food environment and that banning junk food during the school day would not do much good if children go home to more unhealthy choices. So while we know how serious the problem of child obesity is, it will be wrong to conclude that legislation banning the sale of junk food is all that needs to be done.
Some very practical problems arise when one tries to define the parameters of anti-junk food legislation. The very term junk food defies a scientific definition that is accepted by all. The last thing we need is some thick bureaucratic document that defines the fat, sugar or salt content of every type of convenience food to determine whether it would meet the standards of nutritionists, doctors, parents and educators who all have an interest in the health of our children.
An important part of education is learning to make wise choices. A broad ban on the sale of what some nutritionists may define as junk food does not help young people learn how to make healthy choices. It simply encourages them to seek other equally harmful options elsewhere.
There will always be advantages to sensible legislation prohibiting the sale of junk foods in the vicinity of schools. However, parents, students and educators should also be doing their part to promote healthier eating habits by choice rather than compulsion. This can best be achieved through education in the wider sense.