Maltese children watch a lot of television. If instead of a Eurovision Song Contest there was a Euro Television Contest, our children would beat off competition from all other European countries – neighbouring voting and all – and get the trophy hands down.

On school days Maltese children watch three hours or more of television, according to the Today Public Policy Institute report published a few weeks ago. It does not say what they do on weekends but presumably, they watch television all day long.

I had to re-read this statistic a number of times, for the simple reason that I do not understand how a primary school child can have the time to watch three whole hours of television a day.

I did the Maths quickly in my mind: the average school finishes more or less at 2.30pm. By the time children come home and have lunch or tea or whatever, that’s already 4.30pm or 5pm. Then they need an hour for homework and, in between, there’s usually an extra-curricular activity, be it ballet, piano, art, catechism and what not.

After that, because we are talking primary school children here – it’s bathtime, possibly some bedtime reading and by 8.30pm they’d need to be asleep. To my mind, with this running order, there is absolutely no time for television from Monday to Thursday even if one really wanted to.

But, fine, let’s say children don’t do any extra-curricular activities, and let’s say they are done from lunching, bathing and homework by 6pm – that means that they are watching television from 6pm to 9pm or 10pm. Unless, of course, television is switched on all day long, which is even worse.

Clearly, we’re fast becoming a nation of square eyes. Children love television, of course. But really, as parents, I think we need to show a bit more mettle and say no. We cannot nod consent every time they come in whining “I’m bored! Can I watch television?”

I am not one to clamour for the ban of television, but my daughter would watch television from the minute she wakes up if she had her way. I don’t let her because I really believe in letting children be bored – a) because it’s training for life, which is, let’s face it, not always exactly entertaining and b) because boredom is the sister of creativity and c) there’s a lot of ugly cartoons with the most tedious jingles and I’d go nuts if that had to be the background noise all day long.

The Prime Minister can get cross that gyms are not reducing their fees, but the truth is that we are what we eat

Also it’s important that at some point or other children get their bum off the sofa, and move around because we’re winning another trophy for this too: Maltese children are the least physically active in the EU. Yes, Malta has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the world, with over 25 per cent being pre-obese or obese. We cannot point fingers solely at television, of course, and lack of exercise.

We can build outdoor gyms all over Malta and we can introduce gym rate cuts in the budget, and the Prime Minister can get cross that gyms are not reducing their fees, but the truth is that we are what we eat.

We are a nation with a sweet tooth and the bottom line is that we desperately need to change that, before we can switch off the telly and go for a run.

Is it possible? I didn’t think it was until this week I read the book First Bite, How we Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson, which in essence says that yes, it is possible for a whole nation to change the way it eats for the better, because it’s been done already: by Japan.

Japan has one of the healthiest diets in the world and the Japanese definitely prefer savoury over sweet. But it was not always like this: they changed their food intake patterns only at the beginning of the 20th century. Today only 3.3 per cent of the Japanese population is obese in contrast to 22 per cent of the Maltese – which is nothing but an extra financial weight on our NHS.

The Japanese model is to be studied: they have a law for example by which companies can be fined if its employees waistline exceeds 85cm (men) and 90cm (women). Now, that could easily be another task for wardens, rather than hiding outside tunnel exits, the only thing is that probably they’d need to fine themselves first.

How can we put people off sweets? Well, the sugar tax of course: make sugary things more expensive. A study in the UK showed that cutting fizzy drinks by 40 per cent would prevent one million adults from becoming obese and 300,000 people from developing diabetes. Once people are weaned off sugar, then it is easier to drink water or snack on healthier options.

Of course, seeing as our children watch a lot of television, then it would help if our ‘celebrities’ were a bit more responsible in their advertising. In the UK, supermodel David Gandy has urged celebrities to play a part in tackling Britain’s child obesity crisis by refusing to appear in adverts for sweets and sugary treats.

I’m not saying our Ivan Grech, the singer, who fronts a soft drink advert, is a supermodel, but maybe it would help if sugar and famous faces kept a distance from each other, and instead urged everyone to switch of television and go for a walk.

krischetcuti@gmail.com
Twitter: @KrisChetcuti