While Malta has all the gyms and new fitness fads that one can find anywhere else in the developed world, we are still, for lack of a better term, a lazy bunch.

We still have one of the highest obesity rates in the world, especially when it comes to children, yet we never seem to learn. We are getting fatter and fatter, and we are getting more unhealthy by the minute.

Fast food, take-aways, sweets and cheap processed rubbish seem to be the order of the day in Maltese society. And to add more to the disastrous recipe, most Maltese people simply do not exercise. A recent study by British doctors has shown that just 15 minutes of exercise a day can increase life expectancy by up to three years. Exercise does not have to mean going to the gym, pumping weights and sweating buckets. It can mean a brisk 15-minute walk, using stairs instead of lifts, a quick jog, a swim or a leisurely cycle.

One only need look around in any town or village. People will readily get into a car to drive round the corner, and to visit a shop. It is a lifestyle choice that many do not find easy to change. One settles into a sedentary lifestyle, and breaking the cycle may prove difficult.

The amount of stress that people are under in this modern life makes the need for exercise all the more pertinent. People are having heart attacks at the age of 40. Exercise will not cure all ills, but it would certainly help in keeping people fitter and more robust.

The simplicity of the argument makes it all the more difficult to make any sense of the fact that we simply do not exercise. At the end of the day, it is down to pure laziness. We all need to get our collective fat behinds out of the armchair and do some light exercise. The Asians seem to have it right, with public garden collective exercise and 15-minute sessions of jumping jacks at the work place. Perhaps we should take a leaf out of their book and do the same. A public gym was set up in Ta’ Qali, one of the outdoor kind, but perhaps we need more of the same in every village centre. Perhaps we need events to be set up, free of charge, on a more regular basis. Something needs to be done, before it gets too late.