One of the government’s goals next year is to introduce a food and nutrition policy. It is no secret that we Maltese are amongst the fattest people in the world, and what’s worse is that our children are too. This is backed up by empirical statistics that place us in the same league as the United States and the United Kingdom – the obesity capitals of the world.

The numbers do not lie either. It has been pointed out that 82% of deaths in Malta are caused by diseases which are highly linked to bad eating habits.

Those diseases include obesity, diabetes, strokes, respiratory issues and cancer. In theory, it is easy, people simply need to change their eating habits and engage in regular light exercise. As Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne put it, we cannot continue to find any excuse to eat chocolate bars, mince pies at Christmas, prinjolata in Carnival, qubbajd and ice cream in summer and, of course, the biggest culprit of them all – pastizzi.

We cannot continue to ignore what is going on. Statistics show that not only are we one of the fattest nations on earth, but we also have one of the lowest rates of physical exercise carried out. It is, pardon the pun, a recipe for disaster. Obesity is set to overtake smoking as the leading killer by the year 2020, with some countries – the UK included – beginning to explore the idea of palliative care for the chronically obese. In Malta, obesity cases place a €25m burden on the public health system and that figure is set to rise to €38m.

We, as a nation, need to wake up to the fact that we are killing ourselves with food. We should be eating the traditional Mediterranean diet of fish, veg, meat and occasional pasta and pizza. But we don’t. We gorge on carb-rich pastas as mere starters, before then launching into the main course. And then, of course, there is the junk food snacking that affects many.

There has been some progress registered in the setting up of live-in obesity camps that tackle not only the physical aspects related to controlling appetite, portions and exercise, but also the psychological issues that cause people to overeat.

As the decades roll by, it seems to be that more and more people are being diagnosed with cancer and other diseases. It is clear that there is a correlation and direct link between what we eat and the state of our health, as well as our propensity to be struck by non-communicable fatal diseases. Something must be done. While there is an element of creating more awareness involved, the clear solution is that we all need to take a collective look at our lifestyles and what we are putting inside of ourselves. We are literally killing ourselves with food.