The Health Department yesterday released the shocking statistic that no less than 40 per cent of Maltese school-aged children are suffering from the plague of childhood obesity, according to a study carried out across all state, church and independent schools across the country.

The statistic released yesterday should serve as a national wake-up call, a call to better look after ourselves and our children.

The fact that almost half of our children are obese has been bandied about in the past, but every time such figures are highlighted they never fail to shock.   But do they shock us enough to spur us into urgent action?  It seems they don’t because the problem has plagued the country for years on end now.

Back in 2016, similar findings had been unveiled as part of the ‘Healthy Weight for Life - Mediterranean Diet’. Despite the fact that we here in Malta live as in the middle of the Mediterranean as one can get, the sad truth is that an unhealthy and ironically non-Mediterranean diet prevails in most households.

Also at the that time a dietary initiative had been announced to encompass outreach programmes at places such as open markets, supermarkets and schools at public spaces like markets, supermarkets and schools, where awareness will be raised on healthy eating and cooking habits.  This was to couple an already ongoing campaign in schools aimed at promoting exercise and fostering lifestyles that incorporate less sedentary practices and more activity amongst children.

A second action announced by the government at the same time in 2016 was the creation of a task force that is to deliver clinical recommendations in the short term on how obesity should be tackled as a medical issue with medical solutions.  This will be coupled with an inter-ministerial committee being established, which will determine holistic solutions to the problem.

While one should not expect drastic changes within just two short years, matters do not seem to have improved much since then.  It would be interesting to see what kind of success these two initiatives have seen.

In the meantime, Maltese adults are also facing diet and lifestyle related health risks – most likely as a result of their upbringing.  Malta’s heart attack death rate is above the EU average, cancer rates remain worryingly high as does the country’s rate of diabetes.

Overall, the problem as far as Malta is concerned mainly boils down to the country’s ageing population, a general lack of physical activity and obesity. That Malta’s population is rapidly ageing is a simple and irreversible fact, at least as far as the current discussion goes but we can certainly do a great deal to address the country’s seemingly chronic problems with weight and lack of exercise – particularly as evidenced and amply documented in the younger generation.

The good news is that by taking more exercise and eating healthily, we tackle not only the risk of cancers and diabetes, but also a host of other non-communicable diseases in the process.

But when it comes to children, the country’s future, are mere guidelines enough?  Should we perhaps also be speaking the possibility of the imposition of a sugar tax, banning unhealthy foods from school canteens, or having more obligatory physical education time in schools?

Such ideas are worthy of consideration. But while it is all well and good for government to raise awareness until it is blue in the face, to develop programmes and tuition but at the end of the day, your health and the health of your family is, ultimately, in your own hands. 

No one will force you to change destructively unhealthy habits, those decisions lie in your hands and your hands alone.