Shocking statistic after statistic continues to show us how horribly unhealthy we are, or have become, as a country.

We have been told time and time again that, as a country, we are losing the battle of the bulge and we are surrendering to the habits of sedentary lifestyles and poor eating habits, which are, in turn, taking a terrible toll on the national health.

A couple of months back we were told by the Health Department how 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.

It was the President of the Republic who yesterday convened stakeholders to seek solutions to what has clearly become something of an epidemic. She presented a report yesterday finding that 60% of the adult Maltese population is either pre-obese or obese, which is the highest rate in the whole of the European Union. 

Such statistics should serve as national wake-up calls, as calls to look after ourselves and our children a lot better than we are doing at the moment.

Beyond the diplomacy beyond the politics and beyond the partisan scuffling, this is, in essence, much of what the Presidency is about: giving guidance and pushing people to be better to their fellow citizens, and to themselves.

We are what we eat, was the President’s simple message delivered yesterday, and it is one that cannot be stressed enough.  The report in question drafted by the National Observatory on Living with Dignity and the National Centre for Family Research, both within the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society.

The President cited other studies showing the country’s high obesity and diabetes rates, and the fact that cardiovascular diseases are the cause of half of the deaths in Malta.  And she, quite rightly, pointed out how access to healthy, clean and fair food is crucial even in terms of achieving social justice.

That is because, according to the study published yesterday, it is the socio-economically deprived members of society who suffer most and who, along these lines too, deserve ‘food justice’.

Families with lower socio-economic statuses have a propensity to consume more energy-dense foods than their higher income counterparts, the study highlighted, and the President cited a survey that found that 26,000 people in Malta cannot afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every other day second day.

The study also highlights that Malta moved away from the Mediterranean diet, and that unhealthy foods have become increasingly available, 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.

Yesterday’s report also recommends the state distribution of vouchers that can be exchanged for fresh vegetables and fruits from farmers markets, or fresh fish from fishermen and vendors, to low income households or those who receive free medicine for certain diet-related non-communicable diseases. Such eligibility, she said, should be based on a means test.

This would be a great initiative, almost worthy of a presidential legacy, if the ways and means could be found to make such a system work.

But when it comes specifically to children, the country’s future, should we not be doing more?  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?