On Monday, the World Health Organisation dropped an atomic bomb in terms of publishing a report which found that processed meat and even red meat is carcinogenic to humans.

Worse still, it said that bacon and processed meats such as sausages and salamis were included in the items that prove toxic to humans.

Let us put it all into perspective from the get-go. Humans have been eating meat and processed meat for hundreds and thousands of years. Processed meat includes any meat that has been seasoned, preserved or altered from its natural state. Evolution has allowed us to not only thrive on an omnivorous diet, but also adapt it to our needs in terms of energy release and, perhaps above all else, taste.

Some people will eat red meat and live to a ripe old age – that’s the way it’s always been. But the writing is there on the wall. Scientists have found that while it cannot be equated exactly, consuming such products is akin to smoking or drinking, in terms of increasing risk of contracting cancer.

In parliament recently, Government MP Deo Debattista gave some very interesting – if not alarming – figures. Malta has a high rate of cancer overall, but our people are also close to being the most susceptible to ovarian, breast and lung cancer in the European Union.

When we factor that one in four of us will be touched by cancer at some point in our lives, we owe it to ourselves to take stock of the situation. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat reacted to the news by saying that it is time for some soul searching and for decisions to be made.

We are one of the fattest countries in the Western World, and we are getting worse. Even more heartbreaking is the fact that we have the fattest kids in the world. Rather than future generations becoming more aware of the effects of diet on our general wellbeing, they are getting worse.

We must look at the facts straight in the face. We have a very high cancer incidence rate. We have a skyrocketing diabetes rate, we have just been told that meat causes cancer. The only way forward in this –in moral terms, in economic terms (through palliative care) and in terms of dignity, is to reduce our consumption of fatty meats, fatty foods and to radically cut down on the amount of red meat we consume.

In the past there were attempts by the health authorities to encourage people to eat more greens and to eat red less meat. That was a few years ago, and now we are beginning to hear of the dangers to humans caused by the consumption of excess sugar (and that includes breakfast cereals and bread).

We must radically sort out our diet. The cold, harsh and stark truth is that if there is not a nationwide effort to change our grossly unhealthy diet, then we will end up becoming a nation of morbidly obese and cancer ridden people. At this rate (the UK is already planning for it) cancer treatment and palliative care for morbidly obese people will become one of the biggest strains on our economy in the very near future. Things will not change overnight, but we must make the change, and soon. Else we will be in a very, very unhealthy situation before you can say “Maltese sausage”.