Our sister publication The Malta Independent featured a news item which should make all of us shudder – 19.2 % of all deaths in Malta are due to inactivity. The rest of the world comes in at about 9%. If that news is not enough to shock us into action, then we do not know what is.

We already know that we are one of the fattest nations on earth, and even more worryingly our children top the obesity scales and now we have the latest dubious accolades of being some of the laziest people on earth when it comes to exercise.

It is very clear that somewhere along the line, we have gone very terribly astray. It seems that Malta is – as with most things – polarized. There are those who lead a healthy life with exercise and good eating habits, and there are others who will eat badly, too much and not get any exercise to boot.

It may sound stereotypical, but that is exactly what it is, we eat far too much rubbishy food and we’re too lazy to even do anything about it.

But where do we start tackling the issue? It has already been projected that by the year 2050, obesity and related diseases such as diabetes, will overtake smoking as the number one cause of death in the world.

Some nations are already looking at the possibility of introducing palliative care. We are literally eating ourselves to death. Just like smoking or alcoholism, food addiction is a disease and it is a very hard road back to health once one goes over the tipping point.

The PN has presented a bill on obesity in parliament, but aside from talk about it, what are we actually going to do? We must go to the root. Whenever we want to change something about our society, we normally target the young, to instill a sense of change, so it becomes part of their makeup. But as things stand, we are already at a huge disadvantage because our kids are already fat. Eating far too much bad food and being lazy is already part of their identity.

There has been much talk over the years of increasing the number of hours of physical education in school curriculums. It should be done now, sooner rather than later. Children should have a minimum of one hours’ PE every day. And that should not mean running around a yard or lobbing a volleyball to each other. They should train track and field, athletics and various other sports disciplines. But at the end of the day, it is the parents who must shoulder the bulk of the responsibility. We must stop feeding the younger generation so much processed rubbish and parents need to set the example and take their kids out for walks. And by walks, we do not mean a stroll round Sliema, but a hike in the country or some for of exercise for the whole family.

If we do not do something about this now, we will find it much harder later. Being fit and healthy is a gift, we should look after our bodies, and our minds. Failure to do so results in early death which could easily have been prevented.