Battle of Our Children's Bulges

This editorial from the Times of Malta discusses the issue of children, obesity & the media in America, Britain and Australia in comparison to Malta. According to a World Health Organisation health behaviour survey among school children in 2002, Maltese 13-year old boys and girls were placed higher than their American counterparts and at the top of the obesity list.

In conclusion, the editorial advocates for the Maltese Health Department to conduct its own survey by geographical area and include the financial, educational and environmental background of the parents of those children who are affected by obesity. Additionally, the effect junk food commercials - often aired during children's television programmes - have on children's eating habits should also be studied.

Editorial

"Obesity has become in-news. One sees it on television in the shape of grossly overweight toddlers, reads about it in newspapers.
Obesity-associated conditions include strokes and heart disease, gall stones, diabetes, colon cancer, respiratory problems and menstrual irregularities. This is an impressive and disquieting list of serious conditions all of us would obviously do well to avoid.

The Guardian's Polly Toynbee is remorselessly political about obesity. It is, she insists, to do with unequal societies and 'America has by far the most unequal society and by far the fattest, Britain and Australia come next...and the narrower the status and income gap between high and low, the narrower the waistbands'. This assertion was strongly denied by Mark Steyn in the Daily Telegraph. He pointed out that in the 'income gap' stakes the United States is 41st in the world, the United Kingdom 63rd and Australia 74th.

Where does Malta stand, or weigh in, in all this? The principal scientific officer (nutrition) at the Health Promotion Department quoted a World Health Organisation health behaviour survey among school children in 2002 which, astonishingly, placed Maltese 13-year old boys and girls higher than their American counterparts and at the top of the obesity list. This would seem to contradict more strongly Ms. Toynbee's observation about unequal societies and the effect that inequality has
on obesity.

Still, if the findings of the survey are correct and 13.5 per cent of
our 13-year old boys and 17 per cent of our girls of the same age are classified as obese, Yvette Azzopardi's sense of concern and her appeal for an action plan to deal with this issue has merit. We have, however, to be careful that the state does not take any action that will undermine, still less ignore, the parents' responsibility in all this. Any plan drawn up has to target parents, primarily. More important, any plan must be based on more concrete information than on a WHO health behaviour survey.

The first step is for the Health Department to conduct its own survey
using the most accurate methodology to discover, area by geographical area, where this problem is affecting the young children population most. The methodology must also include the financial, educational and environmental background of the parents of those children who are affected by obesity. A blanket approach may not be desirable, still less a blanket solution or a blanket dismissal of soft drinks. Care has also to be taken to define junk foods accurately before any move to ban them from being advertised during children's [television].

The Health Promotion Department should concentrate on what it does best - health promotion in schools and among society at large. In this activity it obviously needs to have the cooperation of the Education Department. The underlying theme of any campaign must be modus in rebus; a little bit of most things rarely does anybody any harm. Whatever is genuinely harmful needs to be pointed out to parents and to educators.

No campaign will make any inroads on the culture of obesity unless it is intelligently thought out, skilfully targeted and sustained over a period of time. One-off advertising is worse than useless. The final version has to insinuate its way into every talk-show, every school,
every media education outlet, every home. The battle of the bulge is a serious matter for children and adults alike."