THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH has found itself between a rock and a hard place as it battles to control the worrisome weight of many schoolchildren who are getting more obese every year.
This, even after several schools have removed soft drink machines from their lunchrooms, mandated that cafeteria proprietors place healthier foods on their menus, allowed students to have bottled water at their desks and even introduced fruit days at their institutions.
The ministry has started the implementation of its special five-year action plan to reduce childhood obesity, but is facing massive challenges since large sections of the country’s powerful business sector still spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund programmes facilitated by the Ministry of Education, and soft drink manufacturers continue to resist reformulating their products, while creating a massive conflict of interest.
Senior medical health officer Dr Kenneth George, the man responsible for carrying out the action plan, revealed the issues facing the Ministry of Health as it attempts to get Barbadian children to consume fewer soft drinks, eat healthier foods, and exercise more.
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Please read the full story in today’s Sunday Sun, or in the eNATION edition.
