A few months ago, I stumbled onto a report released by the World Heath Organization (WHO) via a website. This report listed the 21 Fattest Countries On Earth, Barbados being among them. I didn’t want to accept the findings of the report at face value, so I decided to visit the WHO website to confirm the accuracy of the data. To my surprise, it was accurate.
Obesity is generally measured by a person’s body mass index (BMI), which is a weight-to-height ratio. A BMI of 25 is considered overweight; 30 is obese. The WHO says that once a person’s BMI hits 21, the risk of related health problems like diabetes and cardiovascular disease increases significantly.
The percentages listed below represent adults in those countries with a BMI of 25 and over. The top five overweight nations include American Samoa (93.5 per cent), Kiribati (81.5 per cent), French Polynesia (73.7 per cent), Saudi Arabia (72.5 per cent) and Panama (67.4 per cent).
Other countries on WHO’s “fat list” include Canada, Chile, the Indian Ocean nation of Seychelle, Macedonia, Bahrain, Croatia, Israel, Malta, New Zealand, Bosnia and Herzegovinia, Kuwait and Egypt. The United States was sixth on the list with 66.9 per cent, Britain was 16th with 61 per cent and Barbados was 17th with 60.4 per cent. With 77 countries mentioned in the list, the only other Caribbean country listed was Cuba who was 54th with 42.5 per cent.
In another report that measured the body mass index (BMI) of men and women in 137 countries, Barbados men ranked 35th with a BMI of 55.8 per cent whereas the females ranked 13th with a BMI of 63.8 per cent. It is evident that we Barbadians are eating more and moving less. And due to the increase in technological machinery there is a reduction in back-breaking, or even simply strenuous labour, which means we aren’t burning as many calories, compared to our foreparents.
With the abundance of soda, corn curls, cheese balls, potato chips and fast-food restaurants, Barbadians seem to find great difficulty in disciplining themselves to use these things in moderation. If something is not done quickly at the policy level, we will have generations of unfit and unhealthy people.
It is disappointing to note that in Barbados there are no organic supermarkets available to those who recognize the need for healthy eating. To make matters worse, junk food is often cheaper and more available than fruits and vegetables. While living in Australia I learnt that the government had put a policy in place that no soda (soft drinks) were to be sold at any school. I believe this is a policy that should be implemented in all schools in this country – private and public. We need to protect our children from themselves.
As a child, I looked forward to coming home after school, or to a bank holiday, or vacation. It gave me the opportunity to play cops and robbers, tape ball cricket, football, sticky, dodge ball and road tennis. Some vacations, the guys in the neighbourhood would meet outside at 7 a.m. and play until 7 p.m. only taking a break to eat lunch. We were fit, energetic and active.
These days, hardly any children play outside. I believe this may be due to unsupervised and unstructured use of computers and laptops and video games such as the Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation and Xbox.
As a result, many of our children are overweight, unfit and generally lazy. If you talk to most physical education teachers, they will share with you the difficulties they have in getting children to run one full lap of a field. Playing doesn’t only develop the physical body; it also plays a vital role in developing social skills. Through playing with others, we learn to share, communicate; we build relationships; and we learn how to resolve conflict. I encourage us all to pay greater interest to our health. Exercise regularly and eat healthier. Set a good example for our children.
God has given us one body; it is our responsibility to honour it.
• Corey Worrell is a former Commonwealth Youth Ambassador.