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Obesity, a global epidemic
Who would have thought that Africa, the continent famous for famine, would have weight-loss clinics? Who would have thought that India, the sub-continent known for its undernourished population, would have a high percentage of overweight women? Astrologers would have been dazzled by their own crystal balls. Obesity is spreading to parts of the world that once worried about enough to eat. The health risks are as enormous as our waistlines.
Mauritius is no exception. Our population is becoming more and more overweight and obese. Each week this epidemic makes the headlines. It has even become the talk of the town. People have become aware that their weight-to-height ratio, better known as body mass index (BMI), should be kept below 25. The ministry of Health is leaving no stone unturned to deal with this new-born tyrannosaur, which is slowly, but surely, swallowing the health of our population. The problem is that we are putting emphasis on the symptoms only, forgetting the roots where everything crops from nothingness.
How can a country like Mauritius fear something unheard a few decades back? How can a country with an agricultural background be affected by anti-agricultural disease? How can an island surrounded by an universal liquid for healthy exercises be unhealthy? In a few words, we may ask how do we get so fat?
The reasons are very complex and vary from country to country. The problem stems from the collision of modern trends: rising affluence and urbanization; proliferation of cars, computers, fast-foods and television; the 21st century work culture with desk jobs and long hours. In Mauritius, particularly, where health education is frequently nonexistent, people are vulnerable to the glamour of western burgers and pizzas. Packaged foods and fast food chains are prompted as an index of development and progress.
Diet-linked diseases</B>
A few decades ago, most of our people were farmers spending all day rotating soil, degrassing and cutting canes, plucking green vegetables and digging potatoes. Life was tough but they were healthy. But, when Mauritius began shifting to a market economy in 1983, followed our famous, one and only, economic boom, the rising income for husband and wife combined with shorter free time started to create a “nutrition transition”. And it is killing us. We have brilliantly and diligently built an environment guaranteed to make people obese. We have designed a society that has guaranteed to make people unfit. So Mauritius is dying of fat-related illnesses.
Diet-linked diseases, chiefly heart disease, cancer, diabetes, kidney malfunction and hypertension, are among the few complications, which account for a good proportion of hospital and drug-service obesity-related illnesses. In the past, people would only go to the hospital because they had infectious diseases. Now we see a lot more “rich people” diseases.
The debate is made the more critical by the fact that the fat epidemic is spreading its tentacles among children and teenagers, who are more vulnerable to the excesses of their newfound liberation. Who can say he has not a little sibling, niece, nephew or neighbour, who is not suffering from obesity. The disease has spread in almost every household. Today our youngsters are becoming fatter. But who is to be blamed?
A generation ago, eating out was rare, only for New Year or a birthday celebration. But today teenagers have buses and cars to take them where high-fat fast food beckons. Our teens are not only born free but also surf on the highest wave of liberty. With bulging purses they even surpass their western models.
We can also blame food marketing and the proliferation of supermarkets for the rise in childhood obesity. The rapid spread of food courts over the past decades has radically changed the way our kids eat. The long shelf-life foods are high in salt, sugar and fat, and the brightly packaged goods are swallowing our healthy kids. But should we just stand and stare or at least try to do something?
First of all, new legislation should be enforced to curtail food producers, canalise re-search and investment to global initiative to respond to obesity. Tax should also be enforced on fatty foods and health warnings printed on labels. Concerning children, more should be envisaged. Advertising on TV for kids under 12 should be illegal to protect them from aggressive campaigns and in-school marketing eliminated. Another solution, not impossible but just difficult to implement, is to ban junk food from schools.
But, for legislation to be effective, a massive campaign – similar to that for AIDS - should be launched in parallel. Our schools should not just cater for our grey matter but also for our waistlines. Our doctors should be involved both in the curing process and prevention sche-mes. Better stop the bleeding late than never. The ball is in the air. We just have to catch it.
<B>Soorab boodhoo</B>
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