An alarming number of young Barbadians are presenting with “lifestyle illnesses”.
According to the chairman of the Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition, Suleiman Bulbulia, there has been an increase in youth diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
Bulbulia made the disclosure while speaking to the media on the sidelines of a ribbon-cutting ceremony and the presentation of exercise equipment to the Christ Church Foundation School on Tuesday. The ribbon-cutting ceremony commemorated the opening of a school gym at the Foundation School and the donation, was done in conjunction with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, to promote healthier living and lifestyles amongst students.
Education officer, Hedda Phillips-Boyce and principal of the Christ Church Foundation School, David McCarthy cut the ribbon to commemorate the opening of a school gym at the school. The school also received a generous donation of exercise equipment from the Barbados Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition and the Childhood Obesity Prevention Programme of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
“More and more younger persons are presenting themselves with these lifestyle illnesses…hypertension, diabetes, cancer as well. We recognise that it is coming from the food and the lifestyle habits that we have and so we now have to pay attention to that,” said the chair of the Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition.
He detailed that according to recent studies, one in five Barbadian adults are diabetic and 40 per cent of the adult population was hypertensive. He stressed that inactivity and poor eating habits needed to be curbed at a young age.
“What our coalition is recognising is that a lot of younger people now are coming down with non-communicable diseases [NCDs], and Type 2 diabetes. So, it is going to be very important that we have a lot of young voices involved in this struggle to bring a healthier lifestyle to our nation, country and our future generations,” Bulbulia said while introducing a cohort of youth advocates from Foundation School who will be working with the coalition.
He also revealed that the Coalition was hopeful that after months of discussions with the Government, the national school nutrition policy will take effect at the start of the new school term in September.
“We are hoping that it will come for the new semester, the new term that will start in September.
The Ministry of Education has signed off on it and it is at the point of the Ministry of Health. The school nutrition policy is an important policy that needs to be implemented. It needs to be in our schools,” Bulbulia remarked.
“If you look around our schools, there still is a heavy onset of unhealthy food and snacks being marketed directly to kids, being sold in the schools…We believe that the school nutrition policy is one of those policies that needs to be implemented with almost immediate effect. It will help curb the onset of NCDs,” he added.
The chair of the Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition also advocated for front of label packaging on products, so consumers will be informed of the ingredients.
“Front of label packaging, that needs to be done also with immediate effect because Barbadians generally need to know what they are consuming….If it is high in sugar, if it is high in salt, they need to know that. Not a fine print at the back of a product,” he insisted.
During her feature remarks, Hedda Phillips-Boyce, education officer in the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, echoed Bulbulia’s concerns. She shared that according to research conducted by Professor Anne St John and Pamela Gaskin, 1 out of every 3 Barbadian children is overweight.
She maintained that the increased consumption of ultra-processed foods and sweetened beverages has led to “quite alarming” health statistics.
“The Ministry of Education and other stakeholders are very concerned about the decline in some of our children’s health and will aim to wrestle this vexing issue as a united front to change this narrative,” the education minister emphasised.
She added: “We need to be proactive, and our creativity should be coming to the fore to prepare tasty dishes and snacks with food that is readily available to us. Planting our own food must be the order of the day, not only will are own food be fresh and nutritious but in planting what we grow, and growing what we eat we will assist with food security.
“Additionally, water and coconut water should be our first choice of beverage considering that a bottle of sugar-sweetened beverage can contain as much as 18 teaspoons of sugar and the recommended about of sugar for children is six teaspoons. Learn how to read food labels, there are over 56 common names for sugar that are hidden in food labels.”
Phillips-Boyce also revealed that to promote healthier eating, the Ministry of Education was planning a snack competition using local foods for students. The Ministry is also seeking to work with a local manufacturer to create the snack commercial and sell it in supermarkets.
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