With 40 to 44% of children and 58% of adults being overweight or obese, excess weight in both children and adults in Malta has become a major concern.

Obesity has considerable effects on mortality and morbidity. It reduces life expectancy, signifcantly
reduces health-related quality of life and increases the risk of onset of several chronic diseases. Obesity
is responsible for a signifcant proportion of cases of diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. The health consequences of being overweight and obesity are also important in children, who are more commonly exhibiting health conditions related to obesity, including low self-esteem and mental health symptoms.

The Healthy Weight for Life Strategy launched in February 2012, identifes multi-sectoral areas for action which are effective and designed to lead to containment and reversal of the epidemic. One
of the areas for action is to re-orient public health services to increase the importance of health promotion and disease prevention Research conducted at Harvard University by David Cutler and
colleagues found that the rising obesity is primarily the result of consuming more calories which is associated with technological innovations such as reduced food prices as well as the changing sociodemographic factors such as increased urbanization and increased female labour force participation. This research also looked at cooking patterns across several cultures and found that obesity rates are inversely correlated with the amount of time spent on food preparation. The
more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower its rate of obesity. In fact, the amount of time spent cooking predicts obesity rates more readily than female participation in the labor force or income.

We are seeing a majority of our population in Malta consuming ready prepared food which is usually high in salt, fat and sugar content. The Malta Standards Authority Food consumption survey published in 2010 showed that a high proportion of our adult population eat sweets, biscuits and chocolate
for breakfast, mid morning snack and afternoon snack. A study on university students showed that half of the students had only between 1 and 2 servings of fruit and vegetables daily, more than half chose the less healthy food, less than half had a regular healthy breakfast, while one third consumed daily soft drinks.

Preparing meals at home is an essential way to exert control over the nutritional quality of the whole
family’s diet. Cooking whole, fresh foods at home usually means less saturated fat and salt, and more
whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

As a health care professional you have an important role to encourage people to limit food high in sugar, fat and salt content and opt more for home prepared meals.

However evidence shows that telling people to eat healthier is one thing but teaching them how to do
it, is a completely different matter.  Hence the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate
will be focusing this year’s obesity campaign on enhancing healthy cooking skills in the public.

For more information and material on this campaign contact the directorate on health.pro@gov.mt or 2326 6000.