Obesity – A big problem in SVG

This country’s highest ranking health official has described as “a serious problem” the prevalence of obesity here.{{more}}

“We have a serious problem of obesity in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and especially among our females,” Minister of Health Dr. Douglas Slater said at the opening ceremony of a food safety training workshop in Kingstown on Monday.

“I don’t know if you noticed that during Carnival. It was very obvious, and I have spoken to some of my officials, and while we talk about food safety, we also have to talk about the appropriate diet that comes with that, because it is not safe to eat improperly. So I hope we can find some way of putting all of this together,” Slater told stakeholders in the food production sector.

“It is a challenge,” Slater later told SEARCHLIGHT of the nation’s weight problem.

“I think people just do not pay enough attention to their personal health. I don’t know if there is a lot of complacency,” the medical doctor said.

“I have heard that some men prefer women who are better covered,” a chuckling Slater added, saying: “to each his own.”

He, however, said obesity is “a serious challenge” because it brings with it many of the Non Chronic Communicable Diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cancers.

Slater said his ministry has prepared and disseminated information on healthy living, noting that Vincentians have access to similar information through other media.

“I don’t know why our people are not responding appropriately, but we just have to continue to … make people aware of the risks and dangers of improper nutrition. But at the end of the day, it’s a personal choice and people have to be capable of making a wise choice,” he said.

Over the past five years, an average of 9.86 per cent of children under 5, monitored each year at state-owned health centres across the country, have been deemed “obese”, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

A further 4.2 per cent of those children are “moderately overweight”.

Assistant Nutritionist Joyce Burgin told SEARCHLIGHT earlier this month that a similar number of Vincentian adults might have the same weight problems.

She said Vincentians should exercise for at least 30 minutes no less than three days per week.