‘Pass law against school junk food’

New regulations restricting the sale of unhealthy food in school should be backed by legislation, Government has been told.

During the second phase of a mass media campaign of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados (HSFB), local and international stakeholders in health, youth advocates and at least one religious organisation called for school meals and canteen guidelines to be solidified in law.

HSFB president Dr Kenneth Connell told various stakeholders at the Queen’s Park Steel Shed that an opinion poll indicated that 88 per cent of Barbadians have strong concern about childhood obesity, 92 per cent back a national policy and 72 per cent support the banning of sugar sweetened beverages.

And while decisions have been made to restrict sugar-sweetened drinks in some schools, he urged media executives to make Barbadians more uncomfortable about the worrying trends.

“Media has the power to make our governments uncomfortable such that there are eager to bring about change,” he said.

At the event, students from numerous “model schools” joined master of ceremonies, Carl Alff Padmore in a number of exercise routines to promote healthy lifestyles.

Advocates from the Coalition of Youth, the Diabetes Association of Barbados, the Pan American Health Organisation and the Barbados Muslim Association all added their voices to the calls for stiffer regulations.

Secretary of the Muslim Association Sulieman Bulbulia said: “We need concerted efforts today to rid our schools of unhealthy food and drinks.

“We need legislation like those passed in our fellow Caribbean countries to give this campaign the legal backing to make healthy choices in our schools a reality.

“This will not be an easy task as we are redefining and recalibrating a mindset and culture that actively promotes unhealthy choices and lifestyles.

“But we must start and we must struggle to make it a reality, if not for us, for future generations. The health of our children is the future health of our nation.”

While Minister of Education, Santia Bradshaw told Barbados TODAY Government would prefer to work hand in hand with canteen proprietors and vendors in the health push instead of using the strong hand of legislation, she admitted swift work would have to be done soon to reverse the trend with one in three Barbadian children overweight or obese.

Failing that, Bradshaw predicted the $64 million currently being spent on patients suffering with chronic non-communicable diseases was likely to increase with school children consuming nearly seven times the suggested daily amounts of sugar.

She acknowledged it would require a balance between eating habits at home and combat deeply entrenched cultural habits.

The Minister of Education said: “Sweetness has become a part of our dialect. Sweetness is a part of our lifestyle.

“Our colonial lifestyle points to the fact that sweetness and sugar has been a part of our colonial past as Caribbean people, but it must not be what is used to strangle us and as educated people, we understand that everything in moderation is good for you.

“You don’t eliminate all sugar, but this process that we are having right now where we are starting the conversation about the elimination of things and the awareness is critically important to be able to gain the change that we all want to see.”

kareeemsmith@barbadostoday.bb