A UK-based Professor is concerned about the “fat nation” that Barbados has become and he is urging lawmakers to consider implementing a “double taxation” on fast-food establishments in order to help tackle obesity and overweight.
Professor Kennedy Cruickshank made the suggestion on Monday while addressing a University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus public lecture, held virtually under the theme Hypertension in Africa-origin Population.
Pointing to more than four decades of studies relating to malnutrition, high blood pressure, diabetes and hypertension and the link with ethnicity, Cruickshank said while some progress has been made to address the concerns, “a great deal” is still to be done.
He admitted that the notion of double taxing for restaurants may not be popular among owners. Cruickshank said lawmakers must do what was necessary to help protect the nation’s children from developing health complications due to certain food choices.
“ The politicians have to think about sugar taxes beyond what they have got at the moment,” he insisted.
With hundreds of people dying annually in Barbados from heart attack, Professor Cruickshank said while he did not have hard evidence he believed this was due mainly to inactivity among the population. Many of these people suffered from diabetes, obesity and hypertension.
“I think it is two things and I don’t have the data; one, the very rapid transition to becoming, a fat nation, and two, which is a part of that, physical inactivity. People have moved off the land absolutely as they should but they have lost their physical activity with it, and in general, we aren’t doing enough exercise routinely to keep these things at bay,” he said.
He suggested that there were also other factors to consider including “inflammation from this fat which is contributing to the diabetes”.
Cruickshank is an Emeritus Professor of cardiovascular medicine and diabetes in life-course/nutritional sciences at Kings College and consultant physician at St Thomas’ & Guy Hospitals in London.
Responding to a question from a Barbadian health official regarding an increased presence of overweight children who were malnourished and the likely impact of this on blood pressure, the professor said this combination was bad news, but added that “something can be done about it”.
He suggested exercise programmes in schools as an option.
“Everybody has been encouraged to do that through their youth because the energy balance is the key,” he added.
In 2015, the Barbados Government implemented a 10 per cent value-based tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in an effort to discourage consumption of such beverages and help tackle diabetes.
Studies have shown that the prevalence of obesity and overweight among adults and children in Barbados over the years has averaged over 30 per cent, compared to just half of that for the world average.
During his lecture, Professor Cruickshank said while he did not have a “magic bullet” to address the situation, the COVID-19 pandemic was certainly “a warning” that urgent action was needed.
Since COVID-19, medical officials have repeatedly noted that people with underlying medical conditions or long-term chronic diseases were at greater risk of becoming severely ill from the virus.
“We are having a struggle with vaccines here in Barbados and we have not got enough in Jamaica, but the hypothesis is you need to deal with these illnesses at a population level as well as a patient level,” said Cruickshank. (marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)
