Farm expert urges healthy foods subsidies to fight obesity crisis

A leading agricultural expert has urged the government to subsidise at least 30 to 40 healthy food items in addition to the existing zero-rated basket of goods, warning that Barbadians are over-consuming dangerously high levels of sugar and fats far above international health standards.

Former chief agricultural officer Keely Holder, a farmer and agri-systems specialist, told reporters on Thursday that such a measure would help the country respond to new, startling data showing that Barbadians are over-consuming unhealthy foods, far more than what the World Health Organisation (WHO) advises.

Holder, a member of the Barbados Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition (BCOPC), which held a news conference at the UWI Cave Hill, revealed that while the WHO puts the island’s required daily caloric supply at about 2 250 calories, consumers have exceeded that by about 70 per cent.

“That’s what we are consuming on average,” she said. “We are over-consuming first of all. Additionally, we are consuming about three times as much sweets and sugars than what the World Health Organisation would expect us to consume at about 180 calories versus about 583.

“Similarly, for oils and fats, we are also over-consuming significantly more than double, at 389 calories versus 160 calories per day.”

She said these food groups are making up huge portions of consumers’ diets. She therefore argued that when one talks about making healthy foods more affordable, one must consider the things that are impacting the local obesity situation; and, more specifically, reducing consumption of these foods.

When addressing the issue of a priority healthy diet, the focus must be on those items, Holder suggested.

“The first part of the work that we want to do will be in identifying at least 30 or 40 priority healthy foods, wholesome, nutritious foods that speak to what the data is saying — that we are over-consuming — to start to get people to reorient their palate and reorient their food habits to foods that are more in line with what they need.”

She also recommended a cohesive, integrated policy framework:

“If we are talking about having priority healthy foods, these are foods that are going to be low in carbohydrates to combat the sweets and sugars; these are foods that are going to be high in Omega-3 to combat the Omega-6s that we are consuming. We want to have these policies that are directed towards encouraging the consumption of those foods. That means we want these foods to be considered for the national basket of goods. We want these foods to be considered in terms of having subsidies associated with them or being zero-rated, being tax-free. These are the foods that we would like prioritised.”

Holder also called for coherence in trade and tariff policies, with measures to ensure that healthy foods are more accessible, and higher tariffs to make unhealthy foods less accessible.

Public health policies in terms of education are also key, she suggested:

“This is critical to helping consumers understand why they need to consume certain foods as well as the food manipulation that occurs. Understand things like serving sizes. For example, when most people look at a bag and say: ‘OK, what it says on the bag is what I am supposed to be eating to be healthy,’ when really and truly, other countries are making decisions on our food as we import a huge portion of it. 

“And a key part of that would be that they make decisions based on how many persons are eating now, and not necessarily — the serving sizes are not based on what persons should be eating; and this is not something that is well known.”

Holder also called for greater partnership with civil society in battling against unhealthy food consumption.

(EJ)