From Your Healthy Journal…..”I have been bringing up obesity lately on this blog, as so many reports are claiming the United States is the ‘fat capital’ of the world. I do agree that it is an ongoing problem in the US, and change is needed. My problem, I don’t think the problem just exists in the US. Recently, I have posted articles about obesity issues in the UK, Canada, Australia, and Mexico. These countries have been having similar issues with obesity. Today’s article, written by Jacob Borg of Malta Today discusses similar concerns with the country of Malta. The article begins with a statement heard in many other articles posted here – Tax foods that create our obesity epidemic and subsidize healthy food. Sound familiar? The Maltese population weighs in at the heavier end of the scales, and notwithstanding the health costs of the obesity epidemic, the financial cost on the country’s coffers is in the region of €78 million. The proportion of overweight or obese children in Malta is 29.5% – no other country has a proportion above 20%, as the ‘Health at a Glance: Europe’ report shows. Please visit the Malta Today web site (link provided below) to read the complete article. It was very informative.”

From the article…..

Tax foods that create our obesity epidemic and subsidise healthy food, says doctor who researched Malta’s fat problem.

Obesity is a growing problem (pun intended) all over the world.

Unfortunately, the Maltese population weighs in at the heavier end of the scales, and notwithstanding the health costs of the obesity epidemic, the financial cost on the country’s coffers is in the region of €78 million.

The proportion of overweight or obese children in Malta is 29.5% – no other country has a proportion above 20%, as the ‘Health at a Glance: Europe’ report shows.

But Daniel Sammut, a GP and co-author of the chunkily titled ‘Audit of the diagnosis and management of adult obesity in a Maltese general practice’ – a study recently published in the Malta Medical Journal – is none too impressed by the proliferation of fad diets on the island.

“Only Weightwatchers has some scientific evidence behind it. The Department of Health Promotion recommends a Mediterranean diet. Such a diet involves eating five times a day, a daily intake of five portions of vegetable and fruit, five glasses of water and exercise five times a week. All the tablets and shakes either do not work or are harmful. For example, fat burners may increase blood pressure and heart rate,” Sammut says.

And he finds agreement from personal trainer Richard Geres, who has helped thousands of people lose weight through his person fitness regimes and regulated diets.

“Fad diets do not work… while basically any diet works in the short-term, due to the reduction of calorie intake, the problem is that they are not sustainable over the long term. Therefore people on these diets revert to their previous problematic eating habits and therefore regain the weight again over time.”

Geres firmly believes that education is the root cause of Malta’s obesity problem.

“After having personally interviewed over 4,000 clients over the last few years, I have come to the conclusion that the only solution to our national, and global, obesity problem is education that will lead people to make wiser food choices in the long run. People claim they know what they should eat, but they don’t really.

To read the full article…..Click here