Unhealthy eating pushing Ja to health emergency

Deborah Chen, executive director of Heart Foundation of Jamaica, is worried that the health profile of scores of Jamaicans will soon turn for the worst given that they would have spent time inside snacking on unhealthy food during the coronavirus quarantine and lockdown periods in 2020.

She was speaking at the launch of the Heart Foundation of Jamaica’s launch of Out Of Our Schools campaign last Thursday at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston.

“I really shudder to think what the next Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey is going to show, given that everything is moving in the wrong direction and we had COVID-19 when there was a period of inactivity and more likely eating more than we should have at that time,” Chen said.

“The Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey shows that the prevalence of hypertension in persons 15 and over moved from 20.9 per cent in 2000 to 31.5 per cent in 2018, and one in two Jamaican, it is every other person, are classified as overweight,” she explained.

She stated that in 2011, 79 per cent of premature deaths were attributable to non-communicable diseases and Jamaica’s high rate of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is driven by dramatic increases in modifiable risk factors that cause NCDs.

FAST FOOD

Research also show that more than 66 per cent of Jamaican adolescents aged 15 to 19 years consume fast food most days of the week. Additionally, more than 69 per cent of children aged 13 to 17 years drink carbonated soft drinks one or more times per day and 80 per cent of deaths in Jamaica are caused by non-communicable diseases.

With these challenges now being widely recognised, 92 per cent of Jamaicans support front-of-package warning labels.

The Out Of Our Schools campaign was being launched as a precursor that will support the Government’s School Nutrition Policy, which is now a green paper and consultations are being had with principals, educators, experts in the medical field and other stakeholders regarding the policy.

With 23.3 per cent of Jamaican students aged 13-17 years classified as overweight or obese, experts in the medical field and educators alike, are now batting for the School Nutrition Policy to become law, which Chen also advocates for, and is pushing healthy diets as part of the strategy.

“Unhealthy diets not only impact the learning abilities of our children, it also affects their psychosocial development, therefore, the notion that children can eat whatever they want with little or no consequence, is outdated,” Chen said.

“Unhealthy lifestyle practices developed in childhood, for the most part, continue to adulthood. The time to act is now. We all need to play our part and continue to advocate for the finalisation approval and implementation of a School Nutrition Policy because our children’s lives depend on it,” she said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com