Obesity in Malta

The focus on a high carbohydrate diet is a 70-year failed experiment. 

It created the Homo-Diabeticus! 

Concern about obesity in Malta is rising, particularly for children.

Prevalence of obesity in Malta https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5192534/

A study on Childhood Obesity in Malta: 

https://researchandinnovation.gov.mt/en/Documents/Childhood%20Obesity%20in%20Malta.pdf

The Malta Childhood National Body Mass Index Study: A Population Study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27749614/

Childhood obesity in Malta: a sociological perspective 

https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/100337

What is a "healthy diet" for children in Malta.

Page 22 - Childhood obesity in Malta states: Overall, a healthy diet revolves around exclusively breastfeeding for the first 6 months of the child’s life and continuously breastfeeding until two years and beyond, and children aged 3 to 12 years consume.’

Recommendations (amounts for age 9-12):

• 3-4 servings of cereal per day – 75 - 120 grams of cereal.
• 3-5 servings of vegetables – 460 - 575 grams of vegetables (starches and other vegetables not delineated).
• 2-3 servings of fruit per day – about 345 grams.
• 2-3 servings of milk and milk products per day (on average, EU recommendation is 3-4 servings of which milk 200ml, yoghurt 125g, cheese 20-30g) so say 75% of EU figures. 
• 1-2 servings of protein per day (e.g. in Europe is 3 oz. cooked lean meat, poultry or fish; 2 egg whites or 1 egg; ¼ cup cooked beans; 1 tbsp. peanut butter; ½ oz. unsalted nuts/seeds). 
• 1-2 servings of fats per day, and drink mostly water.

THIS DIET IS EXTREMELY LOW IN FAT (as are the adult recommendations). 

The first low fat, low sat fat diets were introduced in America in 1976. Parents quickly adopted these new healthy eating rules. The effect on children was almost instantaneous- obesity began to rise - see chart below- taken from: 

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity-child-17-18/obesity-child.htm

Malta's own guidelines are even lower in fat and saturated fat (27% fat max and 8.2% sat fat- than the WHO's guidelines for healthy people (i.e. not the obese - bearing in mind they define obesity as a disease) but the Maltese should strive for even lower) than the general guidelines (30% fat, maximum 10% sat fat).

Malta has some of the worst results in Europe.... 

You can see in your own data why kids are getting obese...

"Overall, breakfast intake seems more common among boys"

"Overall, males were more likely than females to be OW/obese"

It is NOT the SSB "Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, particularly carbonated soft drinks, is associated with weight gain. The proportion of KG2, children who consume sugar-containing soft drinks, and fruit juices, smoothies or squashes every day was 4.4% and 9.8%, respectively."

Parents already know SBB's are unhealthy for their children. They do not know that a breakfast of cereals and toast with a piece of fruit and a fruit juice, is basically the equivalent of sugar, piled on sugar, piled on more sugar, which will spike their children's glucose and insulin (and their own) and put them on a path towards hunger and obesity. See the Unwin infographics. 

Note all of the above ignores the fact that the current advice leads most of the time Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratios totally out of synch with historical norms. A Maltese person following this advice will be eating a diet of more than 20:1 Omega 6 (inflammatory) to Omega 3 (anti-inflammatory), these should be more or less in balance. Low grade inflammation is everywhere.... 

Obesity IS resolvable but, it is not going to happen by doubling down on the current advice.