Good diet, physical fitness should be central to national culture
EARLIER this month, Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton reiterated his extreme concern about lifestyle diseases. Back then he pointed to the burden being placed on the National Health Fund (NHF) by such ailments as diabetes and hypertension.
Dr Tufton told Parliament at the time that in 2020/2021 the NHF spent more than $1.27 billion on hypertension drugs compared to $940 million for 2014/2015, and $1.4 billion on diabetic drugs compared to $887 million five years earlier.
It’s well established that those noncommunicable diseases are closely linked to lifestyle behaviours such as a sugar-rich diet and inadequate physical exercise.
At the time, this newspaper applauded Dr Tufton’s announcement that minister of state in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, and 1992 double Olympic silver medallist Mrs Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn will lead a renewed Jamaica Moves in Schools project. The obvious intention was to encourage physical exercise among children.
We noted then that the Jamaica Moves in Schools project fitted neatly into the Government’s planned nutrition policy aimed at getting children to eat more vegetables and drink more water, as opposed to sugary beverages. We also argued for more organised sport among schoolchildren as part of an effort to entrench physical fitness as a way of life for Jamaicans.
Hence, we are gratified at two stories appearing in yesterday’s Jamaica Observer which, to the casual eye, may not appear to be related but which we believe are intimately linked. One article highlights a health-based mass media campaign launched by the Heart Foundation of Jamaica; the other reports on a three-day national primary schools’ athletics championship, which was scheduled to start yesterday.
The latter is the first such since the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020. In truth, when the many negatives of the novel coronavirus are tallied, among them will be the virtual halt of outdoor recreational activities on occasions over the last two years as a result of virus containment measures.
We are told that the Heart Foundation project, tagged as the ‘Protect Our Children’s Health Mass Media Campaign’, is expected to encourage public support for front-of-package warning labels on consumer products. Such warnings are intended to highlight dangers such as high content of sodium, sugar, saturated and trans-fats in the products we buy. Warning labels should help consumers make conscious choices.
“Additionally, the campaign should continue to highlight the harms of unhealthy foods such as ultra-processed packaged items that can increase the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers,” the news story says.
The value of such a campaign, as is being attempted here, cannot be overstated in our view.
Again though, while proper diet is absolutely essential, it should not be divorced from physical fitness. Which is why the primary schools’ championships, even as COVID-19 persists, is so important. It follows the resumption of myriad sporting competitions at the high school level in recent months. That’s in line with the recognition that life must remain as close to normal as possible, despite the virus.
Also, as we have argued before, as the nation seeks to build a long-term culture of good health embracing diet and physical fitness for the greater good of all, the very young must be at front and centre.