MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands' lifestyle reveals overweight, less smokers and little physical activity
Nearly 600 residents have contributed to a major snapshot of health and lifestyle in the Falkland Islands. The Health and Lifestyle Survey 2019 has just been published by the Falkland Islands Government Public Health Unit. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesI think Carol really should have warned me there was a hidden camera in the room when she asked me to measure my waist.
Dec 20th, 2019 - 07:49 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Why is it that the fattest countries all seem to be islands? Unhealthy imported diet?
Dec 20th, 2019 - 08:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I'm a natural :-)
Dec 20th, 2019 - 10:19 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Ain't that a shame...?
Dec 20th, 2019 - 11:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xbfMlk1PwGU
DT
Dec 21st, 2019 - 11:31 am - Link - Report abuse +1I can only really speak for myself but I don’t think the access to healthy food is entirely the issue. Whilst we don’t have the range of a larger country’s supermarket on our shelves I have no trouble buying lots of good fresh and frozen veg and plenty of fresh fruit. I also take a lot of exercise. I should add that I don’t really look anything like the fatso in the photo; undoubtedly just an online file photo. No doubt though, there are lots of people here who could lose a few stone.
It seems our stats don’t vary too greatly from the UK’s though so I think we’re broadly in line with the trend that is affecting much of the West.
“our stats don’t vary too greatly from the UK's”
Dec 21st, 2019 - 01:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The UK is an island too. ;)
Maybe it doesn't really apply to the Falklands, but whenever you see lists of fattest countries there always seem to be a bunch of Pacific Islands at the top. Vegetables are available, but how does the price compare with junk food? Here there are vegetables that are cheap, but the trendy ones people prefer are imported from places like Chile and Namibia and are not for the budget concious.
There is definitely a premium on the price of fresh produce here and junk food is likely considered cheaper. Increasingly our shelves are stacked with cheaper processed foods that are ‘convenient’ but I don’t think it’s as simple as cost because, like you say, the U.K. has cheap vegetables- despite more expensive exotic imports- but still people get drawn to the junk lines.
Dec 21st, 2019 - 05:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I’m glad Carol has the task of looking into this though and I hope a national strategy may be able to encourage tangible differences to our average health levels. I’d start by heavily taxing foods that have too much sugar and bad fats and shift that revenue into subsidising freight rates and local production rates for healthy raw ingredients.
Junk food mostly has a much longer shelf life than the fresh stuff, as well as being easier to transport, so not surprising shops prefer it, especially those with low turnover.
Dec 22nd, 2019 - 05:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Cheap vegetables have to be prepared and cooked, and few want to do that when you can just get convenience food. Meanwhile bagged salads and those little portions of cut up fruit are convenient, but also expensive and you can easily skip them and still feel full.
“I’d start by heavily taxing foods that have too much sugar and bad fats and shift that revenue into subsidising freight rates and local production rates for healthy raw ingredients.”
I think you'd get a lot of complaints if you did that, and IME most governments do the first part while ignoring the second. At least in the Falklands there are no farmers growing crops to lobby the government about keeping their subsidies.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!