Make healthy food affordable, specialist says

The government should take steps to subsidise fruit and vegetables and make these available at least to children and the elderly, a diabetes specialist said.

Consultant diabetologist Joseph Azzopardi emphasised the importance of making healthy eating low cost. He said healthy food, including fruit, fish and vegetables, is expensive and a lot of people simply cannot afford them, he said.

"Obesity should be made expensive; if something is not good for people's health, it should be made expensive so that people will be discouraged from buying it", he said.

As many as 30 per cent of the Maltese people suffer from metabolic syndrome, a problem which could lead to complications, including heart attacks.

Prof. Azzopardi said the major problem leading to metabolic syndrome is central abdominal obesity, which means that a person has a bigger stomach circumference than he should. People with a higher than recommended abdominal circumference - 94 centimetres in European men and 80 centimetres in European women - have an increased chance of getting high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

"Metabolic syndrome is reaching epidemic proportions in most countries. Most people eat too much and do too little exercise."

Another problem which needs to be tackled is school lunches. Prof. Azzopardi stressed the importance of limiting students' access to junk food. He spoke about the importance of curbing smoking and highlighted the need of having good food labelling, done in a way that people understand what a product contains before they buy it.

In an interview with The Times, Prof. Azzopardi said the syndrome quickens the onset of cardiac problems since one of its consequences is the narrowing of blood vessels and circulation problems. This often leads to early heart attacks, strokes and lower limb amputations.

However, a lot can be done to stop the harmful process caused by metabolic syndrome. Prof. Azzopardi stressed the importance of convincing people to pay attention to exercise and eating.

"You do not need to run a marathon, but some moderate exercise is important.

A daily walk is often all that is needed," he said.

He explained that the body needs food to operate but eating too much coupled with too little exercise will lead to the accumulation of harmful substances, called free radicals, in the body, which damage the person's circulation. Moreover, when a person eats too much, the body tries to stop the extra food from getting into the muscles since it is not needed. This leads to a phenomenon called insulin resistance which, in turn, increases blood pressure and leads to a tendency for fat to accumulate in the circulation.

A major problem is that many people who suffer from high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and diabetes often do not feel anything and, therefore, do not feel the need to see a doctor before it may be too late.

For example, there is the common misconception that a person with high blood pressure will get headaches but this is often not the case. People with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes often do not encounter problems until they get a complication such as a stroke or heart attack, which makes regular checkups for these conditions more important. People with such conditions should also make sure they visit their doctor regularly and to see that the conditions are under control by following the appropriate advice.

Prof. Azzopardi said that although effective treatment for conditions which make up metabolic syndrome was available, effective drugs were expensive. The government at present gives free medication for treating high blood pressure, diabetes and high blood cholesterol but some of these are not given free to everybody who needs them. For example, a person over the age of 75 is not entitled to free tablets for lowering cholesterol.

If one treats metabolic syndrome properly, one will lower considerably the chances of getting heart attacks, strokes or foot amputations, he said.

Proper treatment of metabolic syndrome - through a healthy diet and regular exercise coupled with periodical check-ups - will keep the circulation more healthy and decrease the need for operations like cardiac and lower limb bypass surgery.