A leading paediatrician is calling on the Government to implement a sugar tax in an effort to reduce the number of people, especially children, becoming obese.
Speaking at Rapidfire Kidz Foundation and Nu-Iron Unlimited function in Fyzabad on Saturday, Dr Jose Nunez, head of the Paediatric Department at the San Fernando General Hospital lamented that childhood obesity was a serious problem, not only in T&T but globally.
Nunez noted that obesity leads to many health complications, including diabetes, heart attacks and hypertension.
“I want to make an appeal to the Government that this obesity problem should be addressed, sooner rather than later.”
Noting that several countries, including the United Kingdom, Mexico and Norway, had introduced a sugar tax, he said, “The whole point about it not just taxing it but tell people why you taxing this. So basically you will understand why a chubby is going to be more expensive in it the future because basically the amount of sugar in these things is not healthy.”
Acknowledging that unhealthy foods were cheaper than healthy foods, he said, “This is where the government comes in to improve things for us…Try to make healthy things cheaper and unhealthy things expensive to discourage people. All the fruits and vegetables suppose to be at reduced prices, and you tax things like sugar.”
He encouraged people to cook their own foods and stay away from fast foods and fried foods, drink less sugary beverages, including juices, and drink a lot of water.
Nunez said children now spend most of their time watching television and on other electronic devices and spend less time engaged in physical activities.
Government, he added, has to also ensure that the foods and drinks being consumed by children in the school nutrition programme are healthy.
Some 46 students from the Fyzabad Presbyterian School and the Delhi Road Hindu School received spectacles at the office of Fyzabad MP Dr Lackram Bodoe as part of the Foundation and Nu-Iron “Eyes Right” project.
Since the project started in 2014, Ratiram, the Foundation’s president said, they have distributed 739 spectacles to primary school students.
However, he said, “This project shows that at least ten per cent of our national primary school population has a vision disability or defect. And if our children can’t see well, how can they learn well? How can they realise their full potential?”
He lamented that in a lot of instances the children’s visual deficiencies and defects go unnoticed, resulting in the children not realising their full potential.
“In fact,” Ratiram said, “when we came to Fyzabad, we found that the figure was much higher in the Presbyterian school, with over 20 per cent of the students needing glasses”.
He appealed to the Government, the corporate community and private citizens to get on board to ensure that all children are routinely screened and tested, not just vision testing, but also hearing testing and testing for learning disabilities.
Ratiram said that while this would cost “a pretty penny...you cannot put a price on our children’s health, education, and future.”
