Providenciales, TCI, June 24, 2016 – We really need to lose some weight, most of us anyway and we really need to quit over eating…. It is a major focus at this year’s Health & Research Conference which features some of the sharpest minds in the Caribbean.
Dr. James Hospedales in a one on one with Magnetic Media pulled no punches and agreed that gaining wealth as Caribbean people has made us massive consumers and in addition to having more, we are eating more, often to our detriment and in the case of diabetes, to our death. “The typical pattern of a country that starts to get some wealth, is people want to consume more, they want to drive a nice car, and those kinds of consumption patterns lead to problems. So yes sometimes wealth, unless it’s accompanied by a really open eyed view, a wait a minute, we’re getting wealth here, we have to watch these things”.
Dr Hospedales is the Executive Director of CARPHA and said the Turks and Caicos on Thursday presented research conducted here in the TCI on childhood obesity, he also said while no nation has figured out how to beat diabetes as a whole, he believes our smaller Caribbean countries can change that. “So one of my aspirations is that some of us in the Caribbean should be the first, because we have a serious problem, we can’t afford it. The problem is not so much the people are greedy, the problem is the environment that we’re in. You’re bombarded with advertising, the labeling is not very clear, the choices you have in places, the pricing, the availability. So a lot of things really conspire against us, and give us what we call a obesogenic environment, where all influences are driving you to consume more that you need.”
Meetings for the Health & Research conference, which is for the first time being held in the TCI, will continue into Saturday at Beaches.
