Tell your Maltese nanna to lay off pastizzi for a while

Your Maltese nanna might need to lay off the pastizzi for a while.

Nearly one in every three people over 65 in Malta is obese, shocking new figures have revealed.

The island’s spiralling obesity crisis – fuelled by junk food, poor diets and sedentary lifestyles – means that Malta’s older generation is among the fattest in Europe.

The latest health report from Eurostat shows that Malta’s levels of obesity are among the highest in Europe, contributing to soaring rates of diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Only Latvia, Estonia and Hungary fair worse.

In Malta, more than 30 per cent of those aged between 65 and 74 were obese in 2017, the year under review.

In the rest of the EU, the average rate was one in five, according to the study.

Malta’s shocking health crisis in numbers

• Malta is the least physically active country in the world, with 71.9 per cent of Maltese people qualifying as inactive.

• Maltese children are the least physically active in the EU. Only one in four is physically active.

• Malta has one of the highest obesity rates in the EU at 22 per cent, far in excess of Italy at almost 10 per cent.

• A total of 58 per cent of Maltese adults are overweight and 22 per cent are obese.

• Malta has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the world, with over 25 per cent being obese.

• Malta has the highest prevalence of Type II diabetes in the EU – 10 per cent compared to 2-3 per cent of European neighbours.

• Less than one per cent of Maltese cycle regularly – the lowest in the EU.

• Malta has one the highest binge-drinking rates in the EU, including 15- and 16-year-olds.

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