A quarter (25 percent) of Dominica’s adult population is obese, a new report released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has revealed.
The island is among four Caribbean countries which topped 25 countries worldwide ranked by the FAO.
With 25 percent of its adult population obese Dominica was ranked 22nd worldwide and fourth in the region.
Trinidad and Tobago heads the regional list with 30 percent of its adult population being obese, followed by Antigua and Barbuda (25.8 percent) and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (25.1 percent) and Dominica.
Mexico with 32.8 per cent of its adult population being obese, is number one on the FAO chart, knocking off the United States as the World’s Fattest Developed Nation.
The United States has a rate of 31.8 per cent, according to the report.
A recent study conducted in Dominica to determine the trans fatty acid content of common processed foods among people living in the island’s urban areas, showed two-thirds of the females in the urban population of Dominica, is obese.
In 2011, a World Bank-funded study revealed that Dominica has the highest obesity prevalence in the Eastern Caribbean and in 2010 the island was ranked 11 of the 20 most obese countries on earth by the World Health Organization.
I don’t even know what to say – the CIA Factbook on countries says that, in the Caribbean, St. Kitts & Nevis is the most obease (40% of the population), followed by Barbados & The Bahamas – a tie (34.7%), Belize (33.7%), Venezuela (30.3%), Trinidad & Tobago (29.3%). http://www.weather.com/health/which-country-fattest-20130709
But who doing these studies nuh. just de other day they said Dominica had the highest obesity in the OECS now they saying dominica is rated 4th. DNO could you please share some light on this discrepancy.
Admin: There’s no discrepancy. Dominica is ranked #4 in the CARIBBEAN REGION and #1 in the OECS.
We blame fast food only. Check the volume of alchohol and fried everything being consumed during events in Dominica. Alchohol is a disaster to the body. Take note our Dominican women. Heart disease, cancer and diabetes don’t play,
When I came to the US as a twelve year old I was lean and tri from daily outdoor activities and healthy eating on my Nature Isle. However, in less than a year as a winter confined, junk food consuming, TV watching couch potato I quickly morphed into a huskey, obese teenager whose concerned parents found it more expensive clothe. Thank God for the stern advise of my pediatrian and the caring love of my Mom. With an increase in physical outdoor activities and a healthier diet, I quickly shed the extra pounds and have never had an issue with obesity since. Please understand this unhealthy and progressively worsening trend is happening globally. I truly believe the problem of the expanding waistline is a direct result of the fast spreading “modern day” American fast food imperialism. Parents and guardians must step up and lead by example in how they eat and what they eat.
Eat what you grow. Walk to your garden and back. Encourage your children to play outside. Cook the food you grow, yourself. Obesity is caused by the choices you make … not by the “Government” or anybody else. The choice is yours. And grossly obese women are not healthy and will surely die prematurely. Men need to get over their attraction to hugely fat women. Blubber (FAT) is not healthy for anyone. It’s your choice.
what is wrong with my comment?because i say they consume too much Junk food and don’t have time to cook?
for a third world country this is a disgusting sastistic close down kfc now, because before them DA had the healthiest population in the world,,,this is the end of people living to 100 KFC equals DOA
Everybody saying is kfc but what about the family planning injection,dat is d cause they big so
somebody invest in a club people need to dance and freeup too much sleeping early in this country
i have been plus size almost my entire life , then i decided to change that image , when i started i went walking , change the way i eat ,but then i hit a road block , money ,the price of healthy foods are so dam expensive it’s not funny, and it is also so dangerous on the roads both morning and afternoon to go for a run or a mile walk , no side walks,you meet mad men trying to rape you , dogs chasing you , vehicle driving so fast pass you like yo don’t belong on the road . there are not enough recreation centers in the country and if you don’t own land where can you plant the vegetables ? i mean i wish we get a solution.
well, my advice to the obese people of Dominica is to visit the healthy living wellness center in Roseau, It is a pretty green and yellow building opposite the small wesley high school, they will help people to lose weight and stay healthy.
Dominica mentality, Fat is beautiful, sexy and a good life
Yes, for years now that has been the thinking hence the increase in fat related illness.
Look at the elderly people in Dominica most of them remain lean. They don’t eat the rubbish we now have In the stores, that we Dominicans think is the best thing since slice bread.
Get that KFC out of Dominica. Please. ‘We cannot afford health care as it is’
Some may think it brings Jobs , but it also bring sickness.
Lets get back to our natural diets
Bring back coconut oil. We use to make that to cook days ago,
Hello, it good for us . Can’t you see the old people living so long.
I don’t alway believe in the statistics they judge us by anyway.
They need to quit buying those 5lb bags of antibiotic and steroid ridden bags of chicken from save a lot. Start walking short distances instead of riding.Drink more water instead all them can sodas they drinking.
Dominicans are getting lazy now..they don’t want to walk anymore. They would reather go to KFC then cook a good healthy meal. I live outside Dominica and I still cook my food. I will eat a slice of pizza every now and then at work but I cook my food cause it’s cheaper and healthier. I was suprised when I came to Dominica and see all these fat people.
They eat that white bread every morning and night.
Just watch them climb a hill….it takes them five seconds to make the next step.
Keep it up
It’s partly to do with our mentality that “thickness” is in, for the ladies. When we have ladies taking periactin to gain weight to look “good like a plate of food”
Periactin still reigning nah? I remember in my early 20s, I was so meg and someone suggested that I try peractin. I gained a little weight and at the same time my heart was skipping a beat. I felt sick. I stopped taking it and lost some of the weight gained. I feel healthy now
It should be against the law to be overweight in dominica>Victims should be sentenced to a years walking (never set foot on a vehicle in the yr) and a strict diet of fig and fish with orange lime and passion fruit juices.
In bygone years there were few vehicles. Note the new houses which are built all over the island. People were more prone to residing in Roseau. They did more walking. Due to new housing developments in D/ca which are built in far away areas, it is necessary to have vehicles, to drive and to take them.
Dominica is more progressive today than in previous years. Note the number of vehicles as cars and buses. All these are attributed to less walking. Added to it are more processed foods than ever which are sold in stores and the fast food chains which are operating in D/ca.
A change of lifestyle is necessary. We do not have to eat large portions in order to be satisfied. We should eat and drink what are healthy and necessary and include fruits, vegetables, tea and water. Self control and moderation are necessary.
Dumb a**, fig has starch which becomes sugar. Hope you never have to do it
That comment on poverty is no excuse. Before people had a lower standard living, hardly any vehicles, pit latrines, no electricity in some places,eating dasheen and breadfruit for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Bread was luxury. And people were not obese! KFC more expensive than roasting some breadfurit or plaintain and eating heathly. But we want to be less active and like fast food- ramen, bread etc.
Dominicans were more active in bygone years. today, they are less active and less sociable. As we age we could become less active and gain weight. Technology has added to it. Viewing too much TV and of course sitting at the computer for too long.
Rather than visit relatives and friends which would entail walking, they prefer telephoning and using their cellular, blackberry, etc. which require sitting. Some of them are called couch potatoes. They must walk more. Walking does help to decrease those pounds.
Too much Ramen!!!….do Dasheen and yam!!!
Not so! All of us ate dasheen and yam and other foods and did not gain weight. Other factors contribute to weight-gain. Eating and not exercising/walking and eating late in the evenings could also contribute to it.
Kentucky Fried Chicken. This is the result
There is a Pizza, Chicken N Joy (I love the taste of this chicken) and Jerk restaurant and other stores in a small mall near where I reside, next to the grocery store. You can imagine I pass there frequently but I hardly ever go in.
Once in a while I will purchase Chicken N Joy especially on “Toony Days – $2.00” which are on Mondays and Tuesdays. It sounds like weekend leftovers.
I love home cooking and so I am not addicted to fast foods outlets. Once in a while I will purchase pizza. If I do it is usually vegetarian.
I have some various pizza recipes and have thought of making one when I can find the time to do so but I will in time. This is another reason I am not prone to purchasing at those outlets.
I have many recipes that I can cook in addition to our West Indian dishes. Dominican residents must continue with their home cooking. There is none to compare.
I am not denouncing fast food outlets. After all people must make a living. When we are busy and tired we could quickly purchase some but purchase them healthily. Today, the fast food outlets serve healthier foods. This is thanks to certain groups and government regulations with the health of customers in mind.
Eat well, drink well as ample milk, citrus juices and water, get enough exercise – walk and sleep and live well. This is the recipe for healthy living. This advice did not cost you anything. Did it?
I was going to the gym, and so many people had things to say. Instead of being encouraging they were negative and insulting. Too many times do people slow down when they drive when they see others going for a run.
Dominica is blessed to have good healthy air and places to jog and run and swim. Turn off the TV, get off your bum and do some exercise! Even a little gardening, community cleanup work, hiking, all that and Dominicans are still FAT. It may a long process to get health but once you start you feel better everyday.
Simple ban the most dangerous process foods.
encourage people back to the soil, place greater
emphasis on the schools. children, small as they are
they are very good messengers. Dominicans do
something before it’s too late.
its because of people laziness to cook at their homes they run to these fast foods n give their children a lot of junk for recess lunch and even super its a shame for some of you to blame the goverment for people being obese
Eat more fish and home grown food! Don’t let imports fool you!!
If skerrit improved there standard of living they could afford
better quality food, but with our current poverty initiative expect
more obesity.
Are you Stupid, ignorant, or do you lack Common sense along with intelligence ?
all of the above
they lack
I’m not a supporter of skerritt but that has nothing to do with him. When a parent chooses to give a child a solo drink for recess instead of a bottle of home made juice or that parent goes to KFC instead of cooking a meal at home, how do you blame skerritt?
Real nonsense. Where you here people who can’t afford are the obese ones. Those who have the money to spend are the ones who purchase the most junk that makes them obese. I cannot afford the KFC, the Burger and the Ice cream; that is why I so meg.
I’m sorry, but your comment is right out of the mouth of a “slave”. The “Government” is not there to make your life better. That’s your job!!Looking to blame the government for everything is just an excuse for not helping yourself. Very poor people still have choices in their lives. It’s the choices YOU make that determine the quality of your life … not the “Master’s” choices.
There is no excuse for us as a Nature Island people. We once ate healthy and did not have this obesity problem but we have lost our way by eating all these fast and processed foods. There are enough natural foods in Dominica to cut down on this obesity problem but the people must be willing to change. Only the truth will set us free and that is we must go back to the soil. The natural foods get their nutrients from the soil and we need these nutrients to sustain our bodies. We have been transformed by wanting to be like these so-called developed countries but that is killing us. We need a wake-up call.
Rastafari has been preaching that for decades, what makes you people think those fat-sows will now listen to you? That’s the result of a lost generation who has fallen to the evil hypnotic television induced programming and mind control. Too late for allu!
This shows the level of poverty in dominica. studies have shown that low income families buy more unhealthy food. mostly because they are cheaper. they eat alot of starchy foods and no exercise, their man like them thick, they donot plant vegetables in their backyard, they sit all day to pun bef (gossip) about their neighbor, they use alot of sugary foods such as loga, jam, sodas and high salt foods from KFC among others. what do you expect? diabeties and high blood pressure are the number one killers in D/A.
S.H.U.T U.P Just because someone is poor doesn’t give them an excuse to be obese. obesity usually occurs from Extremely “POOR” Dietary habits. Dominica is the Nature Ise of the caribbean and has a fruit and vegetable for every season of the year. grow some Damn Provision, fruits , and vegetables in your backyard and you’re good to go if you continue to do so, do be so damn lazy and things will change, when KFC came back they probably made millions on Dominicans due to the fact that dominicans are easily brainwashed and will fall for anything. STOP BLAME SKERIT. He in shape so he doing something right. if you or people you know is fat Go on the, or a Savanna AND RUN!!!….. LAZY PEOPLE !!!
KFC cheap I want to know the address
That goes to show the level of poverty in dominica? are you kidding? All the land you have to grow food on. It’s laziness that’s what it is.
Ithink this article made mistake. It is more like 70 percent particularly women. Like someone said before 7 out of 10 walking on Roseau streets are overweight. Before when the spanish used to here I used to say why their stomach always hanging. Now they look much better than a lot of local women. Nowadays u see what I describe as big whales all over the place and they don’t care how they look. They wear the tightest clothing and they so ridiculous and let alone unhealthy. And all of that obesity has erupted so quickly which leaves me to say that our health system make preparations for chronic deseases such as diasbetes and heart problems. The amount of obesity is disturbing.
It is time that the government considers 1. reducing or removing the import duty/sales taxes on bicycles and other EXERCISE equipment.2. support policies that promote physical activity e.g. incentives for bicycle/walk paths, swimming pools and recreation centres, 3. Consult with your Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI) and inform yourself how Dominica can develop strategies and actions to prevent and control NCD’s in the nature isle.
An island where 25% of the adult population is obese…but we have a government in November 2011 offering reduced taxes (https://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/health/government-to-reduce-taxes-on-healthy-juices/) on the importation of concentrated sugars disguised as high quality fruit juice (concentrated apple, grape, cranberry)and as such exaggerating the situation. We must become aware that juice drinks and juice cocktails from concentrate have refined sugars and flavours added and are not healthy for the body in large quantities. We should also be aware that concentrated fruit juices are naturally high in fructose, especially apple and grape juices, and should be consumed in moderation because high blood sugar levels force your pancreas to secrete extra insulin to shuttle the glucose into your cells. Any quantity that is not needed is stored as fat, which contributes to obesity. In addition, if a juice drink from concentrate contains high-fructose corn syrup, the problem is magnified because of the excess sugar that is quickly absorbed into your bloodstream. Time for us to INCREASE the taxes on these so called “healthy juices” and use that money to promote healthier alternatives!!!
You must have read my comment on DNO some time ago. The science is in; the cause of obesity is not the lack of exercise but the over consumption of fructose and sucrose no matter its source. WE need to cut down on consumption of sugared drinks and foods with added sugars ( which is basically all processed foods). The government can help by increasing the price of sugar in its various forms by levying taxes on sugar in the same range as alcohol and tobacco and for the same reason: SUGAR IS BAD FOR OUR HEALTH , JUST AS ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO!!!
It starts with the Government and the schools teach agriculture in the schools put it in the curriculum the doctor, lawyers, business owners, police men ect all need organic foods being a farmer is not crime my people head back to your soil and plant to eat
Just as a joke, who does the shape in the picture remind you of? I’ll give you some clues: Somebody high, high up in society; a calypso by Peter Pros about two/three years ago,etc.
What a shame. There should be no excuse for all that fatness that’s being mentioned about. The island is mountainous with so many places for people to go hiking. The sea is right there for people to go fishing for fresh fish, so many fruits to select from, refreshing water to drink and the list goes on and on. THIS IS WHY DOMINICA IS CALLED THE NATURE ISLAND OF THE CARIBBEAN and yet you all just sit and eat like hogs getting fatter by eating processed foods. Processed foods are detrimental to your health. EXERCISE, EXERCISE, EXERCISE. You don’t need a gym to go exercising….enough places to go for a long walk and EAT HEALTHY.
Yes with KFC and Dominicans losing the way to their stoves, coal pots, fire wood they become to lazy to cook a fresh meal for their families, another thing they don’t want to walk to many dam cars in this small country when I was home we went walking in groups in the early morning bring back bell mache to schools teach the children health life styles that’s where the educating must begin
Upon a visit to Dominica not too long ago, I was flabergasted. to say the least, when I observed parents buying boxed drinks for their school children. I was really astonished that well meaning parents would subject their children to chemicalled laddened drinks rather than a natural chemical free drink. What Dominicans are calling progress, America is desperately trying to distance itself from. Here in America there is now a camapign to avoid processed food, because the foods that the FDA has shoved down American throats for so many decades has proven detrimental to the health of the nation. Now there are healt natural/organic supermakets such as; Wholefoods, My Organic Market (MOM), and Trader Joe’s, who are charging an arm and a leg for healthy alternatives to the poison the FDA has long approved as appropriate or safe for consumption. All the things Dominicans are turning away from in the name of progress, are the very things the health experts in America are urging their citizens to eat and drink. Natural juices, they are now selling belnders for $500+ dollar to encourage the consumption pure fresh juices. The prices for the products of “free ranged” animals, the fouls in your yards, and the cows that you see on the side of the country road are extreme. There is nothing better than a piece of freshly killed chicken or cow, or what other meat that you eat. Here in America a chicken hatches today and because of steroids it will be a full grown fowl of rooster in six to eight weeks – guess what happens to the steriods that were injected into these animals? You consume it, that is one of the major reasons our eight year old daughters look 18. Then there is the notion that walking is a slight on ones’status, It appears that no one wants to walk, and you wonder why Dominica has made it on this list. One last note, the health food stores I mentioned are not readily available in the ghettos, inner cities and other areas that are predominantly balck, Latinos and other minority. They are primarily in the affluent neighborhoods. My people I urge you to wise up and don’t be victimized. GO BACK TO NATURE! Enjoy the foods of your soil, encourage your children to go outside and play, spend the entire day by the bay swimming, enjoy the treasures of you land. .
We have nor reason or excuse to be fat on this beautiful and natural island! We are an intelligent and resilient people, let us do something about that!
hmm well,what can i say? Dominica is a blessed land! With soo much fig,dasheen,yam and pehpeh to go around, what u expect?!
This iis shameful. Guess when it all started? When they tokd us that agriculture is a has been industry. No sooner ourbpeople got hooked on allb their imported stuff.
The people in Dominica cannot pay gor a hand green bananas or pound of dasheen and even if they would the good old stuff is unavailable.
One thing for sure is that the rain will fall on all house tops
Exercise people exercise!! Be conscious of your bodies, there is a difference between being well proportioned and Obesity. Ladies, start walking, join an exercise class and watch what you eat.
Maybe the regime is correct. The minister of breasts did make ignorantly clear early last year.
Wearing his ignorance not on his chest( usually one wears such on the lapels of their jackets.Minister of breast and other body parts .
stated: “Madam Speaker! Poor people are now eating breasts and thighs no more backs and necks. Those who do not have teeeth sucking it.”
With more vacations than work days. BBQ daily, everynight has happy hour what are we to expect? What’s the colour of my white car?Take a look at some of our leaders. Two have already hit the dust. Queen.1970.Who’s next? The population goes to waste daily.
We are the most montainous country in the region, we call ourselves the nature island, we calim we poor and yet still we so fat.
We need to speak to Matt in the Morning, he and Blessing should be able to get us a fix
You walk around Rosseau in particular, on a Friday, and the evidence is glaring. Nowadays, women are proud to hang their huge ‘guts’ over their trousers, and wearing tight apparel to show it off. The men, at least, wear over sized shirts.
Before, it was customary to see me with pot bellies, but the ladies have taken the cake. I wonder if they were trying to compete with the ‘Spanish’.
Our health is on our hands!!!
More exercise and less fatty foods is the solution. Otherwise high blood pressure, strokes and diabetes will become the plague of the future and the hospital will not be able to cope physically and financially.