The Editor, Sir:

Dr Ballayram's comments in The Gleaner under the caption "A fat, lazy nation" should be of enormous concern to Government, health officials and others with direct interest. It should be of concern also to the food trade, that which is implicitly contributing to what the food economist foresees.

When I used to visit New York, I could easily distinguish between the Jamaican (West Indians) women and the African Americans, many of whom were quite fat and dumpy. It clearly was a matter of nutrition, since Jamaicans there habitually eat home-cooked Jamaican cuisine, though utilising foreign ingredients.

I did not see this level of dumpiness among Europeans. The French are generally lean and seemingly brimming with health. So were the people of The Netherlands where food was in abundance and relatively cheap, while other areas of consumption were usually expensive. Twenty guilders bought two weeks' supply of grocery that included ample amounts of vegetables and high-protein foods, while it cost 13 guilders to send a letter back to Jamaica.

Two main problems I see here: One, most of us don't have a clue about a balanced diet and, second, the price of vegetables and protein is way too high. And so, low-income earners subsist on a high-caloric starch diet as certain meats, cheese, and milk are out of their reach.

The Jamaicans who are likely to get fat and/or suffer non-communicable diseases are not necessarily the people unable to find food on a daily basis, but more those who consistently buy and consume unwholesome, high-calorie, low-nutrition foods because that is what they can afford. This nation buys cheap foods from the breadbaskets of the world then prices it out of the reach of ordinary Jamaicans. The result: We are fast becoming a fat, lazy nation.

I am, etc.

CLAUDE WILSON

jaclaudew@yahoo.com