World Heart Day - Minister calls for heart healthy environments |29 September 2014

The Minister for Health Mitcy Larue has urged all public and private organisations in the country to further develop and implement sustainable structural measures to help people adopt healthy lifestyles and nutrition.

The call comes from the minister’s message on the occasion of World Heart Day being celebrated today.
The full text of Minister Larue’s message reads:

“Today, September 29, is World Heart Day. It is often believed that it just takes a person’s will and decision to adopt healthy lifestyle and nutrition. But as we all know, a  resolution to do regular exercise does not always translate in assiduous practice. Indeed, successful behaviour change also largely depends on having a favorable environment that helps sustain behaviour. For example, it will be easier for a person to start doing regular physical activities if there is a fitness trail, a park or a gym near one’s home or work, for easy access. Similarly, a person is more likely to eat more fruit and vegetables if a broad choice is available in shops around home.

“Acknowledging these challenges, the theme chosen for this year’s World Heart Day is ‘Creating heart healthy environments’. This theme is aimed at encouraging initiatives to improve and promote an environment that is conducive to healthy behaviour for all of us.

“Creating health-promoting environments, with increasingly more people adopting healthy behaviour, is a key strategy for a nation and, indeed, for Seychelles. In Seychelles, heart attacks and strokes account for as many as 40% of all deaths every year. Yet, all these can be largely prevented by healthy behaviour.

“I am glad to notice improvements in Seychelles, such as a substantial reduction of tobacco use during the past years. Much of this success arose from interventions on the environment, including a ban on tobacco products advertising, a ban on smoking in public places and high taxes on cigarettes. These measures to change the environment have been instrumental to help smokers quit smoking and to deter new smokers from starting.

“However, obesity has become a main issue in Seychelles, which also translates in more diabetes in the country. This is much related to unhealthy diet, including increasing reliance on energy dense foods, also known as ‘junk food’. No doubt that education is important to help people make good decisions about their diet. However, it is essential that the environment is shaped or re-shaped so that healthy foods are not only more easily available and affordable, but also become a first choice for most people. The converse should also happen. i.e.:  unhealthy foods should become less available and no longer first choices.

For example, a school nutrition policy has been recently implemented in Seychelles that aims at favouring consumption of water or milk while discouraging soft drinks at school. This measure is particularly important in view of continued increase in obesity among youth.  

“Therefore, I call on all public and private organisations in the country to further develop and implement sustainable structural measures to help people adopt healthy lifestyles and nutrition. This can include reducing salt, sugar and fat in manufactured foods; creating more opportunities for people to practice physical activity and sports at work and in districts; and further implementing measures to reduce exposure to tobacco smoke in work places and public places. These efforts must be deployed in all possible settings including schools, workplaces, and communities in order to target people of all ages.

“While the Ministry of Health and other sectors in government are committed to further enable environmental measures that help people adopt healthy lifestyles and diet, let’s make it also clear that, at the end of the day, it remains  the responsibility of each one of us to adopt healthy behaviour. No matter how difficult this may appear to be, let’s work hard to make all possible efforts to exercise regularly, abstain from smoking and have a healthy diet with more fruit and vegetables, favouring water over soft drinks, and limiting fats and sugars.

Adopting these healthy behaviour will not only help prevent heart disease and cancers, but is also an immediate reward in terms of better quality of life in all aspects, physical, mental and social.”