The Bahamas, like many other high-income countries is experiencing an obesity epidemic, according to the results of the country’s first ever Living Conditions Survey.

The 188-page study indicates that within the adult population, females had a significantly higher prevalence of obesity (37 percent) than did males (24 percent), particularly in the far-flung Family Islands.

In those areas, overweight (35 percent) and obese (49 percent) females comprised 84 percent of the female population, "a grave revelation."

In a recent interview with the Bahama Journal, Manager of the Better Living Health Centre, Dr. Ida Mae Hanna, said the country’s obesity epidemic is driven largely by the simple fact that Bahamians eat too much.

"I think one of the problems is that we do not have balanced diets and a lot of this has to do with a lack of knowledge. You would find that the typical Bahamian diet is peas and rice, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, corn and plantain all in one meal and all of those are starches," she said.

"We need to balance it with vegetables that are of low calories. The problem is made worse because a lot of the fast food chains are selling mega meals, which encourages people to buy and eat more. They think they are getting a money deal in getting more for less, but if they eat the whole thing as one serving, then it actually is an evil in the end."

While she could not say definitively why women have the tendency to be obese more than men, Dr. Hanna suggested that ‘perhaps’ it is due to males being more active.

Slightly more than 2,000 households were randomly selected throughout the country to participate in the survey.

According to the study, the youngest group of males was the healthiest group in terms of weight.

On average, one out of every two men 21-30 years of ages (49.5 percent) was of normal weight.

About 62 percent of men were too heavy for their height, while 69 percent had a body mass index (BMI) – a simple and reliable index for weight for height – of 25 or more.

"These results clearly show that a high proportion of Bahamian adults is at risk for developing one or more co-morbidities of the chronic, non-communicable diseases," the survey determined.

A socio-economic analysis of the country’s health status was one of eight inter-related issues the survey focused on along with demography and migration, poverty, household expenditures, education, employment, access to community services and social programmes and housing.

The survey, which although completed in early 2002, was only released this past Wednesday in the House of Assembly, further pointed out that among all persons, the combination of overweight and obese increased with age.

Obesity was most notable in the age groups 31-50 (about 35 percent), whilst young adults between the ages 21-30 were predominantly the healthiest in terms of weight.

"The wealthiest households had the smallest proportion of obese persons (27 percent)," the report said. "…Overall, the highest prevalence of overweight and obese persons was found in Exuma and Long Island."

"The average Bahamian cannot afford to buy fish, which is the best choice, in spite of the fact that this is one of our industries," Dr. Hanna said.

Gender differences show that those two islands have the highest percentage of obese men (28 percent).

The greatest proportion of obese women was found on other Family Islands. Overall, New Providence and Grand Bahama had the lowest prevalence of obesity amongst island regions.

The story is equally discomforting as it relates to Bahamian children.

Local statisticians found that overall, 14 percent of the total sample of two to 10 year-olds was overweight, indicting the emergence of "chronic over nutrition." The survey also revealed that the proportion of children considered clinically obese was six times more than what was expected.

"The likelihood that these children will become overweight adults has daunting consequences for the long-term public health of the country," the survey pointed out.

According to Dr. Hanna, the chronic over nutrition in children is particularly because children are being reared on junk food.

"Children are allowed to eat any time. When children come home from school they go into the refrigerator and are allowed to drink Kool-aid and all those sugared drinks that put on a whole lot of weight," she said.

"And I think all of these things account for why we have such a big problem with obesity among kids. And we are seeing too that many of these children are starting to show chronic diseases at a very early age like diabetes."

Meantime, six percent of the sample survey of children was underweight.

As the survey sees it, both scenarios underscore the need to identify environmental risk factors – household food insecurity and poor nutritional practices.

Tensions in the worldwide Anglican Church are increasing “at an alarming rate” over issues of homosexuality, the head of the Anglican Church in The Bahamas His Grace Archbishop Drexel Gomez warned in his annual charge Monday night.

The Episcopal Church in the United States [ECUSA] and the arm in Canada have fiercely stood their ground about condoning homosexuality, though the former has offered regret. Anglican traditionalists - Archbishop Gomez included - remain opposed to it.

"As a province, we have to determine our future relationship with ECUSA and the province of Canada," Archbishop Gomez told a packed congregation at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Nassau.

"Our present official position is that we exist in a state of impaired relationship at the formal level with both provinces. However, if these provinces, through their convention or general synod, refuse to accept the prevailing Anglican consensus as represented by the Windsor Report, we will have to consider moving beyond a state of impaired communion."

Relations with other provinces who remain strenuously opposed to the actions taken by the U.S. and Canadian church will factor heavily in that decision, the archbishop explained.

Already, some African provinces and the Province of South East Asia have severed ties with the rogue churches. Their leaders at the last meeting of primates even refused to attend the Eucharist attended by their fellow primates in the U.S. and Canada.

In a decisive move, the Anglican Church in Nigeria reportedly changed its constitution and deleted all references last month to a relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury who heads the worldwide Anglican Church.

According to Archbishop Gomez, those tensions within the church have been further heightened by the passage of a new act in the United Kingdom that recognizes civil partnerships, inclusive of same sex partners.

The act provides for those couples to be recognized in various legal situations.

One local Anglican priest said, "It is very probable that there will be a split in the worldwide Anglican Church. It’s just a matter of time."

At least one of the business sessions of the 105th Session of Synod here was expected to address the issue. The matter will also be explored in depth during a forum next week in Egypt for Anglican dioceses in the south where most of the members of the Anglican Church reside.

The archbishop is heading a local delegation that represents the Province of the West Indies. Archdeacon James Palacious and Rev. Angela Palacious will accompany him.

Last October, a blue-ribbon panel was appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to study how the 77 million-member Anglican Communion can avoid a rift over homosexuality.

It acknowledged that the 2003 decision by the Episcopal Church of the U.S. to appoint and consecrate a bishop in a committed same sex relationship and a diocese of the Anglican Church of Canada blessing same sex unions led to major divisions.

At the meeting, an overwhelming majority of the bishops at the Lambeth Conference upheld the church’s traditional teaching on homosexuality as contrary to biblical teaching and contrary to God’s design in creation.

They urged their colleagues to express regret for their actions and ban any further consecrations of gay clergymen and the blessings of same sex unions.

But Archbishop Gomez reported this week that while the Episcopal Church in the U.S. has indicated a willingness to express regret for the repercussions that have emerged within the worldwide Anglican Church, it has not indicated regret for the action that precipitated it.

Additionally, in response to the call for a moratorium on the election and consent to consecrate any candidate to the episcopate who is living in a same gender union, the House of Bishops suspended all confirmations and consent to consecration until General Convention of June 2006.

"It is now abundantly clear that General Convention 2006 will prove to be a watershed event when the Episcopal Church will have to make some important decisions that will significantly impact the future growth and development of the Anglican Communion," he said.

He also said there are already indications that Canada will likely resist the consensus that was arrived at last year.

This week a top leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion who chaired the Lambeth Commission, Irish Anglican Archbishop Robin Eames, praised the U.S. church's efforts to avoid a church split.

But he also urged ECUSA to ponder the consequences of what it is doing because a schism "could quickly become a reality."

Much of the future depends on what happens at ECUSA's next General Convention in June 2006.

During 2000 through 2004, there were 546 rapes reported in The Bahamas, according to statistics contained in a new police report.

Out of these cases, the police said 49 involved victims who were visitors to The Bahamas. Hence, this amount represented approximately 9 percent of all rapes reported to the police during this time period.

The police said the number of tourist rape matters reached its highest point for the time period in 2002 and 2003. These years alone represented approximately 65 percent of all tourist rape matters for the time period.

However, the police said reported rapes against tourists have since been reduced by over half (56 percent) from 2002 to 2004.

Out of the 49 reported tourist rape cases, 41 or 84 percent, involved US citizens, according to the police report.

Hence, only about 7 percent of all reported rape cases in The Bahamas involved victims who were citizens of the United States. Police said reported rapes against US citizens have been drastically reduced by over 64 percent from 2002 to 2004.

An examination of the months when tourist rape matters occurred indicated that the highest number of cases occurred during March and April, according to the police.

"These months, as it is well known, are the ones in which colleges and universities across the world are typically closed for Spring Break," the police report said. "The months of March and April yielded the top two amounts of reported tourist rapes.

Combined, these two months accounted for over a third (37 percent) of all reported rape cases involving tourists. The third most popular was June, which accounted for about 13 percent of such cases.

This trend is similar for US rape victims, according to the police, who said almost half (41 percent) of reported rapes involving US victims occurred during these spring break months.

The police report also noted that the majority of the incidents happened on weekend days, particularly Saturday and Sunday.

It said over half (51 percent) of all tourist rape cases occurred on Saturday and Sunday while the remainder of the week displayed minimal occurrences. The US rape cases have a similar trend in terms of this observation, the report said.

According to the police, 71 percent of all rapes during the time period in question occurred during 12am and 8am. Hence, a significant amount (31 percent) of these incidents occurred late Friday night into early Saturday morning and late Saturday night into early Sunday morning.

"These periods are known to be the prime time for persons to attend popular nightspots in The Bahamas and indeed across the world," the police report said.

That report also said that an analysis of the various areas in The Bahamas where tourist rapes are reportedly occurring revealed that most take place in the vicinity of major hotels and downtown areas where tourists usually spend most of their time.

These areas, the report said, accounted for approximately 63 percent of all tourist rapes and 56 percent for US visitors.

The most popular location for US tourist rapes to occur was a hotel room, according to the analysis, which said this location represented well over a quarter (31 percent) of all US tourist rape locations during the time period.

Residential and beach areas were the second and third most common locations respectively and together accounted for 28 percent of all locations, the report said.

When analyzing exactly what the victim was doing moments before the incident, police said the most popular activity, as stated previously, was noted to be attending a local nightclub, the report added.

It said the "clubbing" category alone accounted for about 32 percent of rape victims’ activities prior to the incident.

The report said, "It is interesting to note than in 68 percent of US tourist rape incidents, the victim was intoxicated at the time [of the] altercation. Furthermore, approximately one third (33 percent) of these victims could not recall exactly what happened during the encounter when interviewed by investigators."

Additionally, it notes that about 93 percent of US rape victims had either met their assailant prior to or got to know them for the first time before the incident. Hence, only 7 percent of these cases involved a complete stranger raping a victim.

Moreover, the report said, about 68 percent of the US rape victims left with their assailants willingly without the use of threat of force.

The police said in their report that, "The Bahamas remains devoted in continuing efforts to bring all un-cleared sexual offenses against tourists, American or otherwise, to a successful closure.

"It is most certainly necessary for both governments to join in partnership and invest in preventative initiatives with a view to significantly attenuate the significant numbers of this and other heinous crimes committed against our valued tourists."

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