The director of health says she is very surprised that when it comes to the health of the nation, we don’t do better.

Dr Henrietta Ewart said: ’You would expect the island to do better on most things than the England average which includes some pretty deprived areas like the industrial North West and North East. We don’t have deprivation like that.’

That begs the question - why are we similar to England on many indicators of public health, and in some cases worse?

Dr Ewart said: ’The big thing about stats is that they don’t give you the answers. They just tell you where to look.’

She said the reasons are societal, what she terms the ’obesogenic’ environment - with our busy lives these days we all tend to eat more and exercise less.

And she said obesity is a social division, with levels much higher in lower income groups.

Putting out a universal healthy eating, healthy life message can often serve to widen the division as it is often only those higher up the social spectrum that can afford to heed the advice.

A thousand calories of fruit and veg cost a lot more than a thousand calories of high salt, high fat convenience food.

Dr Ewart said it was important to change the environment so that the healthy lifestyle message becomes the default one.

She said one measure is the proposed sugar tax but there is a raft of other areas that need to be addressed such as ’buy one get one free’ promotions.

’And we have to put our own house in order,’ she said.

’When you walk into Noble’s and see what’s offered in the shop. There was no fruit there yesterday. The vending machines on the balcony are full of sweets.’

A national strategy for school meals is needed, she added.

And she suggested there are changes we can all do to increase our physical activity - getting the bus to work and getting off a couple of stops early and walking the rest of the way, and taking a stroll around the block at lunchtime.