Childhood obesity in Barbados hits 42%: the fight over school food

Four in ten children overweight or obese

Childhood obesity in Barbados is rising faster than the policies meant to stop it. On 16 April 2026, at a media conference of the Barbados Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition, Dr. Madhuvanti Murphy, senior lecturer at the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre, presented WHO data showing that the proportion of Barbadian youth aged 5 to 19 who were overweight or obese rose from 33% to 42% between 2012 and 2022²³. Senator Dr. Kenneth Connell, president of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, wrote in June that the rate had climbed from less than 5% in 1981 to over 30% by the early 2000s and is now "more than double the global average of approximately 20%"⁴.

The global picture explains the alarm. WHO estimates that in 2024, 400 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 were overweight, 170 million of them with obesity¹⁰, and the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration's pooled analysis of 3,663 population studies documents the rise in obesity among children and adults from 1990 to 2022¹¹.

A minister's warning to business

In October a minister took up the issue. Speaking at the media launch of the Barbados School Nutrition Policy Recognition Awards, reported on 22 October 2026, Education Transformation Minister Chad Blackman described childhood obesity levels as "scary and staggering", said 42% of children are now overweight or obese, up from 31% in 2017, and spoke of his own history: "I was obese. That's a fact"¹. Warning that branded items such as pencil cases and sharpeners send children harmful messages, he had a direct message for businesses:"You really ought not to be courting or trying to have activities that go against the policy"¹.

The School Nutrition Policy: voluntary or law?

Barbados launched its National School Nutrition Policy in 2023³. Advocates say it is not enough as written. Dr. Murphy said such policies work best when enforced and audited: "they need to be mandatory"³, and the coalition asked the government to "legislate the School Nutrition Policy with urgency"². Senator Connell put it bluntly: "policy without enforcement is ineffective"⁴. Days after the coalition's conference, government, health officials and vendors met to discuss "how to strike a balance between promoting healthy choices and protecting livelihoods"⁶, a tension the coalition has acknowledged since at least January 2023, when its chair, Dr. Kia Lewis, said it was not the intention of her organisation to put vendors out of work⁷.

From 10 June to 7 July 2026, the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados ran a campaign titled "Enough. If it harms our children's health, it must be regulated.", with PAHO, UNICEF, the Healthy Caribbean Coalition and the coalition as partners, targeting the marketing of unhealthy food and drinks in and around schools; the Foundation said this marketing continues even though the 2023 policy removed unhealthy products from schools⁵.

What Barbados has already tried

• A sugar tax. Barbados introduced a 10% tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in 2015 and Prime Minister Mia Mottley raised it to 20% from 1 April 2022; PAHO estimated a 20% tax would cut demand for sugary drinks by 24%⁸.
• Public support. A November 2018 survey for the Heart & Stroke Foundation found 88% of Barbadians concerned about obesity in children and 92% supporting a national healthy school policy⁹.
• Rising costs. On 31 October 2026, the Prime Minister said the government is finding it increasingly difficult to meet rising demand for services such as dialysis and eye-complication treatment, and called for a stronger response to diabetes and obesity¹⁴.

What it means for physicians in Barbados

For clinicians, the 42% figure is a forecast of the adult caseload of the 2030s and 2040s. Medication is not the main tool for children. WHO's December 2025 guideline on GLP-1 therapies is limited to adults (excluding pregnant women), and even for adults it is a conditional recommendation¹². In adolescents, the STEP TEENS trial found that semaglutide plus lifestyle intervention reduced BMI by 16.1% versus a 0.6% increase with placebo at 68 weeks, but gastrointestinal adverse events were more frequent (62% vs. 42%) and 4% of the semaglutide group developed cholelithiasis¹³. For most Barbadian children, the levers remain what they eat at school, what is marketed to them and what their families can afford.