Healthfest to introduce healthy food

By Anuradha Kodagoda

What is healthy living? Healthy living is about knowing the risks around us and carefully taking note to minimise encountering those risks that will cause harm to our health. Some of these risks are experienced by us through what we eat and drink, active and passive smoking, taking alcohol and occupational settings that do not promote physical activity.

Many of us are constantly facing these risks. It is important to know what and how these will harm us. Today many Sri Lankans are facing the problem of having to live with diabetes, high blood pressure and heart diseases. Some have experienced stroke and are disabled. It is known that approximately 13 percent of the population is diabetic and a higher percentage have high blood pressure.

If you to count the number of people you know who are affected by diseases of this type known as non-communicable diseases, you will realise that almost every family is affected. Once a person gets effected they have to take lifelong medication. Sometimes diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease can co-exist which makes continued medication a costly burden to families.

Here are few stories to understand the high risk situation that most of us are facing due to today's unhealthy lifestyle.

Nilanthi is a 16-year-old. Both her mother and father are diabetic. She had heard that she can delay getting diabetes if she reduces her sugar intake and maintains the ideal body weight for her height. Her mother gives her sandwiches and patties for her school snack. Rarely does she give her a rice meal with vegetables. Although Nilanthi's mother is diabetic she does not know that the condition is likely to affect her daughter and that giving her daughter a healthy meal is important.

Sampath is 30 years old and travels to work early in the morning. His family has no time to cook his breakfast leave alone lunch. So he has to depend on buying what is available close to his workplace. Which are two fast-food outlets, which have only short-eats in the morning. So he has to choose between buns, bread rolls, patties, Chinese rolls and pastries. As he is becoming overweight he avoids the Chinese rolls and pastries and has no other option but to go for the buns and bread rolls.

Do you know that it is a scientifically proven fact that a person can live with no added sugar at all because the starch that we consume in our diet gets converted to sugars inside our body. So it is important to be aware of the amount of sugar that is found in different types of sweets and drinks that we consume. At least we can consciously avoid or reduce the daily amount that take in.

What about fat in our diet? This is yet another risk factor that could be reduced. Although we can burn fat with exercise many of us not able to burn what is excessively consumed. So maintaining the ideal body weight to our height is important. One method is to measure waist size. Females should maintain a waist below 80 cm and for males the value is 90cm. So it is not everyone who needs to restrict fat. But it is always advisable to know which food contains more fat than others so that we can control what we consume. Fats are also classified into different types that make either good or bad cholesterol.

The College of Community Physicians Sri Lanka is the premier professional body that looks after the public health in Sri Lanka. The College has about 350 public health professionals in different areas of public health. It is important that a concerted effort be taken to overcome the problem that the country if facing regarding non communicable diseases. The College has embarked on an accelerated mission to mobilise different sectors of the public in giving them the right knowledge to make the right choice. The College of Community Physicians also expects manufactures to recognise the need to change and produce healthy options.

"We called about 20 catering agencies at the beginning. Only 6 responded. We had a three hour meeting with them. Thereafter we developed a brief guide and shared this with all including those who did not participate. Now we are following up and inviting participation at Healthfest. We also sent and informed them that they should include their healthier range in their price lists," said the President of CCPSL, Dr. Susie Perera. "The catering industry generally responds to people's wants and needs. In this case they do not feel that people want healthier snacks and foods. It is also because people don't know that caters could produce healthy food item. The College of Community Physicians is trying to break that vicious cycle by getting them to make healthy food. This is what will take place at the Healthfest. People will experience the taster and healthier eats

"that caterers have produced, Dr. Perera said.

"We are also planning to introduce the caterers who have made this change and have healthier snacks to the corporate and public sector organisations so that they have a place to sell the healthier stuff. There are leading food manufacturers who have favourably responded to our project, namely Barista, Sensal, Perera & Sons, Udumbara, Jayasiri Caterers, Mitsy Caterers and Indrani Fernando Caterers. "Hilton Hotel is also taking part and will produce healthier kottu at the Healthfest. There will be a consultation between the Hilton Chefs and the College of Community Physicians, in particular the nutrition experts where the recipes will be discussed in details Dr. Perera said.

We appreciate those who have responded as they have understood their responsibility towards the people and we hope this event may open new avenues for the people to think out of the box and be conscious about their health and well-being," she concluded.