THE MINISTRY of Health has appealed to persons in the fast food industry to offer more healthy choices to their customers in order to reduce the high incidence of lifestyle diseases in Jamaica.
Arlene Nicholson, Director of Health Promotions and Education in the Ministry of Health, said customers had limited choices at these fast food outlets, which began to spring up in the 1990s.
"We at the Ministry of Health realise that we have a lot of work to do in terms of working with the fast food industry and bringing about changes so that people will have those choices available to them," she said.
Miss Nicholson told JIS News that the Ministry of Health has been working with the industry through its series of health festivals of which the first was held in Ocho Rios, St. Ann in March, this year. A similar event is to be staged in Mandeville, Manchester in June.
She said that through the festivals, the Ministry has been trying to increase awareness among the population and has been working with fast food outlets to bring about changes in the choice of food offered.
Under the theme, 'Celebrating Health,' the festival in Mandeville is being staged with the aim of encouraging healthy eating among Jamaicans.
Some of the activities at the festival will include demonstrations on how to cook low fat and low sodium foods and also how to prepare low sugar desserts, as well as run/walk races for all ages, three-legged race, kick the ball and hola-hoop contests.
The festival will start at 10:00 a.m. at the Manchester High School.
"Behaviour change is hard. It is not only hard to get the fast food industry to change but it is also hard to get Jamaicans to change," Miss Nicholson said.
"We are not telling people not to salt or season their food but what we are telling them is that they need to cut back, because we are seeing the effects of a large number of people now eating high in fat and high in calorie foods," she said.
Miss Nicholson pointed out that the Government needed to address the issue of healthy eating as it was costing the country. She said that in 1999 the Ministry spent more than $2.1 billion treating lifestyle diseases. "If we continue to do that as a country, we are going to end up bankrupt and we are losing our resources (people). Coronary heart disease is one of our biggest killers in Jamaica," she said.
