Health Watch

June is National Nutrition Month

‘Nutritious’ advertisements and malnourished kids

Nadira Gunatilleke

June is National Nutrition Month. We need nutrition to lead a healthy life free from sicknesses. We should know how to obtain the required nutrition. Here comes the most important fact - we should never get lured by various advertisements. If you follow their recommendations you will end up losing all your money without getting any nutrition at all.

Recently Health Deputy Minister Lalith Dissanayake said that some food and drug advertisements need to be regulated soon. Such food advertisements mislead the public, especially the parents of toddlers. Some milk powder advertisements claim that their products contain certain ingredients of breast milk which make mothers (who do not know the ingredients of breast milk) think that it is a better product.

Implementation of 100 percent school canteen policy has to be expedited to prevent school children from consuming junk food. The public need to be educated on nutrition and food, the Deputy Minister said.

Deputy Minister Dissanayake expressed these views at a recent seminar held at the Health Education Bureau to mark the National Nutrition Month. The ministry has successfully handled health issues that can be remedied through vaccination and medical treatment, but issues related to food and nutrition has yet to be solved. What is mostly required is an attitudinal change. “On television we never see popular sports stars eating green gram or green leaves but promote other edibles like sausages,” Minister Dissanayake added.

The Deputy Minister’s views are very timely. Though advertisements which show toddlers trying advanced mathematics are unrealistic, an ignorant parent may get lured by it. Amazingly enough, even some educated parents who are aware of the normal growth speed of an infant fall prey to these advertisements.

School canteens play a major role when it comes to children’s nutrition. At present, the government has introduced a school canteen policy but still there are school canteens which sell junk food, fast food and other food types which are not at all nutritious or healthy. This should be stopped. It is very hard for working mothers to prepare a nutritious meal for their children every day. They do it amidst other work and numerous difficulties, so they find it difficult to do it daily. Therefore, they tend to buy breakfast from pastry shops and other places. But a majority of children buy food from school canteens. All school canteens should sell nutritious food only.

Addressing the same seminar, MP Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle said that the infant milk powder racket has been going on for years using children’s brain development process. Only breast milk (mother’s milk) should be given to infants during the first six months in order to ensure their healthy growing.

Thereafter they should be given breast milk with some additional food. After one year, they should be given breast milk with several meals containing other food. No need of feeding them with milk powder at all. When a child drinks a big glass of milk made out of milk powder, they are full and the lack of appetite keeps them from consuming ‘other’ nutritious food. Because of this they end up not obtaining the required nutrition in their daily diet.

Dr. Fernandopulle pointed out that there is no decline in purchasing ability of Sri Lankan mothers at present. Mothers do not have required knowledge on food and nutrition. Nutritious food such as green leaves, sprats and green grams are not expensive at all. People spend more money on other things such as mobile phones, re-loading SIM cards and on others things than food.

This is because nobody sees what they eat but all see what they use. Around 80 percent of the infant’s brain develops during the first three years and this cannot be changed once they grow up. Therefore they should be given various nutritious foods and not one big glass of milk powder.

At least now, mothers should learn what is nutritious and what is not. Filling the infants tummy with milk made out of milk powder will not give required nutrition. It needs various nutritious foods in addition to breast milk. No point of taking loans and feeding your child with sausages. Pick some green leaves from your garden or buy from the fair, clean it well, add some red onions and feed your child. It will save your money and your child’s heath.

Nutrition for all - play your role

Nipuni Wimalapala

Health and Nutrition Ministry has declared June as the Month of Nutrition and countrywide awareness campaigns have been organized to mark its significance under the theme Nutrition for all - play your role. Daily News Health Watch interviewed Medical Research Institute Department of Nutrition Head Dr. Renuka Jayatissa who emphasized the importance of a nutritious diet in order to lead a healthy life.

“There are five main food categories which are essential for a healthy diet - cereal food, vegetables, fruits, milk and milk products, and protein rich foods. The main thing that we should concern about is, how to spread these food groups in our three meals,” Dr. Jayatissa stated.

As she mentioned, at least three of these food groups should be included in a meal and throughout the day we should take all five food groups which is the only way we can have sufficient quantity of proteins, fibres, vitamins and minerals which are the components of a balanced diet. “So everybody must remember that food plays a major role in our life and we should eat what we really need,” Dr. Jayatissa noted.

Dr. Jayatissa added that a normal healthy person requires only three meals per day and there is no need of taking extra meals unless a person is having some special health conditions. In today’s context people are very interested in taking multi vitamin capsules than eating healthy food. But it is obvious that having necessary food is the best way as it has many benefits. For example, if we eat fruits and vegetables we get fibre which helps absorb sugar, cholesterol and do bowel habits properly – so eating healthy food is more helpful than taking multivitamin capsules. But if a person is asked to get multivitamin capsules for any deficiency by a doctor, then that ‘particular’ person must get them.

“Variety of food does help one carry on a healthy life. In Sri Lanka there is no doubt that it is possible to get different types of vegetables, fruits and cereals without being framed into monotonous food patterns. No need to put a big effort to make the variety but it could be done automatically while doing shopping. You can buy small amounts of different foods without buying a large amount of one food,” Dr. Jayatissa mentioned.

“When it comes to children, it is very important that they should be given proper meals. Supplementary feeding can be started after six months and the best thing to give first is rice and can add one by one gradually. When we introduce a new food group to a child we must remember to give small amounts first, to see whether there are any allergies.

“Children are ‘small eaters’, so they need very small amount of food. Never force children to eat a large amount of food. Another significant factor is not to give food to children all the time because an interval is needed to digest what they eat – leading to them skipping their main meal.

So wait till they are hungry and give food, then food will become an interesting thing for them. Always try to prepare food in an attractive manner with different colors.

Children will love to eat them and children should give what they like also. Then only they will be good eaters.” Dr. Jayatissa said.

Stakeholders

According to Dr. Jayatissa it is a fact that there are so many stakeholders involved in the subject of nutrition. “I should mention that the Health Ministry cannot work alone to upgrade the nutrition condition of the country. There are so many stakeholders who directly or indirectly contribute to this and without their proper cooperation it is very hard to handle the situation. Everybody has a specific role to play. It is really necessary to make sure whether they are aware of their duties and whether they have identified the important steps that should be taken. This is what we do need to focus on this time,”

Other responsible ministries such as Agriculture Ministry, Livestocks Ministry and Fisheries Ministry too, have to undertake their duties to help uplift the nutrition condition of the country.

“Nutrition is a very complex area to work with. Where nutrition is considered, we cannot forget that there are different levels of economic capabilities among people -especially the poverty group, which needs special attention. To uplift their economic status, there are many poverty alleviation programmes such as the Samurdhi Programme implemented by the Government. It is clear that the Economic Development Ministry, Nation Building Ministry and many other ministries are there to work towards this,” she noted.

Complementary feeding practices

Dr. Jayatissa futher said, “We are willing to give something important to the society which will bring long-term benefits. One thing we have specifically noticed is most of the babies who are born perfectly healthy start reducing their good health condition after six months, no sooner the complementary feeding is started. Complementary feeding practices are not strong enough in Sri Lanka since there are a lot of useless beliefs and myths. It is a huge obstacle which we have to get rid of.”

As Dr. Jayatissa mentioned, “The critical period of growth of a baby is during the first two years where their brain growth occurs. Brain growth could be badly affected by wrong feeding practices which could result in many negative outcomes. This directly affects the longer term growth and it could result in malnutrition which is really difficult to reverse. To do so, there are a number of food items and combination of food which should be given in a very particular and perfect manner.”

“We hope to conduct a very important programme, totally focusing on complementary feeding practices. We have done an island wide research on this and are willing to give its benefits to the people. We will hold complementary feeding days on June 24 targeting to give a proper training to our medical officers, especially to the midwives who are very close to mothers as to how these problems can be identified and to advocate and counsel them. And the other important thing is to make people aware of it via media.

Media has to play a vital role. On the other hand we try to make people understand that the beliefs and myths of different communities are unnecessary and unrealistic. We hope to educate them on what should and should not be done,” concluded Dr. Jayatissa.

World confab on drowning prevention, Vietnam:

Dr Godakumbura speaks on Sri Lanka’s stand

The Second World Conference on Drowning Prevention was held in Danang, Vietnam recently. The Governor General and the Chief Justice of Australia were among the

dignitaries, and there were 400 delegates from 50 countries including representatives from WHO, UNICEF, Safe Kids and more. Consultant surgeon, Dr Wijaya Godakumbura, who is well known for his burn prevention activities made a presentation entitled ‘Drowning in a developing country in Asia: Its nature and the support that such countries need’.

He concluded his talk with the following words: “Those of us in Sri Lanka who are trying to prevent drowning would be grateful for any assistance that could be given to us”.

Drowning is a major global health hazard - it is referred to as the ‘silent killer’ because quite often the death occurs swiftly and silently. Over 90 percent of the deaths occur in developing countries where natural bodies of water like wells, rivers, lakes and the sea, account for the majority of the deaths whereas in developed countries it is children drowning in swimming pools. What is tragic in these catastrophes is the fact that children and young adults are often the victims.

Another feature is that, as in road accidents, alcohol plays a significant role in drowning among the youths in streams, lakes and the sea. Some die while trying to save a friend from drowning. People jump into water on impulse without any knowledge of rescue techniques and one death then becomes two or three!

In Sri Lanka, children drowning in unprotected wells and pits are not uncommon. According to the reports in one newspaper, four children had fallen into unprotected wells in February 2010 and three of them had died! Over 35,000 people died in the Tsunami of 2004 and 30 in the floods of last January and February.

It is now universally accepted that ‘swimming training’ prevents many of the drowning deaths. Similarly if people have a basic knowledge on resuscitation techniques – this could be done through TV programmes – it could be very handy because ‘Kiss of Life’ administered by bystanders prior to the arrival of trained staff has saved many lives.

The above is done in a large scale even in some countries in our region like Bangladesh and Vietnam. Swimming training is being done in Sri Lanka, but this activity needs to be promoted along with demonstration of the ‘Kiss of Life’ on TV if we are too reduce the number drowning in Sri Lanka appreciably, which now stands around 1100 per year or three every day.