Today I taught students in Varansi (located just outside the end of Nadi Town) about nutrition labeling and healthy foods. I haven't taught kid's since working at a computer camp as a teenager, but my love for kids and education has always been strong.
Fiji's Guide to Healthy Eating is based on three food groups: Body Building (protein), Energy giving foods (carbohydrates), and healthy foods (fruits and vegetables). As with the Canadian Food Guide, Fiji promotes eating a variety of foods from each group (colour on your plate is good) and less fats, such as butter and ghee. This guide reminds me of the South Asian culture specific guides I used to see in Canada, which included roti and lentils (dhal).
In addition to teaching children about the food groups and nutrition labeling, I emphasized the importance of portion sizes and the plate method. The plate method depicts half your plate from the Health Group, and a third from Energy and Body Building. From my experience, common Fijian meals include delicious root vegetables such as dalo (taro), sweet potatoes, cassava, in addition to rice and sometimes roti. While these foods are all delicious, they all come from one food group, Energy. I was surprised when I found out that cassava contains double the calories as the same weight of potatoes. This was hard to digest, considering some meals contain cassava, potatoes, and rice. All the extra calories from the Energy group really added up, with little to no room for foods from the Healthy group. While teaching students and meeting with the public everyday, my personal goal was always to encourage various ways to use the amazing vegetable and fruit gardens they had. I'm not entirely sure if I was successful, but I did see a few 'ah-ha' moments in the eyes of the people I connected with and I hope that was the start of something amazing.
