WE ARE REASONABLY SURE that not every child who attends the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) School comes from a home that holds religiously to every principle of the faith. Yet, those who are responsible for the serving of meals at the school have been able to achieve considerable success in leading the students to eat healthy.
We know that one of the things the SDA church encourages its members to do is avoid the consumption of meats, particularly pork. We are not advocating the wholesale abandonment of animal products, and only make reference to that denomination to make the point that healthy eating is not as difficult as some would have us believe.
Many of our adults practise unhealthy habits because these habits, in many instances, were ingrained from youth. Many cannot “enjoy” a meal unless a “sweet drink (carbonated soft drinks)” is involved because they have been doing it from their youth.
Barbadians have an apparently insatiable appetite for macaroni pie because it has taken over from cou cou and flying fish as the national dish – that is, if we judge from the frequency with which it is prepared in so many of our homes.
Recently, chairman of the Commission on Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases, Sir Trevor Hassell, called for a ban on the sale of all sweet drinks at schools. We support this stance, not because we want to put the manufacturers out of business, but because there is an absolutely urgent need for the country to deal with the spiralling cost of treating citizens who suffer from these lifestyle diseases.
The supervisor in the canteen at the Seventh-Day Adventist School, Carolyn Eversley, was quoted in the SUNDAY SUN as stating that absolutely no sweet drinks were sold there as part of an exercise to encourage students to consume healthy meals.
“For drinks we sell natural juices according to what fruits are in season – like golden apples, lemonade, tamarind, passion fruit or guava,” she said.
In the grand scheme of things, in our school system the SDA is a small player, numbers wise. Just imagine the strides we would have made if we opened 2017 with the resolve not to sell any sweet drinks in any public secondary or primary school here. Not only would this translate into a much more healthy country, but it would also spur fresh industries in the cultivation of fruits and the production of juices – a spin-off economic benefit.
The only reason there is such a high consumption of these sugary drinks in our schools is because they are available, and we have fed our children in such a way as to create an appetite for them. Take away the availability and half the problem is immediately solved.
But sweet drinks are just the tip of the iceberg. For years we have been warned about the negative impact of snacks and junk food with certain dyes and other ingredients on the behaviour of children, but we have paid little attention. Still our school canteens and vendors who are allowed to operate on school property, and can peddle whatever makes money for them with not a hint of regulation beyond the vendor’s licence.
In fact, we have even had complaints from some parents in recent years that some teachers and school administrators have joined the unhealthy bandwagon, selling any sweet that will attract the children, in the name of fund-raising.
Ensuring that the school has an adequate stock of supplies, and that children can participate in tours and other extra-curricular activities is commendable, but it should not occur at the expense of the health of our children and to the detriment of our national health budget.
On this issue, a lot of us can take a leaf from the book of the folks at the Seventh-Day Adventist School.
