Transcript Front - Lesotho CSA

EATING WELL
Eating healthy and wise
Home Gardening and Nutrition Training Material
1. A balanced and diverse diet
Having a balanced and diverse diet:
– keeps our bodies and minds healthy,
– gives the body energy to function well and be
active,
– helps the body to fight infections and illness,
– helps children to develop to their full potential,
– contributes to safer pregnancy and child birth.
1. A balanced and diverse diet
• A healthy diet includes a variety of foods from different
groups.
• Too much as well as too little food is bad for our body.
A healthy balanced
diet has the right
proportions of good
quality foods, as
shown in the figure:
1. A balanced and diverse diet
Staples:
Should be the biggest portion on the
plate and the main component of your
diet.
They provide energy and help our body
grow and repair.
Vegetables and fruits:
Should represent around 1/3 of the
plate. Have plenty of them – as
snacks between meals for example.
They protect our body against illness.
1. A balanced and diverse diet
Animal foods and legumes:
Should be a smaller portion of the
plate. They enable our body to grow
and repair.
Every day, one should have at least
ONE of them.
Fats and oils:
Should form a small part of the plate (e.g. 3-4
tbs per day per person).
They provide energy and improve protective
function of vegetables.
1. A balanced and diverse diet
Why drinking safe water?
– Water is needed for digestion and
absorption.
– Dirty water can carry diseases (e.g.
diarrhoea), malnutrition and mortality.
Each person needs to drink
8 glasses of safe water a day.
2. Food preservation
• Why preserving food?
– To have food products available when they are
out of season or in short supply
– To help ensuring a diversity of nutrients
• How to preserve food?
– Bottling, drying, or freezing
3. Special needs
3. a. Mother and child feeding
Healthy eating for women is crucial
especially:
- During pregnancy
- When breastfeeding
- When feeding a young child
Proper feeding enables:
- The mother to feel well and active.
- Making birth easier.
- Proper growth and development of the child.
- Helping the mother to breastfeed the baby successfully.
3. a. Mother and child feeding
Pregnant women:
- Eat extra nutritious snacks during the day.
- Take iron and folic acid tablets prescribed
at the health centre.
- Attend ante-natal clinics as instructed by
the health personnel.
Breastfeeding mothers:
- Eat a little more at each meal/have
smaller frequent meals.
- Eat nutritious snacks between meals.
- Take vitamin A capsules.
- Attend post-natal clinics.
3. a. Mother and child feeding
Feeding babies aged 0–6 months:
- Exclusive breastfeeding for babies
under 6 months of age.
- Attend health centre monthly for
growth monitoring.
Feeding Children over 6 months:
- Breastfeeding until 2 years old
highly recommended.
- From 6 months old, give
complementary foods in addition to
breastfeeding.
3. a. Mother and child feeding
Feeding the babies of HIV-infected mothers
• HIV-infected mothers on ART should:
- adhere to medication
- breastfeed exclusively their babies
under 6 months
- introduce complementary foods when
the child is 6 months
- continue to breastfeed until the child
is 12 months.
• After 12 months of age, breastfeeding should stop
ONLY once a nutritionally adequate and safe diet
without the breast milk can be provided to the infant.
3. b. Preventing malnutrition
Children are at risk of malnutrition when they:
– Are not eating the right foods in quantity,
quality and diversity.
– Suffer from diseases (e.g. diarrhoea) or
infections (e.g. hookworms, HIV/AIDS).
The risk of malnutrition is high for children, especially
from 6 months to 2 years old, when breast milk is no
longer enough for the growth and development of babies.
This is a critical time for growth monitoring.
Malnutrition can be prevented with: a diverse, balanced
diet and good hygiene practices.
3. c. The elderly
Elderly people need to eat well to stay
healthy. Prioritize: - Dairy
- Fruits and vegetables
- Water
!
Elderly may lose appetite and have more difficulty to chew.
Bear this in mind when preparing the meals.
3. d. Obesity
Overweight can be caused by eating too
much of staple foods, fats or sugar.
Consequences can be:
- Diabetes
- Less energy
- Heart diseases
- Less endurance
- High blood pressure