With the common agenda of encouraging healthier eating to reduce cases of obesity and chronic diseases such as diabetes, the Seychelles Centennial Women Lions Club collaborated with the nutrition unit of the Ministry of Health to produce a new healthy recipe book.
The ‘Healthy Desires’ recipe book contains 17 healthy and nutritional recipes that are easy and cost-effective to the average person in Seychelles. These include recipes for salads, soups, smoothies, breakfast and meals.
Its production follows the official launch of the Seychelles’ dietary guidelines earlier this year that emphasise on consuming more fruits and vegetables and less processed foods full of salt and sugar.
Around 300 copies of the book have been printed by the Seychelles Centennial Women Lions Club with funding from a generous donor, Vijay Patel, while the nutrition unit provided technical assistance and guidance.
Ruth Mohotti, Women Lions Club’s former president and one of the initiators of the project, officially handed over all 300 copies of the book to principal nutritionist Stephanie Desnousse during a brief ceremony yesterday.
The Lions Club’s Diabetes District Officer for District 411A, Dr Sasikumar, and the programme manager for diabetes prevention at the Ministry of Health, Julita William, were also presented with a copy of the book.
Ms Mohotti explained that the Women’s Lions Club and the nutrition unit have been conceptualising and working on the recipe book for the past year.
“Upon my appointment as president last year, one of the things I wanted to focus on was sustainable projects. Not just simple activities for the sake of service but activities and true service that could be used for years and years to come,” Ms Mohotti noted.
She further explained that although there are a lot of recipe books out there, ‘Healthy Desires’ is unique because it takes into account the specificities of Seychelles, with easy-to-access and affordable ingredients, instead of healthy ingredients that are hard to come by or are expensive such as flaxseeds, blueberries and so on.
“Most of the books we buy have a lot of ingredients we cannot purchase locally or if they are available they are usually expensive and the average person cannot afford to purchase them. So instead we compiled a set of recipes that include a lot of ingredients that are grown locally. This makes the recipes less daunting to make,” Ms Mohotti added.
On her part, Ms Desnousse stated that the books will be an additional resource to educate patients and clients of the nutrition unit.
“Although the books focus somewhat on diabetes, the recipes included in the book targets the entire family. Patients with diabetes do not have a special diet to follow; they receive the same recommendations as the rest of the population – that is, a balanced and healthy diet. We wanted recipes that were healthy with ingredients that anyone could get a hold of,” Ms Desnousse stated.
“We are also hoping that the book gives people more ideas on healthy recipes they could develop on their own.”
Ms Desnousse remarked that statistics have shown that there are a significant number of overweight and obese people in the country, both among children and adults, and the nutrition unit has observed deterioration in the types of food Seychellois tend to consume.
“Our unit receives a lot of referrals from doctors and nurses in community health centres as well as specialists who refer patients to us because of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and we feel that there is a lack of education or awareness on healthier options available out there,” Ms Desnousse added.
Accompanying the article is a recipe for frittata taken from the ‘Healthy Desires’ book.
Source: Seychelles Nation