Minister urges public to cultivate healthier eating habits to reduce NCDs

– at launch of Shade House Vegetable Garden and Mini Fruit Farm

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony has urged citizens to cultivate better eating habits and to adopt a healthier lifestyle, at the launch of the Shade House Vegetable Garden and Mini Fruit Farm at the Cheshire Homes on Saturday.

The project, initiated and executed by the Rotary Club of Garden City (Georgetown) in collaboration with Rotary District 7030, was done to reduce the food bill at the Homes and to provide more nutrient-rich foods to residents.

Minister Anthony said the simple but significant project can be replicated throughout the country to help reduce cases of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). He added that many forms of NCDs can be traced back to inactivity and poor nutrition.

“When we look at persons and how much they walk and exercise and so forth, that has been reduced. And I wouldn’t challenge anybody here today to ask how many of you have done 30 minutes of exercise for the day.

The Centre for Disease Control has advised that everyone should do at least 30 minutes of exercise every day, so that you can stay healthy. Most persons don’t do it. And so over time, you will have all kinds of other problems that develop within your body. And those can lead to chronic non-communicable diseases.”

Dr. Anthony added that this project can foster long-term change in the local diet.

“So, this project, if it works as is envisaged would help to shift that balance to make sure that we’re having a healthy meal, or a balanced meal. And I think that is really, really, important. The Ministry has been paying attention to the whole question of chronic non-communicable diseases.

We know that it’s among the top 10 diseases that we have in the country. And while our focus and our attention has been on COVID-19 which is an infectious disease, when we get over COVID-19; we will turn back and you’ll see that the causes of the chronic non-communicable diseases will be still there, unless we are prepared to have attitudinal and behavioural changes.”

Minister Anthony said studies done by the International Diabetic Federation revealed that approximately 60,000 persons in Guyana are affected by diabetes.

Later this year, the Ministry will launch a programme in collaboration with the Pan American Organization (PAHO) called ‘Hearts’ to try and get persons to reduce their sodium intake.   

Meanwhile, the Minister also took the opportunity to encourage Guyanese who have not yet been vaccinated against Covid to protect themselves and their families from the deadly disease. He said to date, over 209,000 persons have taken their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 70,000 or so have been fully vaccinated.

“Right now, we have close to 100 persons in hospital, and none of those persons have been vaccinated. And as we speak, we have about 19 persons in the ICU, who are now fighting for their life because you know, they have the most severe form of Covid.

So, we can prevent this. We can prevent this if we encourage more people to take their vaccinations.”  

However, overall, he said the vaccination campaign has been well received.