World Obesity Day is an annual event, held on 4th March, that aims to raise awareness of the growing epidemic of obesity worldwide. This year’s theme is “Changing Perspectives: Let’s Talk About Obesity.” It’s an opportunity to shift the conversation about obesity from one of blame and shame to one of understanding and action.
Obesity is a complex issue with multiple causes, including genetics, environment, and behaviour. It’s a major risk factor for developing non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer. These diseases are a significant public health challenge in St Kitts and Nevis where over 80% of deaths and illnesses are due to these conditions.
By talking about obesity, we can inspire the change needed across society to tackle obesity and NCDs. It’s time to move beyond stigmatising individuals for their weight and instead focus on creating environments that support healthy choices. One essential way to do this is for policymakers to introduce national action plans for addressing obesity that include evidence-based healthy food policies.
One such policy is the introduction of a sugar-sweetened beverage tax. Sugary drinks are a major contributor to obesity and NCDs, and a tax on these drinks has been shown to reduce consumption. The revenue from the tax can also be used to fund health initiatives or to subsidize healthy foods, making them more accessible to everyone.
Another policy is front-of-package warning labels. These labels provide clear and easy-to-understand information about the nutritional value of a food or drink product. They are effective in helping consumers make healthier choices and avoiding products that are high in sugar, salt, and fat.
A national school nutrition policy is also crucial. Schools are an essential setting for promoting healthy eating habits, and a national policy can ensure that all schools provide healthy food options for students. This policy can include guidelines for the nutritional content of meals, as well as standards for the marketing and promotion of unhealthy foods and drinks in and around schools.
By changing our perspectives and focusing on creating environments that support healthy choices, we can tackle obesity and NCDs. It’s time for policymakers to take action and introduce evidence-based healthy food policies like those listed above.
In conclusion, World Obesity Day creates the perfect opportunity to shift the conversation about obesity from one of blame and shame to one of understanding and action. It’s time to move beyond stigmatising individuals for their weight and instead focus on creating environments that support healthy choices. By introducing evidence-based healthy food policies like a sugar-sweetened beverage tax, front-of-package warning labels, a national school nutrition policy and restricting the sale and marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks in and around schools, we can create a healthier, happier society for ourselves and future generations.
On 31st January 2023, Lake health and Wellbeing in partnership with the ICDF and the Ministry of Education’s Curriculum Development Unit launched a short animation, ‘Just Eat Me Fresh.
The animation was developed as part of our efforts to tackle the high rate of childhood obesity which is a major public health issue in the Caribbean with 1 in 3 children being overweight or obese. The rate of childhood obesity in the Caribbean is higher than the global average and is reported to be on the rise.
Childhood obesity is a significant challenge here in St Kitts and Nevis. A PAHO report revealed that 33% of secondary school children in the twin-island state were overweight and 14% were obese. More recently, in 2017, a UNICEF report published that 26% of children in St Kitts and Nevis are obese.
Data has demonstrated that NCDs are becoming an epidemic in the Federation with over 80% of illnesses and deaths in St Kitts and Nevis being due to these conditions. We must do something about this to prevent our citizens from dying prematurely and one approach is to tackle childhood obesity.
To combat childhood obesity, we have to ensure that children adopt a healthy lifestyle, and we also have to create a healthy environment at schools, in homes and within society so that children can make healthy choices.
Our animation, Just Eat Me Fresh, aims to promote a culture of healthy snacking by encouraging children and their parents to opt for fresh fruits and vegetables as snacks rather than ultra-processed, unhealthy snacks that are high in sugar, salt and saturated fat. This animation can be used in the school environment, at home and in the community to educate young people on the importance of adopting healthy behaviours.
Just Eat Me Fresh forms part of a set of resources that we have started to create which falls under our My Healthy Heroes programme, through this work we’re aiming to create engaging resources to support teaching children about healthy eating.
To find out more about this work and how you can use this animation in your school, you can email us
Launch Event
We had a great time at the launch event which featured a special performance of the animation’s song and dance by grade 3 students of the Seventh Day Adventist Church as well as speeches and presentations by:
Dr Hon Geoffrey Hanley, the Deputy Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis and the Minister of Education, Youth, Social Development, Gender Affairs, Aging and Disabilities
Ambassador, His Excellency Michael Chau-Hong Lin, Resident Ambassador, Republic of China (Taiwan)
Mrs Maisha Hutton, the Executive Director, of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition
Ms Michelle Sutton, Health and Wellness Coordinator, Ministry of Education
Mr Will Chen, Project Manager, Chronic Metabolic Disease Programme, the Taiwan Technical Mission
You can watch a recording of the launch event below.
Every year, the 4th March is set aside as World Obesity Day and this year the theme was ‘Everybody Needs to Act.’
Obesity is defined by the World Health Organisation as ‘abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health.’ Today, obesity is one of the major global health challenges that we face with 800 million people across the world being affected. Those affected by obesity are at an increased risk of developing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease and hypertension and it can also negatively impact mental health. Additionally, obesity itself is seen as a non-communicable disease.
The cause of obesity is multi-faceted and complex. A variety of factors such as genetic risk, biology, an unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, mental health and the environment all contribute to the development of obesity. Therefore, to tackle obesity a comprehensive, all-of-society approach is required i.e. ‘Everybody Needs to Act’
In St. Kitts and Nevis, we have not escaped the reach of obesity. Like many Caribbean countries our obesity rates are high and one of the highest in the world. Research has shown that 45% of adults and 26% of children in St Kitts and Nevis are obese, and this is contributing to the high rate of NCDs in the Federation. Sadly, data shows that NCDs contribute to 63% of deaths in St Kitts and Nevis and 83% of hospitalisations. To improve the health of our nation action is required and, therefore, on World Obesity Day, led by the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, we joined civil society organisations from across the region to call on Caribbean leaders to introduce evidence-based healthy food policies. These include:
Front of package warning labels which easily alert consumers to foods that are high in salt, sugar, saturated fat and trans fat
A tax of at least 20% on sugar-sweetened beverages to deter the purchase of these drinks
The restriction of the sale and marketing of unhealthy foods in and around schools
These policies have been shown to facilitate healthy behaviours and contribute to the creation of a healthy food environment, in short, these policies make it easy for the public to be healthy.
Also, as part of World Obesity Day, we hosted a childhood obesity webinar entitled ‘Community-Based Approaches to Tackling Childhood Obesity.’ This webinar aimed to showcase the work of CSOs in St Kitts and Nevis and explore the lessons we can learn from these efforts. Featured in this webinar were:
Lessons Learnt from Nevis Academy’s No Sugar Challenge – Dr Andrea Bussue, Principal of the Nevis Academy Primary school
Improving the health of children through medical education – Ifeanyi Ndukwu, President, Because We Care
Rotarians Tackling Childhood Obesity – Dominic Matthew, Rotary Club of Liamuiga
Nutrition for School-Aged Children – Renell Daniel, Public Health Nutritionist
Lessons Learnt from the Diabetic Screening of School Children – Dr Reginald O’Loughlin, Public Relations Officer, St Kitts Diabetes Association
Advocating for Evidence-Based Health Policies, Isalean Phillip, Advocacy Officer, Lake Health and Wellbeing
This was a very informative event that highlighted the important role that civil society plays in tackling important public health issues. If you missed this event, you can watch the recording below.
On 22nd March, we joined our partners from the Ministry of Health to launch our You’re Sweet Enough campaign.
This 9-month campaign aims to raise awareness of the harmful health effects of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and encourage everyone to drink water as the healthy alternative.
Speakers at this event included Isalean Phillip, our Advocacy and Research Officer and Dr Marissa Carty, the NCD Coordinator at the Ministry of Health.
Isalean Phillip started the event by highlighting that non-communicable diseases are the leading cause of death in St Kitts and Nevis with 83% of deaths being attributed to these conditions. Ms Phillips also explained that driving the development of non-communicable diseases is the high rate of obesity in the Federation. Therefore, this campaign focuses on one cause of obesity, the overconsumption of SSBs. Ms Phillip went on to explain that regular consumption of sugary drinks is found to be linked to weight gain and obesity, and this increases our risk of developing diseases like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and some cancers.
Isalean Phillip, Advocacy and Research Officer, Lake Health and Wellbeing
Dr Marissa Carty, the NCD Coordinator at the Ministry of Health, then provided some remarks and stated that the Ministry recognises the urgent need to protect the health of the nation and one important approach is to reduce the public’s consumption of SSBs. She went on to voice her disappointment at “the deceptive and manipulative marketing of SSBs to vulnerable communities and demographics such as children, youth and young adults” and described some of the measures that are required to reduce SSB consumption – an SSB tax adequate nutrition labelling of SSBs and evidence-based information about the harmful effects of SSBs.
Dr Marissa Carty, NCD Coordinator, Ministry of Health
The event ended with the official launch of the campaign materials by Abi Begho, Lake Health and Wellbeing’s Director. Mrs Begho showcased the campaign jingle (with vocals provided by local artist Dejour), billboards, the first educational animation and community leader video.
Abi Begho, Director, Lake Health and Wellbeing
We had a great time at our launch event and are very much looking forward to making a difference through this campaign. You can visit the campaign website to find out more and to be kept up-to-date.
We love listening to podcasts as we are able to access in-depth stories and analysis of important topical issues. We especially like listening to podcasts that cover public health topics as it gives us rare insight directly from the researchers, policymakers and NGOs working out in the community to improve the public’s health. With that said, a couple of weeks ago, the BBC’s The Documentary Podcast released an episode on the obesity crisis amongst Buddhist monks in Thailand. This is a public health crisis that we weren’t aware of and so we found this be a remarkably interesting episode. In this episode, we heard of all the factors that have led to this crisis and how an age-old, well-intentioned custom of offering food to monks has been corrupted by modern-day habits leading to this current obesity crisis.
Historically, the giving and receiving of alms between monks and their local community were of significant benefit. The community would take care of the physical health of monks by preparing healthy, home-cooked meals and in return, the monks would take care of the spiritual health of their community. With communities getting more affluent and many people working long hours, the public no longer has time to cook for monks and instead buy foods that are high in fat and sugar. Combining this with the fact that monks are not meeting the recommended amounts of physical activity has meant that 1 in 2 Thai monks are now obese and this puts them at a high risk of developing non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
Overall, researchers in Thailand identified four main factors leading to the high prevalence of obesity in monks:
An unhealthy diet
High consumption of sugary drinks
Loose-fitting robes, which means monks are gaining weight without realising it
Physical inactivity.
This podcast episode also explored the work the Thai Government is doing to address this problem through special clinics for monks and the Healthy Monks, Healthy Nutrition Project which has developed specific solutions for monks. One creative approach to tackling this crisis was the development of a smart belt to create a trigger for weight gain to alert monks that they are gaining weight.
This was a very interesting story that highlights the dangers of diets that are high in sugar, salt and fat as well as being physically inactive. We hope that Thailand will be successful in managing this crisis.
You can listen to the podcast episode here where you’ll hear from researchers, monks and members of the public to gain a full understanding of how the crisis started and the steps being taken to address this issue.
Today’s blog post comes from Deji Ajose-Adeogun. Deji shares his 20-year battle with weight loss and explains how a recent change in mindset gave him the motivation and discipline to succeed in his quest to lose weight.
I have been dealing with being overweight since I left college. I never thought about what I was eating when I was younger because I was extremely active, so my eating was never an issue. Hours playing sports and lots of activity kept my weight in check. Well, as college finished and I proceeded out into the real world and got a job, my physical activity levels decreased drastically, but my way of eating did not change. So, I was eating more calories than I was burning. The math meant that I was going to gain weight. The pounds kept creeping up until last year when I topped out somewhere between 285-295 pounds. My clothes were not fitting me. Can you imagine that I left for college at 180 pounds, then I dropped to 165 in my first year of college. This was partly due to all the walking because that was the only mode of transportation and campus food was ok. Over the years, I have tried to lose weight. It has been like a yoyo, up one minute, down the next. This has been a battle for the last 20 years and it needs to end.
This is how the cycle has been. I joined the gym about 18 years ago, which I have been to on and off. One minute I am heavy with the gym, another minute I am not. In my 20’s it was easy to drop the weight, and it has also been a battle of the wits. When you lose that weight you start to feel good and like you can take on the world. Then you feel you can control it, and start back to old eating habits because I am lighter, next thing you know you are back up in weight again. Mind you, I thought I had it all under control. This is how the yoyo diet works. Your eating habits are only temporary until the weight is off. This is what it has been like for about 20 years. Then one day you say, “I give up” you start putting on weight, you get discouraged, you drown yourself in more food. It becomes self-defeating. I have been on cholesterol medication and blood pressure medicine. My doctor said I really need to do something about this so I am not on this medication for the rest of my life. I am not sure when it struck me. Was it my mom’s health situation and her passing in 2019? It might have been, but I knew that I had to deal with this immediately. I had to show my children, by example, what it means to eat well. I also have to be there for my kids, I know we are not promised tomorrow, but it did not mean getting there in a race car. It was embarrassing that I could not even get on a ride at an amusement park with my children about a year or two prior. I had to wait outside. I said to myself, the next time we came back, I am going on that ride with my children.
I had to figure something out that works for me and will not be a fad diet. I started to hear about intermittent fasting. I started to do more research to see if it will work for me. It involved fasting for 16 hours a day and eating in an 8-hour window. So, I would go from 8 pm to 12 pm the next day. This is a way of eating for many cultures. Some only eat one meal a day. The more I started to read about this way of eating, the more it made sense to me – the 16 hours give your organs a chance to rest and can help control blood sugar (as long as you are cutting back on sugars). I started eating more salads realising that what I was doing before had my organs constantly working.
I started in August 2019. The first month was a struggle, it was hard getting used to the new way of eating. I lowered my sugar intake drastically and ate more greens. I started to watch more videos about our diet and learnt that most people lack vitamin D, Vitamin K, potassium, good fats, good cholesterol, certain B vitamins, etc. I even started to learn that not all meats/proteins are good for you, partly because of all the chemicals and hormones in them. I started to try and eat as many organic items as possible. If not organic, anything that was less processed, such as farm-raised eggs, grass-fed cows, almond milk, etc. I started to eat out less and cook more.
There is so much more to losing weight than just eating less. It is also about eating correctly and getting the correct nutrients in your diet to help with your overall health. When I started to focus on health and not just weight loss that was the trick. Doing it for the right reason, my health, made me more disciplined and the pounds started to come off. I was not stressing if I did not lose the pounds, I was focused on just being healthier. Also measuring myself helped because you can gain muscle mass, which can mean your weight can remain the same, but your measurements can decrease.
At the end of the day for parents, it is key you teach your kids from a young age to eat properly, and exercise. You may want to exercise with them because that is where the habits will grow. It has taken me a lifetime to figure this out.
We would like to say a big thank you to Deji for sharing is weight loss story with us. We hope that through his experience, you can get a little bit of inspiration to help you achieve your weight loss goals. Have a question for Deji? Want to give him some encouragement? Then please do leave these in the comments section below.
The Just Dance Crew is our new innovative Public Health Tech project that uses 3D animation to promote physical activity and exercise in children by teaching them to perform short dancercise (dance + exercise) routines. We’re using animation because research has shown that children engage more with animated characters and we’re focusing on dance because it is a fun way to get children active. Additionally, research shows that dance has a number of health benefits: it’s an excellent form of exercise, improves fitness, leads to weight loss, strengthens bones and muscles, is beneficial to mental health and improves social skills.
The routines will be 1-5 minutes long and will focus on cardiovascular exercise; muscle and bone strengthening; and flexibility and relaxation exercises. The routines can fit into both the school and home environment. At school, the videos can be used during devotional, at breaks and over lunchtime. While at home, children and parents can use the videos during their leisure time and the whole family can get involved creating a fun, family experience.
Current Progress and Next Steps
So far we have created two demo animations focusing on a simple muscle strengthening exercise – squats – as a proof of concept and towards the end of 2020, we’ll be working with the Ministry of Education to develop more animations as part of a pilot project to test the effectiveness of this approach.
After the pilot, we will conduct a thorough analysis of the project and our plan is to then use the evaluation of the pilot to inform our next phase which will be to create a comprehensive collection of animations and develop an online learning platform to disseminate the videos.
We will also create educational material, guides and lesson plans for both teachers and parents to ensure the videos are used effectively. The videos will be easily accessed by teachers, to use in the classroom, or parents, through the internet or they can be downloaded and saved on to any device. Through the learning platform teachers, parents and guardians will be able to evaluate children’s progress with respect to their technique, consistency and their recall of the benefits of different types of exercise.
The Impact of Our Project
We hope that through this project, we can tackle childhood obesity in our local (St Kitts and Nevis) and regional (the Caribbean) area.
Childhood obesity is a challenge in the Caribbean with 1 in 3 children being overweight or obese. The rate of childhood obesity in the Caribbean is higher than the global average and is on the rise. Being obese and overweight in childhood is linked to several conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, and it negatively impacts a child’s mental health.
Childhood obesity is also a significant challenge in St Kitts and Nevis. A PAHO report revealed that 33% of secondary school children in the twin-island state were overweight and 14% were obese. In 2017, a UNICEF report published that 26% of children in St Kitts and Nevis are obese. Being overweight and obese puts children at an increased risk of developing NCDs which are becoming an epidemic in the Federation with 83% of deaths being due to NCDs.
To combat childhood obesity, we must ensure that children adopt a healthy lifestyle and one approach is to get more children participating in exercise or physical activity. This is a priority as the Ministry of Health has reported that 58.4% of teenagers in St Kitts and Nevis are physically inactive.
We believe our project offers a simple, inexpensive and fun option for schools to get children active and teach important aspects of PE.
More Information
You can view the demo videos below and you can download our PowerPoint presentation below which provides more details about this project.
If you have any questions, about this new initiative, please don’t hesitate to send us an email
The squat challenge: How many squats can you do, properly, in 60 seconds? Let us know 🙂
On 21st February 2020, we were delighted to start the pilot for our My Healthy Heroes program with over thirty wonderful, enthusiastic fourth-graders from the Immaculate Conception Catholic School (ICCS) in St Kitts.
Our My Healthy Heroes program aims to educate and empower children to make healthy choices by tapping into their creativity to highlight the importance of a healthy lifestyle in a fun and engaging way.
This pilot project with the ICCS aimed to test our resources and characters (Healthy Heroes, Sugary Drinks Assassins and Junk Food Villains) and determine whether our approach would be effective at educating children about healthy eating and more importantly facilitate a change in their behaviour.
Getting Ready for the Pilot
For six months, we worked closely with the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund and teachers at the ICCS to develop a collection of resources that would align with the school curriculum, particularly with the healthy eating classes currently being delivered to fourth graders as part of Health and Family Life Education (HFLE).
One of our My Healthy Heroes planning meetings
The resources we developed were based on three types of characters.
My Healthy Heroes. A group of characters that represent fruits and vegetables, for example, Miss Mangolicious and Professor Cornelius Cob.
Sugary Drinks Assassins. A collection of characters that raise awareness of the dangers of sweet drinks such as the Soda Pop Sniper and Juicer Jones.
Junk Food Villains. A set of characters that educate children about the impact that junk food has on their health (Greasy Grey Chicken Leg, Zerger the Harmburger etc.)
Using these characters, we then went on to develop a lesson plan for teachers, a set of information cards, badges, fridge magnets, activity sheets (food trackers, drinks trackers, food groups, word searches, mazes etc.) and a series of data collection sheets (questionnaires for teachers, students and parents).
We also explored ideas for how we could make classes engaging, encourage children to critically analyse the importance of a healthy lifestyle and introduce creative ways for children to demonstrate what they have learnt.
Through a series of brainstorming meetings, we decided on introducing two creative assignments. The first would be to ask students to write a rap, poem or adventure story based on our characters and what they have learnt about healthy eating. Their creative writing would then be used to create a healthy eating anthology which students can have as a keepsake but most importantly can be used to educate other children about healthy eating.
The second assignment would be to bring their creative writing to life using stop motion animation. In this activity, students will develop a short animation that will communicate a healthy eating message.
Delivering the Pilot
After months of planning, we were really happy to implement our ideas and began on a sunny Friday in February with two fourth grade classes. Our first session with fourth-graders was what we called week 0, a pre-assessment session. During this session, we introduced students to our project and were thrilled at their response. They were excited, enthusiastic and very keen to learn more about My Healthy Heroes – a great start. We also took some basic measurements – height, weight, body fat and waist circumference – of each child and asked each student to complete a questionnaire to find out more about their eating preferences and what they knew about healthy eating. We also gave students a food tracker and asked them to make a note of everything they ate over the following seven days.
Taking some measurements
Prior to this session we sent students home with a questionnaire for their parents to further explore their eating habits and identify any challenges that parents may have in introducing healthy eating practices at home.
Right now, we’re still analyzing this information, but so far this data has been very insightful. We’ll report back on this in a future blog when all the data has been analysed.
After our pre-assessment session, we visited the school for a further four sessions where we used our resources to discuss the following with students
Food groups and healthy eating
Healthy vs. unhealthy eating
Fruits and vegetables
Colour categories of fruits and vegetables
Healthy drinking
The dangers of sweet drinks
We also gave students their assignment of writing a story, rap or poem based on their selected character (either a Healthy Hero, Sugary Drinks Assassin or Junk Food Villain) and were very impressed at the quality of the work they submitted. The raps were excellent, the stories were creative and the poems were engaging whilst maintaining a healthy eating message as the foundation of their work.
Students getting ready to read their My Healthy Hero stories
They also had to present their piece to the class and all we can say is ‘wow!’ Our fourth graders came prepared. Some students had memorized their raps and had carefully planned how they would recite their piece so that it was engaging and fun. They really did a great job.
Due to the coronavirus, the school the term ended early, so we’ll be continuing our work with fourth graders in the next month or so.
Next, they’ll be working on bringing their assignments to life with stop motion animation and we’ll be doing a post-project assessment to get their feedback on the project.
What We Have Learnt So Far
So far, we have been extremely impressed with fourth graders retention of the information that we have taught them over the past few weeks. They remember a lot and every week they have been able to recall the information they learnt the previous week.
Our characters have been extremely important in getting children excited about learning about healthy eating and improving their retention of the information. They love the characters and were excited to receive the information cards, badges and fridge magnets, and many of them wore the badges to class every week and wanted to be associated with a Healthy Hero and not a Junk Food Villain or Sugary Drinks Assassin. This suggests that if healthy foods are made cool, we can entice children to gravitate towards healthy options.
An issue that we identified was the need to properly explain the harms of unhealthy eating and in a way that resonates with them. There didn’t seem to be an appreciation of the long-term effect of unhealthy eating and through our discussions with them, we felt that because of this they didn’t see unhealthy eating as something that would impact them significantly. So, we tried to strike a balance of being honest and informative without causing any unnecessary fear, the aim was to be empowering.
Children are honest and overall they did say that they would try to make healthy choices but if they had to choose between certain foods, they would still choose the unhealthy option only because they felt it tastes better – so trying to explore tastier ways of preparing healthy food is a must if we are to change children’s eating habits.
Children were also very perceptive, they realized that they tend to make unhealthy choices because it’s easy in terms of it being accessible and they see it on TV all the time. One student said to us, if he had a food tracker all the time, it would remind him to eat healthily. He genuinely just forgets and doesn’t think about the choices he makes during the day when he buys snacks.
A project like ours needs to be long-term, children need constant reminders and nudges to make healthy choices or else the high volume of marketing of unhealthy foods will capture their attention and influence their behaviour.
We have a lot of work to do in the field of Public Health to compete with the food industry and by expanding this work, we hope that we can make a small contribution to getting children excited about healthy food and therefore encourage them to make healthier choices.
Coming up Next
In our next blog, we’ll be sharing fourth-graders stories, raps and poems with you. They did a great job!
Non-communicable diseases (NCDS) like cancer, diabetes and heart disease are a major challenge in St Kitts and Nevis. Data has demonstrated that NCDs are becoming an epidemic in the Federation with 83% of deaths being due to NCDs. We must do something about this to prevent our citizens from dying prematurely.
One approach to tackling NCDs is to focus on the next generation and ensure that children adopt a healthy lifestyle. We have to create a healthy environment at schools, in homes and within society so that children can make healthy choices.
Our Healthy Kids SKN campaign aims to raise awareness of the changes that children need to make in order to reduce their risk of developing an NCD later in life. We’re encouraging children, parents and teachers to focus on three main areas – eating healthily, drinking healthily and physical activity.
Eating Healthily
Junk food is everywhere so we must make a concerted effort to help children resist temptation and eat healthily. Children should eat a variety of foods to ensure they are getting enough nutrients to develop and grow. This includes consuming foods from all food types. In particular, parents should ensure that their children cut down on foods that are high in sugar, salt and saturated fat and introduce more fruits and vegetables into their diet.
Children should eat 5-7 portions of fruits and vegetables every day, and eat colourfully, and aim to eat different colours of fruit and vegetables.
Drinking Healthily
Children in the Caribbean drink large quantities of sugary drinks putting them at risk of becoming obese or overweight. Caribbean children’s frequency of consuming sugary drinks was found to be amongst the highest out of 187 countries. Furthermore, teenagers (12 to 15-year olds) in Barbados, Jamaica, the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago reported drinking sugary drinks three times or more a day, and in St Kitts and Nevis, it was found that children consumed at least one carbonated soft drink a day.
Soft drinks are very high in sugar, for example, a can of coke contains 9.75 teaspoons (39g) of sugar and even juices contain high levels of sugar, a 330ml box of Rica Orange Juice contains 10.6 teaspoons of (42.2g) sugar – that’s more than coke!
We’re encouraging children to cut out the sugary drinks and drink water instead.
Physical Activity
For children to get healthy, they need to be active every day. The World Health Organisation recommends that children accumulate 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity every day.
We must get creative about physical activity as in St Kitts and Nevis, children are not active enough, over half of children, 58.4%, are physically inactive. We need fun approaches that don’t feel like work.
Working With Young People
We’re delighted to have worked with a young designer, Hadiya Lewis, to create the three graphics for this campaign. This is a great example of the talent and creativity that exists and how young people can contribute to communicating important health messages.
SKN Moves Support
We’re delighted that this initiative has been endorsed by SKN Moves and we’d like to thank the SKN Moves team for their support.
In May, the team behind the HENRY (Health, Exercise and Nutrition for the Really Young) project announced that as a result of their work, Leeds has become the first UK city to see a reduction in childhood obesity (although this has been disputed)
If this is true, this is a great achievement. As we’re embarking on a childhood obesity prevention project, we read this news with great interest because we wanted to identify the secret to HENRY’s success and what we can learn from this project as we enter this arena.
What is the HENRY Project?
The HENRY project started 10 years ago, in 2009, with the aim of giving babies and young children the best start possible. They achieve this by working with parents to provide them with the support and skills they require to improve their families’ overall health by focusing on:
Nutrition;
Emotional wellbeing;
Exercise and physical activity;
Parenting skills; and
Breastfeeding
The programme offers workshops, programmes, resources and online help and one of their core services is their eight-week Healthy Families Programme. This programme covers five areas:
Parenting confidence
Physical activity for young children
What children and families eat
Family lifestyle habits
Enjoying life as a family
What Has the HENRY Project Achieved?
The HENRY Project reported that over a four-year period they observed the following:
An overall reduction in childhood obesity in Leeds from 9.4% to 8.8%
A reduction in obesity in children from deprived backgrounds from 11.5% to 10.5%
A reduction in obesity in children from affluent backgrounds from 6.8% to 6%
The highest decline in childhood obesity in the four-year-old age group of 6.4%
What Can We Learn From This Project?
As we’re beginning to plan for our own childhood obesity pilot project, we are keen to understand what specifically led to HENRY’s success. Helpfully, the HENRY team have been very open about their project and have explained that some of their success can be attributed to the following:
Focusing on early years – they based their work on the premise that it is more effective to target younger children when they are in the habit-forming stage of development. By intervening at this point, obesity interventions are more likely to have an impact with regards to preventing and reversing childhood obesity because of the focus on the period in a child’s life before their habits and food preferences have fully formed.
Providing high quality, practical information and support to parents– in the HENRY project parents are not just simply given evidence-based healthy lifestyle information, they work closely with the HENRY team and form a close relationship; a relationship where parents are comfortable enough to explore what changes need to be made in their family’s lives and what is right and convenient for them. Parents are not told what to do but work with the HENRY team to develop a healthy lifestyle plan that works for them.
Exploring parenting style – the project worked with parents to evaluate their parenting style and encouraged parents to use an authoritative rather than an authoritarian style. An authoritative style is where parents set clear rules and boundaries but respond to their children’s thoughts and opinions through open discussion and reasoning. This style also includes parents being affectionate, supportive and encouraging of independence. The HENRY project guided parents on how to implement this parenting style, which research has shown to be the most effective parenting style in terms of producing the best outcomes in children.
In Conclusion
The above points are very helpful in demonstrating that for any childhood obesity programme, there are two important considerations: ensuring your programme targets children at the right age and that it engages parents in a meaningful way. As we begin our work in this area, we will bear this mind so that we give our project the best chance of succeeding.
