Welcome back to our Gardening and Health Blog Series!

So far, this blog series has mostly discussed the benefits that gardening can have on your physical health. However, getting green fingered can also have a hugely positive effect on your mental health and wellbeing. This month’s post is brought to you by the folks at Capitial Garden Services and focuses on the mental health benefits of gardening which they illustrate very effectively in their infographic here.

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The famed biologist, E.O. Wilson, once quipped that “Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.” He coined the term Biophilia to describe human kind’s innate need to connect with the natural world, positing that this is why we tend to find it soothing to spend time in the great outdoors.

Numerous studies have highlighted various mental health and therapeutic benefits of gardening. For example, gardening has been found to energise the body and mind. The process of tending to plants has also been proven to help people develop nurturing skills. It has even been found to improve sleep quality. These outdoor activities can help to reduce stress by providing a much-needed refuge from the stresses of the fast-paced modern world.

In particular,  gardening is a perfect opportunity to practice mindfulness. By completing tasks that connect you with the natural world, you can engage all of your senses to appreciate the various sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of your surroundings. There are a few things you can do to put a mindful spin on common gardening jobs. For example, before getting started take a few moments pause to breathe and meditate. It’s also a good idea to incorporate elements into your garden design that stimulate the various senses, for example wind chimes or scented flowers.

To learn more, take a look at the infographic below from the team at Capital Garden Services which offers some great insights on why gardening is good for your mental wellbeing and provides several tips on how to garden for good mental health.

Infographic

Check out Capital Garden Services infographic on gardening for good mental health below.

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Previous Blogs

If you missed the previous blogs in this series you can read through them here:

1. Improving Our Health and Wellbeing Through Gardening: An Introduction
2. How I Got Started
3. Growing Tomatoes
4. Growing Okra
5. Growing Peppers
6. Sour Oranges and Mangoes
7. Soursop and Guava

At the end of every year, we use the opportunity of one year coming to an end and being on the cusp of a new year to look back and reflect on our achievements. The reason why we do this is because, throughout the year, we can be quite critical about our progress and fail to recognise what has gone well – this can be very demotivating. So, every year we look at our achievements to bring in some balance, learn some important lessons and go into the new year with some positive energy.

This year has been an interesting one, as it was our first full year in St Kitts. For those of you who may not know, we were based in the UK and moved to St Kitts at the end of 2017. Our aim for 2018 was to explore the public health landscape in the Caribbean and to understand how we can make a useful contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of the citizens of St Kitts and Nevis, and the wider Caribbean community too.

It was a hard year, but it turned into one of the best learning experiences ever! We explored everything (from podcasting to webinars). It didn’t all work out, but our efforts helped us gain some clarity which has led to us developing a focused strategy for the next two years.

And so, with your support and encouragement we’re happy to say we had a good year and are proud to present you with our 2018 achievements:

1. We continued our work on fibroids and launched our fibroids self-care webinar series, published two fact sheets, one on fibroids and exercise and the other on the emotional impact of fibroids, we hosted 7 fibroids twitter chats with some amazing guests, joined forces with OH Services to begin to facilitate an online forum for women with fibroids and teamed up with Noire Wellness for a fibroids social media campaign for International Women’s Day.

2. We became a member of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition and supported their childhood obesity prevention call-to-action (petition) by recruiting volunteers to develop a four-part podcast series on childhood obesity and sought support from the public for the petition, gaining over 400 signatures from residents of St Kitts and Nevis.

3. We were invited to the Healthy Caribbean Coalition’s childhood obesity ‘Beyond the Call-to-Action’ event in Barbados where we took part in a panel discussion on the importance of alliances and collaborations in addressing critical public health issues.

4. We published a position paper on sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) taxation in St Kitts and Nevis

5. We formed a good working relationship with the Ministry of Health in St Kitts and assisted with their plans for World Cancer Day, Caribbean Wellness Day and Caribbean Wellness Week. Additionally, the Ministry of Health invited us to take part in their SSB consultation, the PAHO Health Promotion Consultation and their Chronic Disease Self-Management Programme.

6. We signed a new consultancy client, the FIT Wellness Centre, and assisted them in the development of their NCD Prevention Action Plan, preparing for their National Weight Loss Campaign and developing their new website.

7. We explored podcasting and interviewed some fantastic guests, but soon realised that we don’t have the time to host a weekly, nor bi-monthly podcast but will continue releasing episodes sporadically.

8. We obtained some media coverage and were featured on the NNC news, SKN Vibes, Times Caribbean and 31 Days of Business Ideas, and were interviewed on the Secret Birds podcast

9. We added a new area to our portfolio – Public Health Tech – to explore how we can bring technology and public health together by exploring tech based products and services to educate the public about their risk of developing disease,  to raise awareness of health issues and to provide engaging ways of communicating health messages.

10. We launched a Public Health Tech mini-project, the development of a Diabetes Risk Assessment Tool, and this tool went live in December 2018.

11. We launched our online shop, The Lake Shop For Good, which aims to promote a healthy lifestyle by selling products that remind us all to live healthily. Our shop also helps us to continue to do good in our community with all money raised going towards our public health projects.

We had a really productive year with some highs and lows, which helped us make significant progress through the many lessons we have learnt from them.

We’re very  much excited and looking forward to 2019, and we wish you all a happy New Year and a healthy, happy, peaceful and successful year ahead.

With Christmas being just around the corner, we would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

As we get ourselves prepared for this beautiful season over here in the Caribbean we’re taking  some time this week to remember the real meaning of Christmas. It can be easy to get caught up in the commercial side which, more often that not, leads to an unnecessarily stressful period instead of one filled with love, hope and charity.

A recent church service we attended really resonated with us, we were reminded that during this season we should take the focus off ourselves and give back – visit the elderly, donate gifts to those in need and spend some time with patients in hospital.

If we are to focus on ourselves, we were advised to make this a time of self reflection – how can we become a better person? Are there relationships in our life that need restoring? So over the next few days we’ll be exploring these questions and ensuring we have a healthy balanced holiday season.

Staying Healthy Over the Holiday Season

Every year we give the same advice on how to stay healthy over the Christmas and New Year period, and this year our advice remains the same – watch your portion sizes, include lots of vegetables with your Christmas dinner (try Brussel sprouts, parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes and  baked/grilled plantain), and for dessert try some fruit salad or healthy alternatives to traditional desserts (maybe a cashew cheesecake instead of a traditional cheesecake).

Additionally select white meat and fish instead of red meat and keep active (try walking or cycling throughout the two week holiday period) and importantly don’t neglect your mental health, have a bit of me-time and relax.

We hope you have a lovely Christmas that is stress-free, peaceful, filled with love and enables you to spend some  quality time with your loved ones.

Hello all and welcome back to our gardening and health blog series. We’ve had a fantastic year exploring the great outdoors and the health benefits of gardening. This blog post is the second of our two-part blog on fruit trees. Our final blog in this series, coming up next month (hopefully!), will focus on herbs.

Last time, we discussed our mango and sour orange trees and today we’re going to  discuss  two more trees that we have growing in our (Abi Begho’s) garden in St Kitts – soursop and guava. These are trees that we inherited from the previous owner of our house and we were so pleased to have these growing nicely on our property. They have given us much joy allowing us an easy and fun way to introduce a few more fruits into our diet.

Soursop

Some background

Soursop is a fruit known by a few names – custard apple, guanabana and Brazilian paw paw. It is a green, prickly fruit with a white flesh that forms on the graviola tree. It can be used to make a juice, ice-cream, sorbet, syrups and sweets.

It contains vitamin C, dietary fibre, iron, vitamin B, B2, magnesium and potassium.

Soursop has received a lot of attention over the past few years due to its anti-cancer properties in laboratory settings. Studies have shown that either soursop extract or pulp can inhibit the growth or cause the death of some cancer cell lines. Whilst this is promising a lot more work is needed to determine if the extract can be used as a cancer treatment. Studies haven’t been conducted in humans and a recent review explained that “further studies are required to verify the exact properties and mechanisms of action” (i.e. we need to completely understand how the extract affects cancer cells). Therefore, patients should not use soursop capsules, at this time, as a treatment for cancer, as these have not been validated through research.

In addition, studies have found that soursop has a number of health benefits: anti-convulsant, anti-parasitic, anti-arthritic, anti-malarial, anti-diabetic and hepatoprotective (protects the liver). Historically the leaves, pulp and juice have been used in the Caribbean, South America and Africa  for a number of ailments.

Our Soursop Experience

Soursop is a fruit that really grew on us; the more we ate it, the more we liked it.

We eat the white flesh, but we mostly make a lovely juice with it and tend to keep our juice recipe very simple. You can find lots of recipes online, so we won’t go into detail, but our juice just contains soursop, water and a bit of nutmeg, this is how we make it most of the time. For a more creamy, sweet and indulgent version we add some condensed milk and serve it with ice.

In terms of caring for the tree, it’s pretty low maintenance, our tree produces a lot of soursop and after a certain point the fruits start to ripen really quickly so if we don’t pay attention and check on the tree regularly the soursops spoil (I threw away 4 today ☹), and sometimes birds and bugs get to them before we get a chance to pick them. So you definitely have to keep an eye on them.

Guava

Guava is a lovely, fragrant fruit that is found in the tropical regions of the Americas and in the Caribbean. There are many variations including the Redland, Supreme and Red Indian. We haven’t yet been able to identify what variation our guava tree is, but ours has a strong sweet fragrance, white flesh and many small seeds.

Guavas can be eaten in a variety of ways. It can be eaten as is (skin and all), cooked to form stewed guavas and it can be used to make jam, pies, cakes, ice-cream and more.

We haven’t been very creative yet with our guavas and simply just pick them from the tree and eat them as they are. We mostly slice them up and have them with breakfast. Once we get a large number of guavas, we keep losing most of them to the birds, we are going to experiment and try making guava tart (BVI style), guava jam and guava juice.

Guava is high in vitamin C and contains potassium, vitamin B-6, vitamin A and dietary fibre, making it a healthy, tasty addition to our diet.

Conclusion

Having lived in London for over 10 years and not being able to appreciate the joy of having a garden,  being in the Caribbean and being able to explore the great outdoors has been such a pleasant change for us. Being able to spend more time outdoors and have access to fresh untainted fruits has been a blessing enabling us to change our lifestyle and have a more plant-based diet.  We love it!

Previous Blogs

If you missed the previous blogs in this series you can read through them here:

1. Improving Our Health and Wellbeing Through Gardening: An Introduction
2. How I Got Started
3. Growing Tomatoes
4. Growing Okra
5. Growing Peppers
6. Sour Oranges and Mangoes

References

1. Deep, G. et al. (2016). Graviola inhibits hypoxia-induced NADPH oxidase activity in prostate cancer cells reducing their proliferation and clonogenicity. Scientific Reports, 16 (6).
2. Ioannis, P. et al. (2015). Graviola: A Systematic Review on Its Anticancer Properties. American Journal of Cancer Prevention. 3 (6), pp 128-131.
3. Morton, J. 1987. Guava. p. 356–363. In: Fruits of warm climates. Julia F. Morton, Miami, FL.
4. Paul, J. et al. (2013). Anti cancer activity on Graviola, an exciting medicinal plant extract vs various cancer cell lines and a detailed computational study on its potent anti-cancerous leads. Current Topics In Medicinal Chemistry, 13 (14).

On 20^th November 2018, we were on the beautiful island of Barbados for the Healthy Caribbean Coalition’s ‘Beyond the Call to Action Event: Towards School Policies in Support of Childhood Obesity Prevention.’

This event marked the end of the HCC’s childhood obesity prevention campaign. One of the key parts of this campaign was the HCC’s childhood obesity prevention petition (Call to Action) which called on Heads of Government to enact any of the following policies and legislation which have been demonstrated as effective measures to combat childhood  obesity:

• Imposition of a tax of not less than 20% on Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) and use tax revenue for NCD prevention and control.
• Banning the sale, promotion and marketing of SSBs, and unhealthy foods and beverages in and around schools.
• Mandatory physical activity in all primary and secondary schools
• Adoption and application of regional standards for nutritional and front of package labelling of foods and beverages.
• Banning the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children (includes non-school environments)
• Enacting legislation related to The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.

This event brought together a wide cross section of national and regional stakeholders to celebrate the achievements of the campaign and to showcase all the great work being conducted across the Caribbean to tackle childhood obesity. We heard from speakers from the Bahamas, Bermuda, Jamaica and Trinidad. It was particularly interesting listening to Dr Simone Spence’s presentation explaining Jamaica Moves’ new initiative targeting schools.

Youth Involvement

It was also very nice to see young people actively participating in this event. Young people took part in a parallel youth session led by Krystal Boyea, the HCC’s Youth Advocate. In this session young people discussed the solutions and barriers to creating a healthy school environment and also explored the types of products sold in schools and how the school environment influences behaviour and health.

We Took Part in a Panel Discussion

We had the pleasure of taking part in a panel discussion with other CSOs including the Antigua and Barbuda Diabetes Association,  the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados,  the Grenada NCD Commission, the St Lucia Diabetes and Hypertension Association and the Heart Foundation of Jamaica about the importance of coalitions and collaborations in addressing critical issues such as childhood obesity. We had an interesting discussion, facilitated by Sir Trevor Hassell.

We really enjoyed this event and would like to thank the HCC for inviting us to take part in the panel discussion. We look forward to hearing more about the work being conducted across the Caribbean to tackle childhood obesity and making our own small contribution to this effort.

In October 2018,  we began consulting with the F.I.T. Wellness Center in Nevis to assist with the development and implementation of their NCD Prevention Action Plan, part of their NCD Prevention Programme.

On 27^th November 2018, we were delighted to join F.I.T. in the launch of their NCD Prevention Action Plan and  the announcement of their upcoming National Weight Loss Campaign.

The launch took the form of a press conference and was attended by the major media outlets in Nevis. The event was chaired by Mr David Walwyn, Director of the F.I.T Wellness Center and featured on the panel were:

• Hon. Hazel Brandy-Williams, Junior Minister for Health, who provided an overview of NCDs in Nevis
• Dr Judy Nisbett, Chief Medical Officer for Nevis, who discussed the cost of NCDs, this included direct and indirect costs as well as the impact NCDs have on families
• Nadine Carty-Caines, Programme Coordinator, Health Promotion Unit, Ministry of Health, who took the press through all the statistics on NCDs in Nevis
• Dr Raymond Moving, Internal Medicine, Alexandra Hospital, who explained the complications of NCDs focusing particularly on diabetes
• Dr Samir Anadkat, Obesity and Diabetes Specialist, Professor (Neuroscience & Anatomy), Medical University of Americas, Nevis, who explored prevention and addressed some of the myths around weight loss
• David Walwyn, Director, F.I.T. Wellness Centre, who spoke about F.I.T’s approach to tackling NCDs in Nevis
• Abi Begho, Public Health Project Manager, Lake Health and Wellbeing, who discussed the upcoming National Weight Loss Campaign and also announced the slogan competition for the campaign

Why Focus on NCDs?

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and cancer are a major health challenge in St Kitts and Nevis with 83% of deaths in the Federation being due to these conditions.

One of the key factors driving NCDs in St Kitts and Nevis is the high rate of obesity. In 2012, PAHO reported that 32.5% of secondary school children in St Kitts and Nevis were overweight and 14.4% were obese and a more recent report published by UNICEF in 2017 stated that 26% of children in St Kitts and Nevis were obese. We know that children who are overweight or obese are more likely to become overweight or obese adults and this puts them at a high risk of developing NCDs like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Obesity rates in St Kitts and Nevis in adults aged 25 to 64 is high with a 2008 study stating that 33.5% of adults in this age group were overweight and 45% were obese.

F.I.T. has developed its answer to NCDs by developing its NCD Prevention Action Plan which will focus on supporting residents of Nevis to get fit, healthy and lose weight, and thus reduce their risk of developing an NCD. A core part of the action plan is the National Weight Loss Campaign which will start in January 2019.

The National Weight Loss Campaign

The National Weight Loss Campaign aims to help residents of Nevis lose weight through a fun six-month weight loss challenge that will support participants in getting active and eating a healthier diet. Participants will be guided through the six-month period with advice, tips, healthy recipes, fun events and one-to-one support. There will also be prizes for the person who loses the most weight in their category, recognition of those who have succeeded in losing their target weight and we’ll be following specific people on their weight loss journey.

Technology will play an important role in the campaign and we’ll be creating a web-based health portal where participants can come together, support each other, ask questions, share pictures and videos and receive tips and advice from experts in health and fitness. The health portal will consist of a forum and a chat facility, so we can keep in touch with all participants and provide them with support every step of the way.

How The Public Can Get Involved in the National Weight Loss Campaign

The National Weight Loss Campaign is open to everyone in Nevis – old, young, male and female. If an individual would like to lose weight or would like some support in adopting a healthier lifestyle then they are welcome to take part.

The public can register for the campaign by emailing admin@fitwellnesscenter.com or calling (869)-662-8749

Businesses Can Get Involved Too

Businesses are strongly encouraged to take part in the National Weight Loss Campaign by either registering a team of their staff to get involved in the six-month weight loss challenge or they can play an instrumental role in improving the health and wellbeing of our community by becoming a corporate partner or sponsor.

For more information about this, businesses in Nevis can contact David Walwyn by email  or phone (869)-662-8749.

Who is Behind this Initiative?

The National Weight Loss Campaign is an initiative of the FIT Wellness Center led by Mr David Walwyn with support from the Ministry of Health and Lake Health and Wellbeing

More Information

F.I.T. Wellness Center 
Website www.fitwellnesscenter.com
Phone number: 9869) 469-3481 or (869) 662-8749
Email: admin@fitwellnesscenter.com

Ministry of Health, Health Promotion Unit
Phone: (869) 469-5521, (869) 469-8010, (869) 469-7470
Email: healthpromotion@niagov.com

Lake Health and Wellbeing
Website: www.lakehealthandwellbeing.com
Phone: (869) 667 0079
Email: info@lakehealthandwellbeing.com

The 14^th November is World Diabetes Day, a day that the world comes together to recognise the escalating threat that diabetes poses. This year’s theme is ‘The Family and Diabetes – Diabetes Concerns Every Family.’ This theme will cover a two-year (2018 ad 2019) period.

The aim of the 2018–19 campaign is to raise awareness of the impact diabetes has on the family and to promote the role family members can play in the management, care, prevention and education of diabetes.

The International Diabetes Federation and WHO’s key messages fall under four main areas (discover, prevent and manage) and they provide practical tips and advice for families.

Discover Diabetes

Statistics presented by the International Diabetes of Federation suggest that 50% of people with type 2 diabetes remain undiagnosed. Diagnosing diabetes early is very important in helping to prevent or delay the life-threatening complications that are associated with this condition. It is therefore very important that we are all aware of the symptoms, particularly if we have a family history of diabetes.

For World Diabetes Day, organisers are reminding family members of the key role they can play in identifying symptoms in their family members and thus helping detect diabetes early.

The symptoms of type 2 diabetes can be hard to identify because initially they don’t make you feel unwell and the symptoms may start to feel like normal every day behaviour. Take some time to reflect on whether these symptoms are normal for you, or your family member, or if they could be a sign of type 2 diabetes.

• Urinating more often
• Feeling thirsty
• Feeling very hungry
• Weight loss
• Blurred vision

Prevent Diabetes

There is a huge opportunity to prevent diabetes as the International Diabetes Federation has reported that 80% of diabetes cases can be prevented by the public adopting a healthy lifestyle.  This means that preventing diabetes starts at home. Simply by making a decision for your family to eat a healthy diet and exercise together means that your family members can reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The aim is for each of us is to create and live in an environment that supports a healthy lifestyle.

Manage Diabetes

Diabetes has a significant impact on families and family members often feel helpless when it comes to caring for those close to them who have diabetes. Research has show that 2 in 3 people wouldn’t know how to care for a family member with diabetes. This is likely to be due to a lack or awareness  and access to relevant educational material. Research has shown that less than 1 in 2 people with diabetes and 1 in 4 family members of people with diabetes have access to diabetes education programmes.

If you’re a family member of a diabetic, it’s important to know that managing diabetes requires daily treatment, regular monitoring, a healthy lifestyle and ongoing education. Family support is key in achieving this. If you feel ill-equipped to support your family members, speak to your doctor and explore whether there are any diabetes self-management courses being held in your area.

Diabetes in St Kitts

Diabetes is a significant health challenge in St Kitts accounting for one of the most common reasons for patients visiting the Joseph N France Hospital for treatment.

In St Kitts and Nevis, approximately 1300 people are living with diabetes, therefore impacting 1300 families, with 71% being women. It is thus important for residents of St Kitts and Nevis to be aware of how they can prevent, manage and discover diabetes so they can better support their family members with diabetes, as well as reduce the risk of unaffected members developing this condition.

For more information you can listen to Hon Wendy Phipps’ s (Minister of State for responsibility for Health in St Kitts), statement in observance of world Diabetes Day 2018 on Sound Cloud here:

Conclusion

Family members can make a significant difference in the prevention, early diagnosis and management of diabetes. It’s important to learn more about this condition and if you need help in St Kitts you can contact the St Kitts Diabetes Association.

On 27th October 2018, we hosted the first webinar in our fibroids self-care webinar series, Fibroids, Diet and Hormones. If you missed this webinar, we’re happy to say that the recording is now available.

In this first webinar we were delighted to have guest speaker, Le’Nise Brothers who is a Registered Nutritional Therapist and the Founder of Eat Love Move.  Le’Nise delivered a comprehensive, in-depth, informative presentation which you can download here. This 1-hour presentation includes:

• An introduction to fibroids including the types of fibroids, symptoms, risk factors and how fibroids are diagnosed as well as advice on getting the most out of your doctor’s appointment
• The causes of the continual growth of fibroids
• Balancing your hormones as an effective way of managing fibroids
• How you can take control and balance your hormones through diet and nutrition, lifestyle changes, physical support, stress management and emotional support

This is an excellent, empowering webinar that provides practical information that you can easily apply to your day-to-day routine to alleviate your symptoms and  successfully manage fibroids.

How to Access the Recording

To purchase and download this webinar, please do the following:

1.  Visit the webinar product page here
2. Click ‘Add to cart’
3. Follow all the instructions
4. Once you click ‘Place order’ you will have unlimited download access to the webinar.
5. After you make payment ($15), you simply click the blue button under “Download” and you’ll be taken to DropBox where you can watch the recording directly or you can click ‘Download’ at the top right of the screen to save the file to your computer or your DropBox to watch later.

If you have any problems downloading the recording, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us by email events@lakehealthandwellbeing.com 

What  Attendees Had to Say About this Session

“I enjoyed the webinar today. Learned a lot. Thank you Le’nise for sharing your wisdom, it was very informative.”

“Great Webinar. Thanks very much Le’Nise and Abi.”

“This was a great webinar!”

“I didn’t want it to end!”

Upcoming Webinar

You may also be interested in the next webinar in our series which is on fibroids treatment. We’re delighted to have Consultant Gynaecologist, Apryll Chase, discussing all the treatment options for fibroids, their pros and cons and how to make the sometimes difficult decision of selecting the best treatment for you. You can find out more about this webinar here

Further Information

If you’d like more information or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send us an email, we’d love to hear from you.

On 1^st November, we attended the national consultation on the impact of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs). This event was organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) as an early step towards the development of the nation’s strategy for reducing the public’s consumption of SSBs.

The Ministry’s strategy for SSBs forms just a small part of their non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention plan which outlines actions that are needed to create a healthy environment and promote exercise.

Speakers Set the Scene

During the consultation we heard from an excellent panel of speakers which included:

• Mrs Delores Stapleton-Harris, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health
• Hon Wendy Phipps, Minister of State with Responsibility for Health, Community Development, Social Services and Gender Affairs
• Dr Godrey Xuereb, PAHO/WHO Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean
• Dr Keisha Liddie, District Medical Officer
• Dr Lisa Powell, Professor and Director of Health Policy and Administration, School of Public Health, University of Illinois
• Dr Marissa Carty, NCD Coordinator, Ministry of Health

Together the panel outlined the need for the development of a strategy on SSBs, reminding the audience that in St Kitts and Nevis NCDs, such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure, are a major health challenge with 83% of deaths in the Federation being attributed to these conditions.

Hon Phipps described how NCDs are not only a threat to the health of the nation but are a significant socio-economic issue. Whilst Dr Xuereb provided information on the need for a SSB policy stating that it is just one of many strategies to improve the health of a nation and help countries achieve the sustainable development goal (SDG) on health. He stated that in order to achieve the SDG on health it is important to focus on improving the health of children as currently, in the Caribbean, childhood obesity is very common and is a major factor in children developing NCDs. He explained that what is driving NCDs is the increased consumption of sugar, and the major source of sugar is SSBs – SSBs make up 40% of children’s sugar intake with 70% of children in the Caribbean drinking one or more SSBs per day. He stated that data from Barbados, Mexico and Chile has shown that increasing the cost of SSBs through taxation has reduced the consumption of SSBs and therefore this is an effective strategy in tackling NCDs.

We also heard from Dr Keisha Liddie who presented a very in-depth and comprehensive situational analysis of St Kitts and Nevis. Dr Liddie described the data and trends for NCDs in the Federation showing the increase in the incidence of specific NCDs year on year and their impact on the nation. Finally, Dr Powell explored the economics, practicalities and important considerations when introducing a tax on SSBs and provided a number of recommendations which included:

• Implement a 20% SSB tax
• Include all forms of SSBs in the taxation strategy e.g: soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks, sweetened teas/coffees, sweetened water and beverage powders/syrups). Exclude zero calorie beverages
• Apply the tax to all imported and domestically produced SSBs
• Earmark the tax revenue for public health initiatives with an emphasis on nutrition and physical activity
• Carry out public awareness and education to inform the public about the SSB tax and its objectives
• Ban the sale of SSBs in schools
• Ban the sale of SSBs in hospitals and government buildings
• Regulate the marketing of SSBs in and around schools
• Develop a drinking water infrastructure in schools that provide reusable water bottles to school children
• Provide local agricultural products as snacks in schools
• Promote the implementation of school gardens as a learning tool and to improve access to fruits and vegetables
• Explore appropriate sponsors for youth sports that align with the objectives of improving health
• Provide funding to increase activity spaces

St Kitts and Nevis’ Proposed Approach to SSBs 

Dr Marissa Carty outlined the Ministry’s initial ideas on their approach to reducing the consumption of SSBs and gave the audience the opportunity to provide feedback on all the policy areas. The Ministry’s proposed policy imperatives include:

• A 40% tax on SSBs (update: the proposed tax is now 32%)
• The tax will apply to calorically sweetened beverages including carbonated drinks (sodas), sweetened carbonated water, sugar sweetened juices, sports drinks, energy drinks, tea and coffee drinks, sweetened milk/milk alternatives, milk powdered blended drinks, powdered drink mixes and drink mix syrups
• Sugar would no longer be zero rated when it comes to tax
• Excluded from the tax would be: fresh fruit juice (no sugar added), unsweetened milk/milk alternatives, infused water, unsweetened carbonated drinks and non-caloric sweetened drinks
• Alternatives to SSBs will be suggested to the public. These would include: fruit/vegetable infused water unsweetened water, plain water, unsweetened carbonated water, unsweetened herbal (bush) tea and artificially non-caloric sweetened beverages
• The tax revenue will be used to provide: a water infrastructure, water fountains in schools, reusable water bottles in schools, healthier school meals, public health campaigns, National Health Insurance, implementing a marketing ban to children and policy development for safe school zones.

Our Thoughts

We 100% support the government’s approach to SSBs as there is a need to tackle childhood obesity in St Kitts and Nevis and by reducing SSB consumption this can be achieved.

We believe a 40% (or 32%) tax is sufficiently high enough to deter consumption of all SSBs, anything lower than this could lead to consumers simply replacing expensive SSBs for more affordable SSBs. There was some evidence of this in Barbados where the tax is 10% and this suggested that this level of taxation wasn’t high enough to deter consumers from buying the lower priced SSBs.

We think it is important that the revenue raised from the SSB tax should fund public health initiatives particularly those that are aimed at childhood obesity and so we applaud the Ministry’s suggestions on the use of the tax revenue. We would also like to see the tax revenue being used to make healthy foods more affordable to ensure that parents and guardians don’t encounter any barriers to adopting healthy eating practices. It is also important for there to be full transparency on the expenditure of the tax revenue so that the public can be confident that the funds have been used to benefit the public’s health.

Next Steps

The Ministry of Health will collate the feedback received from this consultation as well as the consultation conducted in Nevis and continue to engage with key stakeholders to develop their SSB policy. This will then have to be approved by Cabinet.

We look forward to seeing this policy develop and will support the Ministry in any way that we can to see this policy developed, approved and implemented.

We are so pleased to let you know that registration for the second seminar in our Fibroids Self-Care Webinar Series is now open!

This second webinar will focus on treatment with the topic being ‘Deciding on the best treatment for you’ and  will be held on Saturday 1st December from 11am -1pm AST (that’s 3pm-5pm GMT or  10am-12pm US Eastern Time).

In this second webinar we are delighted to have as a guest speaker award-winning Consultant Gynaecologist Apryll Chase who will take participants through the treatment options for fibroids, the pros and cons of each treatment and how to make the sometimes difficult decision of selecting the best treatment for you.

Discounted Early Bird Tickets Are Now Available

Early bird tickets for this webinar are now available and are just $10 (about £8) and you can book your tickets on our website here

We Have A Special Giveaway Just For You

We’re pleased to let you know that all those who register for this webinar will be entered into a giveaway and one lucky person will win a copy of the book ‘Flow Fighter – How I Kicked My Fibroids and Heavy Periods to the Curb’ by Holly Bridges.

There is more!  We’re happy to say that all registered attendees will be eligible for a 20% discount when they order hair or body products from  Almocado and will also receive a  free shipping code from  Afrocenchix on any orders of over £20.

Other Webinars in this Series

Other webinars in the series will include:

Session 3: The Importance of Exercise, Relaxation and Me-Time, Candice Bryan, Founder and CEO, Noire Wellness, 23rd February 2019

Session 4: Hair and Body Care for Women With Fibroids, Rachael and Jocelyn, Founders of Afrocenchix, April 2019 (To be confirmed)

Session 5: Dealing with the Emotional Impact of Fibroids, Olivia Haltman, Founder, OH Services, June 2019

Session 6: Our Fibroids Stories – A Time to Share, August 2019

More Information 

We hope that you’ll join us on 1st Decemeber for this really interesting online event and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at events@lakehealthandwellbeing.com and you can book your place here

Did you miss the first webinar in our series: Fibroids, Diet and Hormones with guest speaker Le’Nise Brothers,  Registered Nutritional Therapist and the Founder of Eat Love Move?

Have no fear, you can download and purchase the recording of this webinar for just $15 and you’ll have on-demand access to this in-depth session on fibroids, diet and hormones which guides you through the changes that you can make to improve your hormonal health and therefore alleviate the symptoms associated with fibroids. Find out more and download this webinar here